How to get Delay Repay from Northern

[Puffing Devil]

Northern have this useful page on their site.

Unfortunately they have somehow omitted to tell me how to get my 50% refund of the fare paid.

Any idea of the process?

(Fuming as my train from Crewe was turned around at Sandbach and they failed to tell any of the waiting passengers to board an earlier train to connect with the train at Sandbach. Instead we have to wait for an hour for the next service which was running 10 minutes late. I went for a Pint that I'd like Northern to pay for)

 

[Merseysider]

It may or may not be of use to you but 75% of the time, complaining to Northern's customer service directly, instead of submitting a delay repay claim, will get you at least a day's free travel on their services, in the form of a complimentary travel voucher.

But the usefulness of this will depend upon how often you travel with Northern; furthermore they only pay out after 60 mins of delay.

 

[bb21]

It will not be a refund. It will be in the form of Rail Travel Vouchers or a free day's travel on Northern.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Thanks for the pointers.

What's the best way to get in touch - email, phone, twitter?

The delay was about 70 minutes, with the 60 minute wait for the next service, which itself was 10 minutes behind time.

 

[bb21]

I normally just write to customer service. It's a Freepost address.

 

[Merseysider]

Emailing them takes several weeks to receive a reply so I would concur with bb21's advice. However, I've found that marking the outgoing message as 'high priority' on Outlook leads to a swifter reply.

Out of interest, what was the journey you were making?

Edit: Contacting them via Twitter just gets a standard "our customer service department can be reached by...".

 

[Puffing Devil]

Out of interest, what was the journey you were making?

Liverpool to Goostrey, Changing at Crewe.

Hourly stopping service from Crewe to Manchester. The inbound train turned around at Sandbach, leaving passengers waiting at Crewe for the next service, which ran 10 minutes late in itself.

Annoyingly, I could have got on an earlier Airport service and changed at Sandbach had we been told that our train was stopping short.

 

[northwichcat]

The address is here: http://www.northernrail.org/northern/contact_us

I'd recommend making a scan of your tickets before posting them in case Northern say they haven't received them.

Assuming you had a single ticket you should get a £5 or £6 National Rail travel voucher. If you don't want to substitute that for a Northern Rail day ticket then specify on your claim you want them to send you a National Rail travel voucher.

Technically, the Northern scheme is not called Delay Repay.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Thanks all - letter in the post today. Scan of the tickets in my computer. Reminder in my diary to chase this if nothing in a month! Will let you know what the outcome is.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Update: I have an acknowledgement letter from NR. Let's see what they offer in the 28 days allowed.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Update: Pleasant letter and 2 days of travel on Northern to be used by June 2015.

Annoyed at being stranded. Happy with the outcome.

 

[Merseysider]

Update: Pleasant letter and 2 days of travel on Northern to be used by June 2015.

Annoyed at being stranded. Happy with the outcome.

Ah, the best possible outcome in any future complaint letters you're gonna have to really emphasise how annoyed you are if you want any more of those vouchers!

 

[bb21]

Delayed? Yes.

Stranded? Not a chance in hell.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Delayed? Yes.

Stranded? Not a chance in hell.

Stranded

involves being left somewhere unpleasant, remote, or inconvenient

I think Platform 1 at Crewe is within that definition

 

[bb21]

Crewe is well staffed so it was not as if you were left in the middle of nowhere to fend for yourself. If it was somewhere like Sandbach then you might have a better claim to that word. OK, I appreciate that we have different opinions in that respect but being left at Crewe for an hour does not qualify as being stranded in my opinion.

Anyway two free Northern days are much more valuable than RTVs if you can make good use of them.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Crewe is well staffed so it was not as if you were left in the middle of nowhere to fend for yourself. If it was somewhere like Sandbach then you might have a better claim to that word. OK, I appreciate that we have different opinions in that respect but being left at Crewe for an hour does not qualify as being stranded in my opinion.

Anyway two free Northern days are much more valuable than RTVs if you can make good use of them.

It. Was. A. Joke.

 

[bb21]

I apologise. My sense of humour must have gone on summer holiday early recently.