Passenger Voice gets ATW ticket refund

[merlodlliw]

Appeared in passenger voice January newsletter,out this week.

Case study – Arriva Trains Wales ticket refund


Having arrived at Cwmbran station, Ms J spent £18.60 on one adult single and three child returns to Cardiff Central.

Their train was cancelled after they had waited for about 50 minutes. They caught the next train which was then terminated at the next stop, Newport. They were told this was due to flooding on the line and were asked to leave the train.

Newport station was very chaotic and by this stage they were too late for the event they were going to. So they decided to turn back and Ms J went to the ticket office to get a refund.

The customer service assistant told her that they couldn’t give her a refund as a credit card had been used to buy the tickets, so she would need to go to the station where she had bought them.

On a later date she went back to Cwmbran station where she was advised by ticket office staff that she should complete and send in a customer complaint form with all of the tickets that she had bought. Unfortunately she didn’t have all the tickets to send in, so she only received £7.20 worth of rail vouchers.

Ms J came to us and we contacted Arriva Train Wales. As a gesture of goodwill they agreed to give her £11.40 of rail vouchers to make up for the tickets she was originally unable to send in.

[/QUOTE]

 

[185]

Unfortunately she didn’t have all the tickets to send in

The joys of barriers which eat tickets

Wish they would instead fire a hole through the middle of them, or burn a line across the middle, as happens abroad.

 

[SS4]

As a gesture of goodwill they agreed to give her £11.40 of rail vouchers to make up for the tickets she was originally unable to send in.

Pity really that is was only done as a gesture of goodwill instead of being taken further and a precedent being set. ATW have emerged from this with no real loss of face and can try again in the future.

 

[CyrusWuff]

A Ticket Office shirking its responsibility under Condition 26(a) of the Conditions of Carriage? How unusual!

Bonus points for it being a station managed by the same TOC though...

 

[Michael.Y]

The joys of barriers which eat tickets

Wish they would instead fire a hole through the middle of them, or burn a line across the middle, as happens abroad.

Cwmbran doesn't have barriers. Nor do you need a ticket to pass between platforms at Newport to get a return train. There is no reason why she shouldn't have all the tickets she started out with.

 

[transmanche]

There is no reason why she shouldn't have all the tickets she started out with.

There's also no reason why Newport station could not have arranged a refund for her.

 

[Michael.Y]

There's also no reason why Newport station could not have arranged a refund for her.

Perhaps because she hadn't completed her journey at that point? Why would they re-fund the cost of tickets bought when she still had yet to use the RTN part?

 

[transmanche]

Perhaps because she hadn't completed her journey at that point? Why would they re-fund the cost of tickets bought when she still had yet to use the RTN part?

Nope. From the original post (my bold):

The customer service assistant told her that they couldn’t give her a refund as a credit card had been used to buy the tickets