Northern finally paid my Delay Repay from March 13

[aye2beeviasea]

It only took slightly longer than double the maximum time it should have taken.

I can see why it was so slow though. The cheque they sent was handwritten.

What decade is it again?

 

[trainophile]

March? That's quite good then. I claimed in September, and got an empty envelope in January, that should have had a "one day free Northern travel" voucher in. I also got a second envelope that did have a voucher, but as I was claiming for two journeys (2 hours delay outbound, cancelled train back) I should have had two vouchers.

Things must be looking up .

 

[roversfan2001]

I claimed in the middle of April and got my cash voucher this week.

Sent from my HTC Desire 530 using Tapatalk

 

[xotGD]

Do you mean the thirteenth of March or March 2013?

 

[thirdriding]

I'm still waiting from Apr 23rd. Seems I might have to wait a bit longer.

 

[2HAP]

Can you claim Delay Repay Delay Repay? i.e. claim a refund for your refund being delayed?

 

[YorkshireLad]

Got my claim from the 13th of February back the other day.

Letter was dated 13th May.

 

[Kite159]

Can you claim Delay Repay Delay Repay? i.e. claim a refund for your refund being delayed?

Only in Scotland

 

[Tracked]

I got delay repay from East Midland trains in April, for something that happened in November, thought they'd decided not to pay it

 

[ValleyLines142]

I only just had my delay repay from a GWR service on 7th March. They stupidly sent my case over to CrossCountry! Finally got a response last week after chasing them up again; I was due £12.20 but they gave me £20 as a gesture of goodwill!

I realise that TOCs need to investigate delays and I appreciate it can be quite a complex procedure however it most definitely should not take three months. Currently awaiting to hear back from Arriva Trains Wales, it'll probably be the festive season by the time I get a response and even then I imagine they'll refuse for whatever reason!

 

[trainophile]

A few years ago I raised a claim with Arriva, but after about two months they sent me a letter saying they had forwarded it to East Coast (as it was then) because I had bought my ticket from them. Another few weeks passed and East Coast sent me a letter saying it was Arriva's train not theirs, so they had passed my case back to them.

Never heard another thing. :roll:

 

[chiltern trev]

Currently waiting for 2 Northern claims (one for me and one in my wife's name) from 08 April 2017. Claimed online, got email acknowledgements. Have asked for go anywhere tickets.

 

[Tomnot27]

Just got mine from mid February

 

[Greenback]

I got delay repay from East Midland trains in April, for something that happened in November, thought they'd decided not to pay it

My ATW claim was paid in April, also for a delay in November last year. They gave me an extra £10 in the form of a rail voucher for not replying earlier.

 

[gordonthemoron]

in comparison VTWC pay up in about a week, although I am led to believe that they don't investigate the delay much and just give you the money

 

[palmersears]

I have four claims in with Northern at the moment:

13 December
23 January
24 February
13 March

Rather oddly I've yet to hear about the 13 December, but did this week receive a voucher for 23 January.

Ever time I ring them they claim the remainder are 'awaiting processing by a suitably trained individual.' Poor sod must be drowning in delay repay!

 

[chiltern trev]

Still waiting for our claim from 08 April 2017.

 

[palmersears]

After kicking up a fuss on Twitter a couple of weeks ago about yet another delay, I highlighted to their social media team that I was waiting for four outstanding claims. To their credit they did say they would pass this on to the customer experience centre and, sure enough, three sets of complimentary tickets arrived three days later.

Sadly the one missing was the 13th of December 2016, so the wait goes on!

 

[chiltern trev]

Still waiting for our claim from 08 April 2017.

 

[gray1404]

Northern really need to clear this back log. It has been going on since the start of the franchise changeover. I wonder if the solution is to do a "fob off" approach like Virgin Trains used to. Send out a set (but above what you are owed) amount of compensation in the form of a Rail Travel Voucher (or cheque) with a standard cover letter and get the back log clear. Then, ensure they never let this situation happen again.

Of course this may be harder to do now given the legal entitlement to "cash" compensation.

 

[palmersears]

Since kicking up a prolonged fuss on Twitter a few months back my recent claims have all been processed within a month, which I can only assume means I'm now on a 'pain in the arse, deal with pronto' list at the customer experience centre. Indeed they even sent me two return complimentary passes for my last claim when I was only entitled to one single...

 

[BlueFox]

they even sent me two return complimentary passes for my last claim when I was only entitled to one single...

They sent me a single and a return, when I was expecting a return. Signed by different people, on different days, sent in separate envelopes.
Took less than a month, for a claim I made in early July.

 

[paddington]

I'm still waiting for GWR to pay up for the 4 hour delay from Exeter on 2nd July. Anyone else?

 

[Hadders]

I'm still waiting for GWR to pay up for the 4 hour delay from Exeter on 2nd July. Anyone else?

Me too. I phoned GWR about this last week. I submitted my claim on-line and got an immediate acknowledgment but no reference number. Apparently there is a glitch in their system that rejects claims from certain email address domain names even though they appear to have gone through successfully.

I re-sent the claim via email and got confirmation within an hour that they would send me a cheque within 14 days.

 

[chiltern trev]

Me too. I phoned GWR about this last week. I submitted my claim on-line and got an immediate acknowledgment but no reference number. Apparently there is a glitch in their system that rejects claims from certain email address domain names even though they appear to have gone through successfully.

I re-sent the claim via email and got confirmation within an hour that they would send me a cheque within 14 days.

Interesting about the GWR glitch.

On Friday we visited a Heritage Open Day at Haltwhistle Station (old booking office and signal box open) which was attended by Northern staff so I asked about my Delay Repay from April. The Northern lady was quite surprised and said to phone.

So on Saturday I phoned the Northern Customer Experience Centre on 0800 200 6060. The top level options included one specifically for Delay Repay which I selected and the next level options included one for 'Delay Claims Outstanding for more than 20 working days' - so I selected that.

The person answered after a minute or so, then searched the system and did indeed find our 2 claims which had become stuck in an email limbo land for some reason - so these are now progressing. (Our claims were via the online system for which I got a prompt email response back in April)

The Northern Delay Repay person did say:
* Northern are now processing Delay Repay claims from August 2017
* The strikes are not impacting Delay Repay claims.

So I am now looking forward to receiving our Northern Go Anywhere Compensation Vouchers/Tickets soon.

So if your Northern Delay Repay claim is older than August or is outstanding by more than 20 working days - phone Northern. Maybe this should be applied to all TOCs!

Note - 20 working days, quote from Northern "We aim to reply to this application within 20 working days."

 

[paddington]

Me too. I phoned GWR about this last week. I submitted my claim on-line and got an immediate acknowledgment but no reference number. Apparently there is a glitch in their system that rejects claims from certain email address domain names even though they appear to have gone through successfully.

I re-sent the claim via email and got confirmation within an hour that they would send me a cheque within 14 days.

I submitted it online and got a reference number to my gmail address.

What email address did you resend the claim to? Or do you mean you used the general email form?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

in comparison VTWC pay up in about a week, although I am led to believe that they don't investigate the delay much and just give you the money

VTWC have always been very quick in my experience.

I suspect there's at least some investigation: The last time I claimed from VTWC was a few weeks ago. I remember the train arriving at the destination somewhere around an hour late, but I hadn't made a note of the precise time. So to avoid over-claiming, I claimed at the 30-59 minute rate. When the cheque arrived a week or so later, I saw they'd refunded me at the 60-minutes-or-more rate, more than I'd claimed for. I can only assume from that that they'd checked the actual arrival time of my train before setting the refund.

I also once claimed with SouthEastern and they seemed reasonably prompt.

Have to admit I wasn't aware that other TOCs were so bad. 6 months to be paid sounds pretty appalling. After all, you'd have thought the TOCs would have access to actual train running times, and it therefore wouldn't take someone more than a few minutes to check each claim.

 

[AlterEgo]

VTWC have always been very quick in my experience.

I suspect there's at least some investigation: The last time I claimed was a few weeks ago. I remember the train being somewhere around an hour late, but wasn't sure of the precise time, so to avoid overclaiming, I claimed at the 30-59 minute rate. When the cheque arrived a week or so later, I saw they'd refunded me at the 60-minutes-or-more rate, more than I'd claimed for. I can only assume from that that they'd checked the actual arrival time of my train before setting the refund.

I also once claimed with SouthEastern and they seemed reasonably prompt.

Have to admit I wasn't aware that other TOCs were so bad. 6 months to be paid sounds pretty appalling. After all, you'd have thought the TOCs would have access to actual train running times, and it therefore wouldn't take someone more than a few minutes to check each claim.

Claims are usually checked automatically as part of the process. The software does it all for you on most CRM systems.

The only time there should be any investigation on the part of the agent processing the claim is if a train comes back as not delayed, or otherwise significantly different to the claim. In my experience I'd say that happened about once every 20 claims and were usually benign reasons like claiming for the wrong date, claimant not knowing the 24 hour clock, etc.

 

[Mojo]

I submitted a refund request (not Delay Repay) on August 13th, as the train I intended to catch was cancelled and I drove instead. I received a handwritten cheque and response letter on August 30th, so can't grumble about that.

Bizarrely when I submitted the form online I got two automated responses, one saying thank you for submitting but be aware that it will take longer than normal, and one saying "Im [sic] now out of the office until the 21st August 2017. I will reply to your email on my return."

 

[Dhassell]

I'm still waiting for GWR to pay up for the 4 hour delay from Exeter on 2nd July. Anyone else?

I had mine come through roughly 6 weeks after! Even had an extra fiver added which was nice!