refund refused

[judit]

I brought tickets from bath to London for sat 2/5/2026 on the GWR mobile app for £75.00, the day before there was a radio announcement saying there would be delays from bath to Paddington.

I then googled it, and it also said there would be delays went on the GWR website also said delays and buses would be put on. However, I was attending a course in London and didn't want to risk missing the course. So I asked for a refund the day before on the app, and drove up. I sent a photo of ticket and proof of buying ticket as requested. It didn't allow for to upload a photo of the delays.

They have now said it has been refused and stated:

We have checked the train running records for the journey details you provided, and we are unable to confirm that there was a delay or cancellation to your intended journey. We will re-evaluate if you can submit a new claim, providing further journey information.

I find the app almost impossible to use. I have emailed them with all the details and attached screenshots of the delays. They have acknowledged the email, but it can take 4 weeks. The train wasn't cancelled but lots of disruptions.

Has anyone had else had this am I likely to get my money back. I would have rather of gone by train than drive up.

 

[AlterEgo]

What type of ticket did you have? Did you have a reservation for a specific train?

 

[Crithylum]

It seems as though this is planned engineering work. This should have been shown in your itinerary when your ticket was purchased. Therefore, I don’t think any delays or cancellations are relevant to your refund.

 

[flitwickbeds]

Looks like you submitted a Delay Repay claim rather than a refund request?

 

[Mainline421]

I brought tickets from bath to London for sat 2/5/2026 on the gwr mobile app.£75.00 the day before there was a radio announcement saying there would be delays from bath to paddington I then googled it and it also said there would be delays went on the gwr webite also said delays and buses would be put on. however I was attending a course in London and didn't want to risk missing the course. so I asked for a refund the day before on the app and drove up. I sent a photo of ticket and proof of buying ticket as requested. it didn't allow for to upload a photo of the delays. they have now said it has been refused and stated

We have checked the train running records for the journey details you provided, and we are unable to confirm that there was a delay or cancellation to your intended journey. We will re-evaluate if you can submit a new claim, providing further journey information.

I find the app almost impossible to to use. I have emailed them with all the details and attached screenshots of the delays. they have acknowledged the email but it can take 4 weeks. the train wasn't cancelled but lots of disruptions.

has anyone had else had this am I likely to get my money back. I would of rather of gone by train than drive up.

To confirm did you have a Super Off-Peak Return for £75.90? If so, yes a full refund is due from the point of purchase. Delay Repay would only apply if you actually travelled, and wouldn't pay out for preplanned engineering work.

On the other hand if it was an Advance single then no refund is due for preplanned disruption, except is the unlikely event this changed after you purchased the ticket (Advance tickets are often poor value even if cheaper). Also please don't use AI language models for stuff like this, I'd go as far to say they're more likely to give a wrong answer than the right one!

 

[Belperpete]

To confirm did you have a Super Off-Peak Return for £75.90? If so, yes a full refund is due from the point of purchase.

Less the admin fee? If the planned timetable for that day was still in force, then the OP surely wouldn't be able to claim the fee-free refund allowed in case of disruption.

Question for the OP: what trains did you select when you booked your ticket? Have you checked that the itinerary didn't already include replacement buses?

Rather than rely on some pretty generic information on the radio and the web, you would have been better off using a journey planner to check if your actual planned services were still running.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Less the admin fee? If the planned timetable for that day was still in force, then the OP surely wouldn't be able to claim the fee-free refund allowed in case of disruption.

Yes, if the refund was requested before the first day of validity it should be a full refund minus admin fee if it is a walk up fare. The rules state it must be REQUESTED before 2359 the day before, it doesn't matter that they take ages to process it.

Do we know it was a walk up ticket though? It seems odd they didn't just refund it less £5 if it was.

 

[AlterEgo]

Yes, if the refund was requested before the first day of validity it should be a full refund minus admin fee if it is a walk up fare. The rules state it must be REQUESTED before 2359 the day before, it doesn't matter that they take ages to process it.

Do we know it was a walk up ticket though? It seems odd they didn't just refund it less £5 if it was.

The other part of the puzzle is they seem to have claimed delay repay rather than refunding the ticket.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Question for the OP: what trains did you select when you booked your ticket? Have you checked that the itinerary didn't already include replacement buses?

Looking at RTT (0945 for example) there were direct trains between Bath Spa and Paddington, but they were running Bath Spa - Bristol Temple Meads - Bristol Parkway - Swindon so were taking almost two hours for the journey.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The other part of the puzzle is they seem to have claimed delay repay rather than refunding the ticket.

If they have done that under the new rules a refund is unlikely to be due because one was not claimed before the deadline. Though the misunderstanding might be seen as mitigating circumstances if fully and honestly explained to the retailer and assuming it was not scanned, however some might see a DR claim as evidence of travel and refuse on that basis, new rules or no.

 

[Vexed]

It seems as though this is planned engineering work. This should have been shown in your itinerary when your ticket was purchased. Therefore, I don’t think any delays or cancellations are relevant to your refund.

I agree with this. Unfortunately for the OP, there was still an hourly direct service between Bath and London, running via Bristol which extended journey times by about 30 minutes. The AI responses made is sound worse than this.

We have checked the train running records for the journey details you provided, and we are unable to confirm that there was a delay or cancellation to your intended journey. We will re-evaluate if you can submit a new claim, providing further journey information.

This response from GWR implies you submitted a delay repay claim, which is for compensation if you did travel and were delayed. As you didn't travel by train you should instead claim a refund from the retailer, which is GWR. As others have pointed out there were new refund rules taking force on 1st April. If you booked before this, the old rules apply so you can claim a refund for not traveling up to a month after.

Alternatively, you might have claimed a refund due to disruption? The response you copied out from GWR could be similar wording to a delay repay claim. As this was planned engineering work, you probably didn't notice the slightly longer journey time when booking - but you did book to the altered timetable so there wasn't any disruption.

The correct course of action would be to claim a refund due to no longer wanting to travel, which would be a full refund minus £5 fee.

OP, can you please provide more details of the reply from GWR so we can establish if it was a Delay Repay or refund request.

 

[MotCO]

But can you claim delay repay the day before travelling? If the application was posted the day before, it must have been for a refund, so have GWR misunderstood the claim?

 

[judit]

thankyou everyone for your input. to confirm I brought a super off peak return. I didn't rely on AI, it was the local radio announcement that alerted me, which I then checked on google and then I went on the gwr website and it said " all weeekend trains between London paddington and bristol temple meads will be completely revised. some trains will run between London paddington and bath spa diverted between bath spa and swindon to run via bristol temple meads. other trains will only run between London paddington/swindon chippenham saturday, and a few other trains will not run. replacement buses will run between chippenham and bath spa " I have taken a screen shot of the information as the information suggested a high risk of delays, and I had paid for a course which I didn't want to miss. The app would only allow me to upload 3 documents of information (which is a challenge, when you have return tickets - more than three documents) I applied for the refund before 23.59 the day before travel as detailed on the GWR website, this to me sounds like I should be able to have a full refund.

 

[AlterEgo]

When did you buy your ticket? Did you get a reservation? This is planned engineering work which would have been published when you bought your ticket, so you wouldn't be eligible for a full refund, though you should be able to have one less an administration fee, as would be the case for anyone deciding to not travel on a flexible ticket.

 

[judit]

I brought a super off peak return.

GWWR website stated all weekend trains between Paddington and Brristol Temple Meads will be completely revised some trains will be diverted between bath spa and swindon and a few other trains will not run.

This made me think that there was a high chance I would not make it to the course I had prepaid to attend in London. I applied for the refund before 23.59

 

[AlterEgo]

I brought a super off peak return.

GWWR website stated all weekend trains between Paddington and Brristol Temple Meads will be completely revised some trains will be diverted between bath spa and swindon and a few other trains will not run.

This made me think that there was a high chance I would not make it to the course I had prepaid to attend in London. I applied for the refund before 23.59

When did you buy your ticket? It will have come with an itinerary. The key thing is - did those trains run? You're not understanding the issue, which is that when you booked your ticket, the timetable already accounted for the engineering works.

Please tell us which trains you were booked on and which date you purchased the ticket on. It will be in your confirmation email.

 

[Mainline421]

When did you buy your ticket? It will have come with an itinerary. The key thing is - did those trains run? You're not understanding the issue, which is that when you booked your ticket, the timetable already accounted for the engineering works.

Please tell us which trains you were booked on and which date you purchased the ticket on. It will be in your confirmation email.

I see what you're saying but I think you're overestimating the relevance there. It wouldn’t necessarily come with an itinerary, and we don't know OP was booked on any specific trains at all with an Off-Peak ticket. From what we do know a full refund is due with a maximum £5 admin fee applied, which probably isn't a massive concern. It's highly unlikely this was purchased before the timetable was confirmed

 

[AlterEgo]

I see what you're saying but I think you're overestimating the relevance there. It wouldn’t necessarily come with an itinerary, and we don't know OP was booked on any specific trains at all with an Off-Peak ticket. From what we do know a full refund is due with a maximum £5 admin fee applied, which probably isn't a massive concern. It's highly unlikely this was purchased before the timetable was confirmed

It is of relevance if the OP is asking for a refund based on disruption. That's why GWR would be refusing it. Of course it makes sense that GWR should just refund anyway but apply the admin fee, but at the same time that wouldn't leave the customer happy.

It is also possible that there was some disruption that day against the planned timetable and the OP is due all of their money back rather than most of it. So we need to know. It's not possible to buy a ticket on the GWR app without getting an itinerary on at least the outbound leg, so finding this is also key (does it include a replacement bus?? This will be helpful in showing the OP that that's exactly what they agreed to).

The OP may be labouring under several misapprehensions and getting the facts clear in their mind will be important in moving this forward.

 

[Belperpete]

I didn't rely on AI, ...... I have taken a screen shot of the information as the information suggested a high risk of delays, and I had paid for a course which I didn't want to miss.

The two screenshots that you attached in your OP both appear to be AI generated. You appear to have got the impression that there would be disruption from this Google/AI generated information, which seems to regard "disruption" as being services not running as normal. The GWR website appears only to have said that services were being revised and diverted, not disrupted. The railway only regards services as being disrupted if they don't run as the planned timetable. The planned timetable for that day allowed for the revised and diverted trains. If the trains ran as per that revised timetable, then officially they were not disrupted.

You say that you applied for a refund because you thought there was likely to be a high risk of services being disrupted. However, you are only entitled to a FULL refund if the services you intended to travel on were actually disrupted on the day. This means that they failed to run as per the revised timetable. The itinerary that you chose when you booked your ticket will almost certainly have been based on that revised timetable. At the time that you applied for your refund, the day before, you could not possibly know if your trains were actually going to be disrupted.

However, just to be clear, as you held a flexible ticket and you applied the day before, you are entitled to a refund less a £5 admin fee. Whether or not there was disruption is irrelevant to this type of refund. I suspect that you mentioning disruption may have confused matters here.