Delay repay - TOCs insisting on seeing the entire journey

[XmaX]

This has been making me irrationally angry over a few months. I submitted a few different delay repay claims, with different TOCs. If the ticket is for a non-stop journey on one TOC, then everything is simple and claim is usually successful. But when I try to claim within a journey that involved changes, especially between different companies, then everything crumbles apart.

In my cases, pretty much every delay is caused by the last train. So, if my journey is A-B on TOC X, and B-C on TOC Y, then I claim delay repay from TOC Y, and only put that segment of the journey into their system. This is because the other segment makes absolutely 0 difference in those journeys, and I am within my rights to start short anyway (this is not on Advance tickets). Almost every time, the claim is either rejected or more information is asked from me, but the system is completely inadequate - no free text field to explain my journey, no way to properly put in journey breaks, etc., or my favourite with GTR: in order to update the information, I have to submit a new claim - which is a bit hard if the 28 day deadline has now passed and there's no way of choosing the correct journey date.

Is there a solution for this? Maybe using paper forms?

 

[jfollows]

If you want to claim Delay Repay for an entire multi-leg trip, A-C in your parlance, you must demonstrate that you met the minimum connection time between trains at your intermediate point, otherwise your claim is invalid. Even if the delay is on the second leg of your journey.
If you are only claiming for the cost of the delayed leg, not the whole journey, then it doesn’t matter of course.

 

[Watershed]

Unless you've actually started short, it would probably make your life easier if you inputted the full journey the ticket covers.

You're perfectly entitled to break your journey on most walk-up fares and you're also entitled to claim Delay Repay for any delays you incur on the broken journey. However many operators' Delay Repay forms don't handle the concept of the ticket not 100% matching the journey, hence my suggestion above.

 

[XmaX]

Unless you've actually started short, it would probably make your life easier if you inputted the full journey the ticket covers.

You're perfectly entitled to break your journey on most walk-up fares and you're also entitled to claim Delay Repay for any delays you incur on the broken journey. However many operators' Delay Repay forms don't handle the concept of the ticket not 100% matching the journey, hence my suggestion above.

Yes, but the alternative is often inputting the journey I didn't actually take.

Recent example is with SWR. Had a Finsbury Park-Earley ticket. SWR from Waterloo to Earley was late, so submitted just that portion in my claim, ignored the tube I took from Finsbury Park. Claim rejected and more information needed. So, instead I searched for a journey from Finsbury Park to Earley, but the tube times didn't match to what I took (and, in fact suggested that a 4 minute change from tube to rail at Waterloo is sufficient). No option for explaining my route, or submitting individual segments.

Or, a couple of months ago with GA - travelled London to Stansted Airport, then flew on holidays, then returned and continued my journey to Cambridge, all on London-Cambridge ticket. I have just put the delayed Stansted Airport-Cambridge as my journey, and this was rejected. Even if I wanted to, finding the (valid) journey via Stansted Airport on GA delay repay search is impossible - but I still wouldn't be able to include my week-long break of journey at Stansted Airport. Eventually, I resubmitted exactly the same claim and got the compensation - but this shouldn't be so complicated.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Or, a couple of months ago with GA - travelled London to Stansted Airport, then flew on holidays, then returned and continued my journey to Cambridge, all on London-Cambridge ticket. I have just put the delayed Stansted Airport-Cambridge as my journey, and this was rejected. Even if I wanted to, finding the (valid) journey via Stansted Airport on GA delay repay search is impossible - but I still wouldn't be able to include my week-long break of journey at Stansted Airport. Eventually, I resubmitted exactly the same claim and got

Yes, it should be simpler. But
~ claiming delay repay, and
- breaking a journey for a week

are, realistically, somewhat fringe behaviours. You're probably going to have to wait a while for a fix to get to the top of the to-do list.

 

[yorkie]

... Had a Finsbury Park-Earley ticket. SWR from Waterloo to Earley was late, so submitted just that portion in my claim, ignored the tube I took from Finsbury Park...

You do need to claim based on the whole journey you took; you did travel from Finsbury Park, so you do need to put that into the system.

Claim rejected and more information needed. So, instead I searched for a journey from Finsbury Park to Earley, but the tube times didn't match to what I took (and, in fact suggested that a 4 minute change from tube to rail at Waterloo is sufficient). No option for explaining my route, or submitting individual segments.

I doubt the system would be offering an invalid connection; as you've not stated your intended itinerary and your actual times, then we aren't able to verify who is correct.

Or, a couple of months ago with GA - travelled London to Stansted Airport, then flew on holidays, then returned and continued my journey to Cambridge, all on London-Cambridge ticket. I have just put the delayed Stansted Airport-Cambridge as my journey, and this was rejected. Even if I wanted to, finding the (valid) journey via Stansted Airport on GA delay repay search is impossible - but I still wouldn't be able to include my week-long break of journey at Stansted Airport. Eventually, I resubmitted exactly the same claim and got the compensation - but this shouldn't be so complicated.

When you are breaking your journey, this may require a manual claim, rather than the automated form. It is going to be complicated. Unless the claim is a high value one, it may not be worth your time with a complex claim for a small sum, but without knowing the price of the ticket and the delay experienced, it's difficult to say.

 

[transportphoto]

For the Finsbury Park example, are you starting your journey from there by London Underground or by Train (e.g. to Kings Cross)?

 

[XmaX]

Yes, it should be simpler. But
~ claiming delay repay, and
- breaking a journey for a week

are, realistically, somewhat fringe behaviours. You're probably going to have to wait a while for a fix to get to the top of the to-do list.

Maybe (though I'd say that starting short, especially in London, is not fringe behaviour), but the solution is incredibly simple - allow for individual segments to be entered for the journey details, or include a free form text box, at least when re-submitting.

 

[yorkie]

Maybe (though I'd say that starting short, especially in London, is not fringe behaviour), but the solution is incredibly simple - allow for individual segments to be entered for the journey details, or include a free form text box, at least when re-submitting.

DR claims are very expensive to process if they require manual intervention; if the value of your claim is low, then the cost of processing it could potentially exceed the value of the claim several times over.

Regarding the Finsbury Park journey, what day of the week was it, what time did your train depart Finsbury Park? What was your planned itinerary and what were your actual timings?

Without more information, there isn't anything we can say or conclude about it.

 

[35B]

Where I've needed to submit a claim in a complex scenario, I have filled in the online form of the TOC I'm claiming from, but then set out in writing the journey that I'm making and uploaded that as the image, after which have I've attached my tickets. Where necessary, that's been combined as a single image or PDF to meet the requirements of the TOC.

It might be better to have a proper free text box, but in the absence of that, a little creativity to demonstrate how the claim is compliant has saved me time and effort.

 

[XmaX]

Where I've needed to submit a claim in a complex scenario, I have filled in the online form of the TOC I'm claiming from, but then set out in writing the journey that I'm making and uploaded that as the image, after which have I've attached my tickets. Where necessary, that's been combined as a single image or PDF to meet the requirements of the TOC.

It might be better to have a proper free text box, but in the absence of that, a little creativity to demonstrate how the claim is compliant has saved me time and effort.

That's smart - might use that from now on!