I'd very much appreciate some advice on how to deal with Avanti repeatedly delaying, for spurious reasons, a valid claim for Delay Repay.
On 28 July, I was supposed to travel on the 08.52 service from Edinburgh to Birmingham, as the first leg of a journey from Edinburgh to Penarth. I received notice of the cancellation while I was on my way to the station, at about 08.30. The following Transpennine train was also cancelled (broken-down train at Lockerbie), and I eventually caught the 10.52 Avanti service. I arrived home over two hours late, because the Crosscountry and TfW trains were delayed too.
I submitted a claim for Delay repay the same day, 28 July. On 25 August, exactly 28 days later, Avanti rejected the claim, saying:
This was nonsense, and I immediately appealed, stating very clearly that their systems were incorrect and that I had travelled on the 10.52 service.
Yesterday, 22 September, Avanti sent an email saying they "are unable to continue processing your claim without you providing further information" and asked me to upload images of my tickets. This is despite the fact that I uploaded everything when I made the claim - you can't submit a claim without doing so.
I shall, of course, do what they ask and upload the tickets again, but am expecting to have to wait another month for a response and possibly have the claim rejected again for a random reason.
Can I now refer this to the ombudsman? It's been over 40 working days since the original claim, but do I now have to wait until 40 days after the appeal?
Or can I go straight to MCOL (online small claims)? Would I need a deadlock letter before doing this?
It's not a huge amount of money, but it's the principle. This should be an extremely straightforward claim.
On 28 July, I was supposed to travel on the 08.52 service from Edinburgh to Birmingham, as the first leg of a journey from Edinburgh to Penarth. I received notice of the cancellation while I was on my way to the station, at about 08.30. The following Transpennine train was also cancelled (broken-down train at Lockerbie), and I eventually caught the 10.52 Avanti service. I arrived home over two hours late, because the Crosscountry and TfW trains were delayed too.
I submitted a claim for Delay repay the same day, 28 July. On 25 August, exactly 28 days later, Avanti rejected the claim, saying:
This was nonsense, and I immediately appealed, stating very clearly that their systems were incorrect and that I had travelled on the 10.52 service.
Yesterday, 22 September, Avanti sent an email saying they "are unable to continue processing your claim without you providing further information" and asked me to upload images of my tickets. This is despite the fact that I uploaded everything when I made the claim - you can't submit a claim without doing so.
I shall, of course, do what they ask and upload the tickets again, but am expecting to have to wait another month for a response and possibly have the claim rejected again for a random reason.
Can I now refer this to the ombudsman? It's been over 40 working days since the original claim, but do I now have to wait until 40 days after the appeal?
Or can I go straight to MCOL (online small claims)? Would I need a deadlock letter before doing this?
It's not a huge amount of money, but it's the principle. This should be an extremely straightforward claim.
