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Why is claiming delay repay such a hassle?

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Samuel88

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Instead of sending off your tickets and waiting weeks for your money, wouldn't it be easier to have a system where as soon as your train is delayed you can go to the ticket office and get your money back instantly?
 
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Starmill

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Automatic delay repay is paid by Virgin Trains and Northern if you book an Advance ticket on the same website as the operator you travel with.
c2c offer compensation for delays of 2 minutes or more to smart season ticket holders.
There may be more examples of this.

These only cover a small number of cases though so generally though it is quite slow and awkward.
 

island

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Let’s have a think. A full 12-car 700 chugs in 31 minutes late and tips out its 1,754 passengers at London Bridge. They go to the ticket office to claim compensation, having had to be individually let through the ticket gates so they could keep their tickets. Which happens first?

1) The ticket office runs out of change to pay people with
2) The station has to close because the underground area where the ticket office is is overcrowded
3) Someone wants to claim compensation for the delay in getting delay compensation
4) Southeastern closes the booking office and tells Thameslink to sort out their own passengers
 

Llanigraham

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Instead of sending off your tickets and waiting weeks for your money, wouldn't it be easier to have a system where as soon as your train is delayed you can go to the ticket office and get your money back instantly?

I have claimed 3 times in the last 12 months, twice off ATW once off Virgin West Coast. All times it was a simple filling in of the forms and posting them off. Each time I received all my vouchers within 2 weeks.

As for your suggestion, what happens when there is no ticket office, or what happens after the office has closed?
 

AlterEgo

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Instead of sending off your tickets and waiting weeks for your money, wouldn't it be easier to have a system where as soon as your train is delayed you can go to the ticket office and get your money back instantly?

Virgin WC have automatic delay repay compensation if you had an Advance ticket solely on their services and bought it off their website. They refund your card with the requisite amount.

Other than that, it's not really that much of a hassle - no need, in most cases, to even send any tickets in the post.
 

sheff1

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Virgin WC have automatic delay repay compensation if you had an Advance ticket solely on their services and bought it off their website. They refund your card with the requisite amount.

Other than that, it's not really that much of a hassle - no need, in most cases, to even send any tickets in the post.

In my experience, Virgin actually seem to be the most hassle. Their online form does not allow you enter the details of the journey you were actually making - whoever designed it apparently being under the bizarre impression that everyone on their trains is travelling solely between two stations served by them.

If you try and overcome that by entering the station where you alighted the delayed Virgin train, they claim that because that train was only, say, 20 mins late, you are not entitled to compensation even though the delay meant you missed the connecting service which only runs once every hour.

Eventually, after some to-ing and fro-ing, you might get the compensation you are entitled to ... but I expect the hassle would cause many to give up.

I do agree that getting your money back instantly at the booking office is not feasible. Not least, because of the huge number of stations with no booking office or one with limited opening hours. E-ticketing should make automatic Delay Repay much easier - but I am not holding my breath.
 
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AngusH

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A more complicated process will normally have a lower redemption rate.

People give up or consider it not worth bothering if it looks difficult.

Making the process easier costs them twice, once for the improvements, then again with a higher payout rate.

While I don't actually think the process is made deliberately more complicated, I suspect there is equally no pressure to make it easier except as a marketing tool (ie virgin trains own website)

They mostly comply correctly with the letter of the rules and that is considered sufficient.
 

Sox

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I once had a real palaver with a Virgin train from Edinburgh that, when I got to Waverley, had been cancelled outright. According to Virgin, the "normal" repay system only dealt with delayed trains (not outright cancellations).

Took me six months of twittering, e-mails and letter writing to get my money back (travel vouchers).

Became a point of principle in the end.
 

Wallsendmag

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Actually that’s correct , you get a full refund not delay replay. If you’re delayed on your trip it’s delay repay if you don’t travel because of a cancellation it’s a refund.
 

Hadders

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VTEC are normally pretty good, in my experience. Even GTR have got much better.

GWR are appalling. I'm still waiting for a promised cheque to arrive from a journey delayed by 6 hours (which also involved 2 rail replacement taxis) from June.
 

Failed Unit

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It is in the TOCs interest to make it as difficult as possible to increase profits.

GTR is a good example as they make if so much hassle to claim it isn’t worth it.

I could claim at least once a week. (Every day on a bad week) but because of the process, submit -> reject -> appeal to London travel watch -> get paid with an apology they were wrong to reject it in the first place. I can’t be bothered any more.

They have worn down countless passengers in this way. Make it simple people claim they make less money. Make it difficult people are put off and don’t claim what they are entitled to and GTR are laughing all the way to the bank. It isn’t in the TOCs interest to make it user friendly.
 

Bletchleyite

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I've claimed from GTR (Southern) twice recently and in both cases it was totally smooth - submitted photo of ticket online with details of train cancellation. Once from LM and that was fine too.
 

221129

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GWR are appalling. I'm still waiting for a promised cheque to arrive from a journey delayed by 6 hours (which also involved 2 rail replacement taxis) from June.
I had the total opposite experience. From submission to cheque (over payment too) in about 3 weeks.
 

Iggy12a

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I regularly make dual claims to GTR for myself and my partner travelling on a Two Together Railcard. Inevitably one will be processed correctly and the other rejected, or processed for the wrong amount. If I try to do the online resubmission process, and try to explain in less than 500 characters why they got it wrong, the new claim will be rejected with the reason that the claim has already been processed. If I ring up and say we were travelling together and say my partner's claim was processed successfully, then they say either each claim must be considered on its own merits, or due to data protection, they are unable to bring up my partner's claim for reference.
I recently submitted three identical claims as we had a friend travelling with us: one claim successfully compensated for a 30-59 minute delay; one processed as though it were a 15-29 minute delay, and one rejected because they had no record of such a train existing.
Is the Delay Repay department run by temps with no training?
 

AlterEgo

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I regularly make dual claims to GTR for myself and my partner travelling on a Two Together Railcard. Inevitably one will be processed correctly and the other rejected, or processed for the wrong amount. If I try to do the online resubmission process, and try to explain in less than 500 characters why they got it wrong, the new claim will be rejected with the reason that the claim has already been processed. If I ring up and say we were travelling together and say my partner's claim was processed successfully, then they say either each claim must be considered on its own merits, or due to data protection, they are unable to bring up my partner's claim for reference.
I recently submitted three identical claims as we had a friend travelling with us: one claim successfully compensated for a 30-59 minute delay; one processed as though it were a 15-29 minute delay, and one rejected because they had no record of such a train existing.
Is the Delay Repay department run by temps with no training?

GTR is the only company whose complaints and delay repay operations I can’t fathom (I used to work for a different TOC in the same field).

All I can say is that in the interests of simplicity, submit both tickets on one claim - no need to submit two separate ones. You can absolutely do this (even with GTR, I’ve tried!).
 

Joe Paxton

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Automatic delay repay is paid by Virgin Trains and Northern if you book an Advance ticket on the same website as the operator you travel with. ...

One mildly interesting result of the above...

OK, so as we know you shouldn't claim Delay Repay for a journey you didn't make - but in the case of auto delay-repay, the TOC doesn't know whether you travelled or not and so auto pays you regardless. Happened to me this summer with VTWC - albeit only with one of their cheapo summer promo tickets!
 

Stew998

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I've claimed from GTR (Southern) twice recently and in both cases it was totally smooth - submitted photo of ticket online with details of train cancellation. Once from LM and that was fine too.
I submit these claims fairly frequently as a commuter from Sussex to London Bridge. I am registered to use the online system which in some ways is very good, once a claim is submitted they are generally approved and paid straight into my Paypal account within a few days. I've had very few rejected and even managed to have one submitted, rejected, resubmitted and paid within a week - it can be that slick - credit where credit is due.

What grinds my gears though is having to complete my ticket number, photocard number and price every time I claim, even though I am a registered user. As a season ticket holder I am likely to usually be claiming against the same ticket, it allows me to tick a box to say I've previously submitted a scanned copy of my ticket so why can't it remember the number and price as well?! Especially irritating as a previous incarnation of the online delay repay system remembered previously input values and autofilled them if you wanted, I pointed this out to GTR and they came back with some logic-free explanation which I rejected and they have passed it on to their complaints department! (Which appears to be a black hole).
 

maniacmartin

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I totally agree about GTR seemingly choosing at random whether to uphold or deny a claim. Having to enter the price is annoying, as if your ticket has been reprinted it will show with a 0.00 price so I have to dig out the receipt. I also have to type my name and address in full each time, because the Southern website won't let me register an account with my email address, apparently because I'm already registered with that email or something.
 

paul1609

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The fact that Southerns Delay Repay office appears to be in Ashby-de-la Zouch wherever that may be suggests that its probably outsourced anyway.
 

Ianno87

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Delay Repay is a doddle with the online form, and just uploading a photo of the ticket taken with the same phone/device.

Agree, having to type in the ticket number seems unneccessary and a pain, but otherwise straightforward. It's also a pain when I valid claim gets rejected and you have to resubmit and explain. Not always with enough characters available in the text box.
 

boxy321

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In my experience, Virgin actually seem to be the most hassle. Their online form does not allow you enter the details of the journey you were actually making - whoever designed it apparently being under the bizarre impression that everyone on their trains is travelling solely between two stations served by them.

If you try and overcome that by entering the station where you alighted the delayed Virgin train, they claim that because that train was only, say, 20 mins late, you are not entitled to compensation even though the delay meant you missed the connecting service which only runs once every hour.

Eventually, after some to-ing and fro-ing, you might get the compensation you are entitled to ... but I expect the hassle would cause many to give up.

I do agree that getting your money back instantly at the booking office is not feasible. Not least, because of the huge number of stations with no booking office or one with limited opening hours. E-ticketing should make automatic Delay Repay much easier - but I am not holding my breath.

May have mentioned it before but...

Virgin cancelled a train I was on at Birmingham International no doubt to return it to London to ensure Euston got it's quota. We were told to use XC (or "plenty of other trains") to continue to New St.

The passengers from a 9-coach pendo at rush hour do not fit on the already packed Voyager and the next LM service would be equally as bad. I took the bus from hell to Solihull instead.

The online form does indeed have no way of explaining the above. I'll wait and see what the reply is.
 

bubieyehyeh

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North West Leicestershire and as far as I know not very close to any train stations...

I find it odd that the GTR claim sucessful emails always seem to arrive about 11pm, and often at weekends, or they do for me. I was starting to suspect they claim processors were on a different continent.
 

Hadders

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I'm still waiting for a claim from July to be paid by GWR. The latest they've told me is it takes up to 28 working days for a cheque to be raised following approval!

I wouldn't mind but I did originally say I wanted an evoucher.
 
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