Delay repay claims going missing

[mrmartin]

I seem to be the go to guy for delay repay claims for family and friends now.

Helped/done 4 in the last month or so.

2x GWR - 1 paid correctly, one totally missing.
1x ATW - Paid half the amount they should have.
1x VTWC - Cheque got lost, then they blamed admin error, still waiting for it.

It's really frustrating as everyone takes weeks to reply generally ,at which point the issue has probably changed and takes time to keep track of.

What would be ideal would be a centralised web site for all train operators, which would deal with everything totally online and quickly (say 3 working day SLA on responses). The RDG could operate it?

You'd see all your cases, and select an operator. Payments would be made electronically back to one bank account/paypal you had registered.

 

[Hadders]

GWR admitted to me that they have had issues with delay repay claims go missing from certain groups of email addresses. This was late last year so no idea if it’s still an issue.

Seems to be an issue with certain email domains. The claim looks as though it’s submitted successfully and you even get an acknowledgment but nothing gets recorded on their system. GWR paid up once I escalated a couple of lost claims with them.

Worth chasing it up.

 

[mrmartin]

Can't see how that's a problem. Didn't get any emails - they post out by cheque. It's their processing across multiple TOCs that's the problem.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I seem to be the go to guy for delay repay claims for family and friends now.

Helped/done 4 in the last month or so.

2x GWR - 1 paid correctly, one totally missing.
1x ATW - Paid half the amount they should have.
1x VTWC - Cheque got lost, then they blamed admin error, still waiting for it.

It's really frustrating as everyone takes weeks to reply generally ,at which point the issue has probably changed and takes time to keep track of.

What would be ideal would be a centralised web site for all train operators, which would deal with everything totally online and quickly (say 3 working day SLA on responses). The RDG could operate it?

You'd see all your cases, and select an operator. Payments would be made electronically back to one bank account/paypal you had registered.

As much as that's a very good idea, I doubt the fragmented railway of today would be able, let alone willing, to do such a thing.

 

[morrisobrien]

It really is a shambles,

 

[yorkie]

I use the online forms where possible, and keep the automatic emails containing the reference number.

I would never post off a claim as I have heard of too many getting lost.

Of course that does not stop a cheque, RTV etc being lost in the post, but that would be far rarer than the claim itself going missing!

 

[Bungle965]

I use the online forms where possible, and keep the automatic emails containing the reference number.

I would never post off a claim as I have heard of too many getting lost.

Of course that does not stop a cheque, RTV etc being lost in the post, but that would be far rarer than the claim itself going missing!

The online forms have some use, however it used to be the case that with Northern's online forms that you would just get an acknowledgement email (if you were lucky), you would not get any sort of reference number.
I recently phoned up TransPennine Express over a delay repay that I had rejected on their online form, their response was that it was head office who dealt with that and that in future I should just send them an email with the journey details and a copy of the ticket.
Sam

 

[BluePenguin]

I have submitted a lot of delay repay claims to Southeastern recently and have overall had a terrible experience. More often than not I don't hear from them after 10 days and usually end up calling them by day 14 to chase it up. The majority of the time they have absolutely no record of the delay repay claim on their system and when they do, I am told they "forgot" to process it and are sorry. Sometimes they process the claim manually whilst I am on the phone and then tell me to wait another 10 days. At other times I am advised to resubmit the delay details using the contact us form, which is just rubbish as I have received emails number of days later to say that the photo of the ticket was missing and asking me to resubmit again.

The reason they make you faff around with the contact us form instead of simply te-submitting the delay repay page is that unlike the GWR website, the Southeastern one does not allow you to submit a claim for any date you choose but only the specific dates that they allow you to on the popout calendar whilst all other days are greyed out. Because of this, I am advised to resubmit the delay details using the contact us form, which is just rubbish as I have received emails number of days later to say that the photo of the ticket was missing and asking me to resubmit again.

The last time this happened, instead of being told to resubmit the details of my journey using contactless form, I was bluntly told that as my journey was more than 28 days ago, I was not entitled to compensation any more. I insisted that as Southeastern were to blame for being slow and for losing my claims they responsible. I then asked to speak to a manager and was told that the manager would say the same thing that they had. I reminded them that my question was to put me through to manager. Reluctantly, he told me to hold whilst he went to find one. A minute or two later after listening to some rather pleasant hold music, the man came back and told me that as a "goodwill gesture" they would still go ahead process my claim. I found this to be very cheeky of them as technically they were to blame and entirely at fault.

Anyway the story ends well as 4 days later a collection of blue vouchers came through the door

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I found this to be very cheeky of them as technically they were to blame and entirely at fault.

There's no technically about it - if you've submitted your claim within 28 days then you've fulfilled the requirements. They cannot deny a claim because of their internal inefficiencies or other screwups. However, proving that you submitted a claim may be difficult, so I often take copious screenshots (and back these up safely) when I am forced to use submission forms which I don't know if they'll send me a copy of.

 

[yorkie]

The last time this happened, instead of being told to resubmit the details of my journey using contactless form, I was bluntly told that as my journey was more than 28 days ago, I was not entitled to compensation any more. I insisted that as Southeastern were to blame for being slow and for losing my claims they responsible. I then asked to speak to a manager and was told that the manager would say the same thing that they had. I reminded them that my question was to put me through to manager. Reluctantly, he told me to hold whilst he went to find one. A minute or two later after listening to some rather pleasant hold music, the man came back and told me that as a "goodwill gesture" they would still go ahead process my claim. I found this to be very cheeky of them as technically they were to blame and entirely at fault.

It's unclear when you made the claim initially? Was that within 28 days?

 

[BluePenguin]

It's unclear when you made the claim initially? Was that within 28 days?

Yes of course. I wouldn't have pressed to speak to a manager if I was lying/chancing it as wouldn't have a leg to stand on if they suddenly found my claim on the system. It is always best to be honest rather than hope they beleive you and just give you the benefit of the doubt knowing their system isn't great even though chances of them finding your claim are pretty low.

 

[alistairlees]

Well, I do lots of delay repay claims online with Southeastern, and have never had a problem. They are all resolved quickly, and paid to my bank account. I do use the Key smartcard though, perhaps that helps.

 

[Hadders]

I've made in excess of 30 delay repay claims with GTR since the timetable shambles, all paper tickets.

All paid out within 3 weeks or so of being submitted. Not bad considering how many claims they must be dealing with at the moment.

 

[BluePenguin]

Well, I do lots of delay repay claims online with Southeastern, and have never had a problem. They are all resolved quickly, and paid to my bank account. I do use the Key smartcard though, perhaps that helps.

I've made in excess of 30 delay repay claims with GTR since the timetable shambles, all paper tickets.

All paid out within 3 weeks or so of being submitted. Not bad considering how many claims they must be dealing with at the moment.

Well I pleased for you both. I am surprised how neither of you have had any issues whilst I and most other people I know have had them continuously. Having The Key probably makes a big difference as they can easily look up your smartcard number and see all of your journeys rather than having to shift through thousands of claims to find the ones you made half a month ago.

I have thought about getting one myself but the Southeastern one doesn't seem to support day/open reruns or any other tickets other than seasons at the moment. I could get a Southern or Thameslink one which does but my origin and destination are never both either Southern and Thameslink. Does anyone know if you can load ticket to or from a Southeastern station onto one of these or not?

 

[herb21]

I have had a fair few scotrail claims recently. All but one (the most recent) have been repaid so far. How they calculate the payments is a mystery one 30min claim was adjudged 2hrs but paid out as 1hr?

 

[Hadders]

Well I pleased for you both. I am surprised how neither of you have had any issues whilst I and most other people I know have had them continuously. Having The Key probably makes a big difference as they can easily look up your smartcard number and see all of your journeys rather than having to shift through thousands of claims to find the ones you made half a month ago.

I have thought about getting one myself but the Southeastern one doesn't seem to support day/open reruns or any other tickets other than seasons at the moment. I could get a Southern or Thameslink one which does but my origin and destination are never both either Southern and Thameslink. Does anyone know if you can load ticket to or from a Southeastern station onto one of these or not?

There is no need to use the key. All of my claims have been with paper tickets. I did have an issue with GWR last year as described upthread but that's the only recent issue I've had.

Please don't take this the wrong way but are you completing the claim form correctly? I'm always scrupulous in making sure I've got the exact departure and arrival times etc.

 

[_toommm_]

The online forms have some use, however it used to be the case that with Northern's online forms that you would just get an acknowledgement email (if you were lucky), you would not get any sort of reference number.
I recently phoned up TransPennine Express over a delay repay that I had rejected on their online form, their response was that it was head office who dealt with that and that in future I should just send them an email with the journey details and a copy of the ticket.
Sam

Transpennine are awfully backwards about their claims. Even after emailing them my itenaray in tabular format they still rejected my claim saying Northern has delayed me, even though I clearly showed it was TPE who did so.

And they've only just paid up from a delay on the 1st March too....

 

[DelW]

South Western were very slow with my recent claim. Submitted 16th May, received an email on 29th May confirming they'd accepted it and that RTV's would be sent "within 7 - 10 days". Four weeks later still nothing, emailed them on 28th June, received a reply on 7th July saying they'd "investigate" what had happened, finally received the vouchers on 23rd July. A friend who was on the same journey claimed before I did but didn't receive his until 6th August, also after chasing them up by email.
SWR's timekeeping and reliability is so poor that I would imagine they get swamped in DR claims after every service collapse.

 

[superalbs]

SWR are awful for this.

I submitted a claim on 19th March. Told it was approved. Then got nothing. I chased this up on the phone, and was told that "we had a day where we couldn't process any voucher payments". Right, ok. Eventually received it a couple of days ago.

They also have a habit of changing the origin of my claims without my consent. I had a claim from Castle Cary to Pinhoe, but it was forwarded to GWR, and changed to Castle Cary to Exeter Central. I also had a claim of London Paddington to Pinhoe, but it was declined "because its less then 15 minutes", and then changed to Exeter St Davids to Pinhoe. They're also labelling claims as duplicate, despite no similar claims being in my account.

It's very strange. They haven't even allowed an appeal until now, and they just seem to leave claims idle for months on end.