Fare evasion

[Ash1976]

Hello,

New to the forum and hoping to get some advice.
My daughter stupidly bought a child ticket instead of an adult one got caught & paid for the correct ticket. Totally her fault, never done anything similar & certainly won’t in the future. Chiltern have replied saying there are suspicious refunds on her Trainline account. Out of 30 purchases 10 have been refunded. The dates are between Apr 22-Aug 23. Should she acknowledge their suspicions on her return email? She says all legitimate refunds but doesn’t recall the reasons for not making the journeys. Any help give v appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Gloster]

It would help if you could post the letter that she has received in this thread. Please obscure the name, address and any other identifying details, such as reference numbers.

 

[AlterEgo]

Hello,

New to the forum and hoping to get some advice.
My daughter stupidly bought a child ticket instead of an adult one got caught & paid for the correct ticket. Totally her fault, never done anything similar & certainly won’t in the future. Chiltern have replied saying there are suspicious refunds on her Trainline account. Out of 30 purchases 10 have been refunded. The dates are between Apr 22-Aug 23. Should she acknowledge their suspicions on her return email? She says all legitimate refunds but doesn’t recall the reasons for not making the journeys.

I think I’d remember if I didn’t take ten journeys. Is she sure these aren’t just refunds she’s made on unscanned tickets? Were these refunds applied for before, or after the date of the journey?

 

[Ash1976]

Initial letter & follow up email from Chiltern.

 

[swt_passenger]

Refunds are only ever appropriate if the ticket was completely unused, i.e. your daughter must not have used those tickets for any travel at all.

What the train companies seem to take issue with is people refunding tickets when they should really have made a delay repay claim. They are different procedures.

If the refunded tickets were ever scanned on route they’ll possibly already know about it.

 

[Ash1976]

It would help if you could post the letter that she has received in this thread. Please obscure the name, address and any other identifying details, such as reference numbers.

I think I’d remember if I didn’t take ten journeys. Is she sure these aren’t just refunds she’s made on unscanned tickets? Were these refunds applied for before, or after the date of the journey?

Most are college flays where she thinks lectures were cancelled or last minute lifts were offered.

 

[Ash1976]

Most are college flays where she thinks lectures were cancelled or last minute lifts were offered.

Days not flays

 

[Ash1976]

I think I’d remember if I didn’t take ten journeys. Is she sure these aren’t just refunds she’s made on unscanned tickets? Were these refunds applied for before, or after the date of the journey?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Aug 2024 ==

4 of the 10 were on the same day. There were so many times trains were cancelled, lecturers couldn’t attend due to Covid etc it’s all a bit of a haze so no definite reasons. Most were over 2 years ago April 2022!

 

[dazzler17]

It says there are incidents of not paying the correct fare in the letters. Has she bought child tickets whilst not being a child on other occasions too?

 

[Ash1976]

No,never this is the first time.

 

[ainsworth74]

Refunds are only ever appropriate if the ticket was completely unused, i.e. your daughter must not have used those tickets for any travel at all.

Not necessarily, if you abandon a journey due to disruption you are entitled to return to your origin and still claim a refund (Condition 30.1 refers).

Initial letter & follow up email from Chiltern.

Reads quite like a fishing exercise to me. I would suggest that she very very seriously needs to consider each of the incidents that they're saying she refunded a ticket for. If she can be certain that each time was a legitimate (such as her train was cancelled, she decided not travel to, etc) and, more helpfully has some proof (such as texts/emails of cancelled lectures) then I would simply reply to them saying that she appreciates their concerns but the refunds were legitimate.

 

[Gloster]

Accepting that she has not bought a Child ticket on any other occasion, is it possible that she has bought a ticket with a Railcard reduction when she did not have a valid Railcard (including after it had expired) or used a ticket at times of day when it was not valid, or various other possibilities. She will need to look very carefully at her purchasing history if she is going to state categorically that the incident with the Child ticket is the only one.

 

[Ash1976]

Not necessarily, if you abandon a journey due to disruption you are entitled to return to your origin and still claim a refund (Condition 30.1 refers).



Reads quite like a fishing exercise to me. I would suggest that she very very seriously needs to consider each of the incidents that they're saying she refunded a ticket for. If she can be certain that each time was a legitimate (such as her train was cancelled, she decided not travel to, etc) and, more helpfully has some proof (such as texts/emails of cancelled lectures) then I would simply reply to them saying that she appreciates their concerns but the refunds were legitimate.

We also feel it’s fishing. Would the time that has lapsed ie 2 years be taken into consideration with regards to not recalling the exact details of why fares were refunded?