Successful Delay/Repay but now informed I should have applied for a refund

[wildcard]

I was making a journey from Berkhamsted to Chelmsford on Saturday 11th October using the return portion of an Off-peak return £33.10 with SNR bought from the LNR website – and then taking a bus to the garage that had my car ready for collection. The LNR journey to Euston went fine but on arrival at Stratford discovered the 8:55 GA to Chelmsford was cancelled due to signal cable theft (and all subsequent GA services as far as the eye could see).Time was of the essence as the garage shut at 12:30 and I assumed the car would had been left outside their premises (locked) - it was. So rather than return home I pressed on. In the end I got to Gidea Park by the Elizabeth line (all services terminating short) and took a taxi the rest of the way (£50) and got to where I wanted about 2½ hrs late.

I applied for over 2hr Delay Repay via the LNR website but not quite understanding the process - I only specified the delayed GA journey. LNR rejected the claim as their service wasn’t delayed and forwarded the claim to GA. GA then asked for the full journey details e.g. leg 1 LNR, leg 2 GA. Once this was supplied, it was then queried it by email as they claimed LNER (!) had no record!

I corrected their misunderstanding and went through the whole thing as above – mentioning I completed the journey by taxi.

GA then refunded 100% of the ticket cost.

However a second GA employee emailed me today saying I can’t claim Delay/Repay but a full refund from LNR as an abandoned journey - seemingly unaware GA have already paid.

I am inclined to ignore this email but I don’t want to caught up in an accusation of making a fraudulent claim (or the faff of refunding GA and applying again to LNR) .

 

[WesternLancer]

I was making a journey from Berkhamsted to Chelmsford on Saturday 11th October using the return portion of an Off-peak return £33.10 with SNR bought from the LNR website – and then taking a bus to the garage that had my car ready for collection. The LNR journey to Euston went fine but on arrival at Stratford discovered the 8:55 GA to Chelmsford was cancelled due to signal cable theft (and all subsequent GA services as far as the eye could see).Time was of the essence as the garage shut at 12:30 and I assumed the car would had been left outside their premises (locked) - it was. So rather than return home I pressed on. In the end I got to Gidea Park by the Elizabeth line (all services terminating short) and took a taxi the rest of the way (£50) and got to where I wanted about 2½ hrs late.

I applied for over 2hr Delay Repay via the LNR website but not quite understanding the process - I only specified the delayed GA journey. LNR rejected the claim as their service wasn’t delayed and forwarded the claim to GA. GA then asked for the full journey details e.g. leg 1 LNR, leg 2 GA. Once this was supplied, it was then queried it by email as they claimed LNER (!) had no record!

I corrected their misunderstanding and went through the whole thing as above – mentioning I completed the journey by taxi.

GA then refunded 100% of the ticket cost.

However a second GA employee emailed me today saying I can’t claim Delay/Repay but a full refund from LNR as an abandoned journey - seemingly unaware GA have already paid.

I am inclined to ignore this email but I don’t want to caught up in an accusation of making a fraudulent claim (or the faff of refunding GA and applying again to LNR) .

I suspect they will just automatically escalate this if you ignore it.

 

[yorkie]

I was making a journey from Berkhamsted to Chelmsford on Saturday 11th October using the return portion of an Off-peak return £33.10 with SNR bought from the LNR website – and then taking a bus to the garage that had my car ready for collection. The LNR journey to Euston went fine but on arrival at Stratford discovered the 8:55 GA to Chelmsford was cancelled due to signal cable theft (and all subsequent GA services as far as the eye could see).Time was of the essence as the garage shut at 12:30 and I assumed the car would had been left outside their premises (locked) - it was. So rather than return home I pressed on. In the end I got to Gidea Park by the Elizabeth line (all services terminating short) and took a taxi the rest of the way (£50) and got to where I wanted about 2½ hrs late.

I applied for over 2hr Delay Repay via the LNR website but not quite understanding the process - I only specified the delayed GA journey. LNR rejected the claim as their service wasn’t delayed and forwarded the claim to GA. GA then asked for the full journey details e.g. leg 1 LNR, leg 2 GA. Once this was supplied, it was then queried it by email as they claimed LNER (!) had no record!

I corrected their misunderstanding and went through the whole thing as above – mentioning I completed the journey by taxi.

GA then refunded 100% of the ticket cost.

However a second GA employee emailed me today saying I can’t claim Delay/Repay but a full refund from LNR as an abandoned journey - seemingly unaware GA have already paid.

I am inclined to ignore this email but I don’t want to caught up in an accusation of making a fraudulent claim (or the faff of refunding GA and applying again to LNR) .

The cost of a single to Stratford is £9.10 and a single from Chelmsford to Berkhamstead is £22.00, which totals £31.10

Therefore, the refund amount is £2.00.

So, for future reference, it would be much better to continue to make the full journey in these circumstances, and be entitled to the full £33.10 back!

I suspect they will just automatically escalate this if you ignore it.

If the email isn't asking for any action, I would ignore it.

If they ask for the money to be repaid, that's a different matter.

 

[JBuchananGB]

The OP quite evidently didn't abandon their journey. They pressed on by rail as far as was possible and then took a taxi. 100% Delay Repay was in my opinion correct. Abandoning a journey means giving up, turning round and returning to origin and is claimable from the ticket retailer, not the train operating company. I agree to ignore the latest missive, unless they start asking for money, in which case come back here for expert advice.

 

[yorkie]

The OP quite evidently didn't abandon their journey. They pressed on by rail as far as was possible and then took a taxi.

I agree it's not an abandoned journey in the sense that a fully abandoned journey requires an immediate return to the origin (and no use be made of the ticket), and would be eligible for a full refund, as if it was unused.

However some retailers e.g. Uber/omio refuse to cooperate with such claims (see recent thread).

It's a part used journey.

100% Delay Repay was in my opinion correct. Abandoning a journey means giving up, turning round and returning to origin and is claimable from the ticket retailer, not the train operating company. I agree to ignore the latest missive, unless they start asking for money, in which case come back here for expert advice.

I agree that passengers who would be delayed by a qualifying period should be entitled to Delay Repay if they make alternative transport arrangements, however unfortunately I don't think there is anything in the rules to require train companies to pay up under these circumstances.

The rules should be changed in my opinion, but that's really a different topic.

 

[Watershed]

I don't think the rules say that a journey must be completed by train to receive Delay Repay. It might well be completed by a bus or taxi organised 'ad hoc' by the train company. I don't see how that's any different to organising your own bus or taxi at your own cost.

 

[AlterEgo]

Just ignore the email. If they come back again let us know.

 

[wildcard]

It seems GA have referred the matter back to LNR as LNR have emailed me to say my old claim shows an 'incorrect journey' and can I amend it before they will consider the claim - its now showing as 'cancelled' not delayed as I input. I guess GA have made the change . I made a mistake on the GA resubmission with the time of the LNR service ( 7:50 not 7:28 ) also it shows via Liverpool street - my original GA claim definitely showed Stratford. I was halfway through making the necessary corrections - then had second thoughts . LNR seem likely to refund me as cancelled on top of GA's delay/repay which GA have not yet asked me to refund . Accepting both could be considered fraud . Shall I go ahead and complete the LNR claim? I would then need to contact GA to refund theirs. I should be charging for my time in sorting out this bureaucracy.

 

[AlterEgo]

Just ignore all this rubbish. Eventually it will go away. This isn't your problem to sort out, and you got your money back having applied in good faith.