Refund for unused tickets

[RichardB]

Hi

In the tickets and fares guide it says the following...

9.7.2 Refunds due to Disruption
If your journey is disrupted and you choose not to travel, you can obtain a refund with no administration fee if you surrender your ticket to any Train Company's ticket office at that time

Does anyone know the source of this statement? Due to the snow I was unable to travel yesterday. My tickets (day travelcards) were purchased from c2c; according to the statement above I should be able to get a refund from any UK station, but I have been told by GWR that they can only refund tickets sold by them.

The NRCoC seems to suggest that GWR is correct, and they need to go back to c2c for a refund, but that would imply the ticketing guide is incorrect (which seems unlikely!).

Any help much appreciated!

 

[CyrusWuff]

GWR are correct. The rules for refunds in times of disruption changed when the National Rail Conditions of Carriage became the National Rail Conditions of Travel in October 2016.

In practice, however, most TOCs were referring refunds back to the original retailer even before the change happened.

 

[RichardB]

Thanks, useful to know.

 

[Gareth Marston]

Refunds have to be from point of sale. GWR would be out of pocket if they did it.

 

[Merseysider]

Refunds have to be from point of sale. GWR would be out of pocket if they did it.

That’s not the customer’s problem.

 

[yorkie]

The old Conditions of Carriage did say this, however train companies refused to actually do it. The Conditions of Travel now says:

If the train you intended to use is cancelled, delayed, or your reservation will
not be honoured, and you decide not to travel, you may return the unused
Ticket to the original retailer or Train Company from whom it was purchased,
where you will be given a full refund with no administration fee being
charged.

This Condition applies to all Tickets, including Tickets (such as advance
Tickets) that are otherwise non-refundable, and also applies if you have
begun your journey but are unable to complete it due to delay or
cancellations and return to your point of origin

 

[Wirewiper]

Return the tickets to whichever company you bought them from seems clear and unambiguous to me.

It's standard practice in the airline industry; if I buy codeshare tickets from British Airways for an American Airlines flight and the flight gets cancelled, I go through BA for the refund. If I bought from a third-party agent (which incidentally I avoid doing nowadays, for both airline and train tickets, why add an extra layer of complications?) then that third party agent is refunded first and they pass the refund on to me.

 

[Gareth Marston]

That’s not the customer’s problem.

As Yorkie says whether you believe it's right or wrong it is. Unless you have a single national unified rail system again and even then station agents existed under BR.

As a station agent if I gave someone who bought tickets from Trainline (most common scenario we see buy online and then want face to face interaction when there's a problem) a £60 refund it would wipe out the commission from several hundred pounds worth of sales. Financial stupidity if I did it. And that's how it is.