Is this typical behaviour of Northern with delay repay claims?

Travelled with Northern. 2 tickets on the split train didn't call at changeover point bought one was a zonal ticket so permitted combination.

Train cancelled so traveled on the next service. Arrived at destination just over 15 minutes late.

Claimed delay repay. Received email saying additional information required so provided this. Basically reuploaded copies of the two tickets I'd already provided. Claim was rejected on the basis my tickets were not valid for the journey made. (Incorrect).

I appealed clearly stating I was using a valid combination of tickets as the reason for the appeal. Again received another email asking me to re-upload copies of the tickets which I did. I received a rejection email for the appeal saying that the delay encountered was less than 15 minutes. (Incorrect).

I have emailed Northern stating that my ticket combination is valid and the delay I encountered was over 15 minutes. Awaiting response.

Is this typical behaviour of them?

Incidentally on the return journey, although not canceled the service was held outside my destination station awaiting a free platform and arrived 16 minutes late. Same combination of tickets. This claim went straight through no problems and was paid out within a couple of days.

I have had Northern reject one when I was alighting a delayed 6 car train on platform 13 at Piccadilly and would have had to make it to the buffer end of a low numbered platform to board a 2 car set in under 5 minutes.

They rejected on the basis my delay was under 15 minutes. I appealed pointing out how busy platforms 13 and 14 are, and pointing out the 10 minute minimum connection time, and it was accepted.

When you say arrived at destination "just over 15 minutes late", is that by your reckoning, or have you looked on-line (on a site such as Open Train Times) to see what it is recorded as?

Belperpete said:

When you say arrived at destination "just over 15 minutes late", is that by your reckoning, or have you looked on-line (on a site such as Open Train Times) to see what it is recorded as?

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Yes. OTT and RTT record the initial train as cancelled and the next available train as arriving 23 minutes after I should have had the first train ran.

This is when Northern roll out their old excuse that in their eyes, zonal tickets are excluded from delay repay as they don't set the T&Cs for those products

Northern are known to also argue some PTE tickets are valid on buses and trams so there may be a non-rail alternative. That's one thing if you're traveling from Levenshulme to Manchester, it's another if you're traveling from Stockport to Hale.

If they play these games I'll escalate and send to Ombudsman if needed.

Kite159 said:

This is when Northern roll out their old excuse that in their eyes, zonal tickets are excluded from delay repay as they don't set the T&Cs for those products

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Hmm, I have had another TOC give out a whole series of reasons why they were rejecting, before finally giving the real reason. I suspect that if there isn't a template response for the real reason, they just press the button on any available template response in the hope that you will accept it and go away.