Will they accept my appeal ???

[DIZZ]

I had accidentally bought a ticket on the trainline app with a 16-17 railcard selected instead of a 16-25 from Bournemouth to Southampton Central and was charged a penalty fare of around £60 ( which I believe is severely unfair as the distance is not major). I had 21 days to pay this or it would increase to £113.50.

Within the period of 21 days, I tried to pay several times online and by calling the prosecution team however it kept saying that my case was closed so, I decided to email them about this on the 21st day they did not respond till 4 days later and when they did respond they sent me an email saying there was a glitch in their system and I assumed that I should be able to pay the fare now which I was, however, the additional increased charge was applied so now I have to pay the full £113.50. I don't think this is fair because I wasn't able to pay the initial amount even when I tried to.

I have now appealed this as I'm happy with paying the initial fare as I know from reading other threads that it is "my responsibility" to make sure I have the right railcard selected

will they accept my appeal?

 

[WesternLancer]

I had accidentally bought a ticket on the trainline app with a 16-17 railcard selected instead of a 16-25 from Bournemouth to Southampton Central and was charged a penalty fare of around £60 ( which I believe is severely unfair as the distance is not major). I had 21 days to pay this or it would increase to £113.50.

Within the period of 21 days, I tried to pay several times online and by calling the prosecution team however it kept saying that my case was closed so, I decided to email them about this on the 21st day they did not respond till 4 days later and when they did respond they sent me an email saying there was a glitch in their system and I assumed that I should be able to pay the fare now which I was, however, the additional increased charge was applied so now I have to pay the full £113.50. I don't think this is fair because I wasn't able to pay the initial amount even when I tried to.

I have now appealed this as I'm happy with paying the initial fare as I know from reading other threads that it is "my responsibility" to make sure I have the right railcard selected

will they accept my appeal?

Hi - was it a Penalty Fare you were asked to pay (issued on the spot)?

If so you might be considered quite lucky - there are many cases on here of people selecting 16-17 Railcards (which give a bigger discount) instead of 16-25 Railcards and getting reported for fare evasion - which almost always results in a higher financial penalty than a Penalty Fare

Some further questions which might help us to understand the situation clearly:

- Who were you trying to pay? (which organisation)

- Who have you sent your appeal to?

- What are you appealing? The Penalty Fare or the inability to pay the sum of c£60 rather than £113.50

- Did you keep any evidence of your efforts to pay that failed (eg screen grabs?) - if so that might be helpful if you get turned down.

If their software was preventing payments such that you lost the ability to pay at the discounted rate for prompt payment then I would expect you have a good case to argue that you should still be able to pay the reduced sum.

 

[AlterEgo]

I had accidentally bought a ticket on the trainline app with a 16-17 railcard selected instead of a 16-25 from Bournemouth to Southampton Central and was charged a penalty fare of around £60 ( which I believe is severely unfair as the distance is not major). I had 21 days to pay this or it would increase to £113.50.

Within the period of 21 days, I tried to pay several times online and by calling the prosecution team however it kept saying that my case was closed so, I decided to email them about this on the 21st day they did not respond till 4 days later and when they did respond they sent me an email saying there was a glitch in their system and I assumed that I should be able to pay the fare now which I was, however, the additional increased charge was applied so now I have to pay the full £113.50. I don't think this is fair because I wasn't able to pay the initial amount even when I tried to.

I have now appealed this as I'm happy with paying the initial fare as I know from reading other threads that it is "my responsibility" to make sure I have the right railcard selected

will they accept my appeal?

Have you tried speaking to the prosecution team again? None of us here can say what they are minded to do, and it seems you are simply waiting to hear back from an email - so I would call them again.

 

[Snow1964]

Is the problem, that when they fixed the glitch, they have made penalty the full amount, and the payments system wont accept the lower amount.

If the payments system was faulty during the discounted period and you contacted them to say so, (but they chose not to answer until after expiry of discounted period), then I agree appeal.

There are 3 appeals, first 2 sometime seem to get cut and paste negative replies, third has someone else look at it.

I am not sure what others think, but maybe mail them a cheque for lower amount in full settlement

 

[AlterEgo]

Is the problem, that when they fixed the glitch, they have made penalty the full amount, and the payments system wont accept the lower amount.

If the payments system was faulty during the discounted period and you contacted them to say so, (but they chose not to answer until after expiry of discounted period), then I agree appeal.

There are 3 appeals, first 2 sometime seem to get cut and paste negative replies, third has someone else look at it.

I am not sure what others think, but maybe mail them a cheque for lower amount in full settlement

The OP is out of time to make a formal appeal against their penalty fare. They do not intend to appeal the penalty fare but rather want to put across the (pretty fair!) argument that charging the higher rate is unjust owing to the system failure on the website. There is no formal appeal process for this, and the best thing for them to do is to call, if they want their answer quickly, or to wait for a response to their email.

 

[Haywain]

Perhaps the best thing to do is to pay the full amount and complain to the train operator's customer services asking for a refund of the £50 difference.

 

[DIZZ]

Hi - was it a Penalty Fare you were asked to pay (issued on the spot)?

If so you might be considered quite lucky - there are many cases on here of people selecting 16-17 Railcards (which give a bigger discount) instead of 16-25 Railcards and getting reported for fare evasion - which almost always results in a higher financial penalty than a Penalty Fare

Some further questions which might help us to understand the situation clearly:

- Who were you trying to pay? (which organisation)

- Who have you sent your appeal to?

- What are you appealing? The Penalty Fare or the inability to pay the sum of c£60 rather than £113.50

- Did you keep any evidence of your efforts to pay that failed (eg screen grabs?) - if so that might be helpful if you get turned down.

If their software was preventing payments such that you lost the ability to pay at the discounted rate for prompt payment then I would expect you have a good case to argue that you should still be able to pay the reduced sum.

I wasn't asked to pay on the spot (mb idk the terminology lol)

- Trying to pay southwestern

- I sent the appeal to penalty services (not sure if this was correct)

- I was trying to appeal the inability to pay 60£

- I did not (pretty poor of me kinda regret that now) however I do have an email from the prosecutions team stating it was "a technical glitch on the system"

hopefully, I do. I know I was technically responsible for selecting the wrong railcard even if it was a complete accident after reading similar threads therefore I'm ok with paying the initial price yfm but the price on top is simply unfair.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Feb 2024 ==

Have you tried speaking to the prosecution team again? None of us here can say what they are minded to do, and it seems you are simply waiting to hear back from an email - so I would call them again.

I haven't. I have just been waiting to see what happens with the appeal. Idk who to email and I'm pretty sure they charge to call them. What’s best way to contact them for this type of situation?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Feb 2024 ==

Is the problem, that when they fixed the glitch, they have made penalty the full amount, and the payments system wont accept the lower amount.

If the payments system was faulty during the discounted period and you contacted them to say so, (but they chose not to answer until after expiry of discounted period), then I agree appeal.

There are 3 appeals, first 2 sometime seem to get cut and paste negative replies, third has someone else look at it.

I am not sure what others think, but maybe mail them a cheque for lower amount in full settlement

When they fixed the glitch it was past the 21-day period where the price was lower so once it was fixed the price increased automatically because it had been more than 21 days yfm.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Feb 2024 ==

The OP is out of time to make a formal appeal against their penalty fare. They do not intend to appeal the penalty fare but rather want to put across the (pretty fair!) argument that charging the higher rate is unjust owing to the system failure on the website. There is no formal appeal process for this, and the best thing for them to do is to call, if they want their answer quickly, or to wait for a response to their email.

I'm glad others agree, could you lmk what number i can call to reach them directly?

 

[WesternLancer]

I wasn't asked to pay on the spot (mb idk the terminology lol)

- Trying to pay southwestern

- I sent the appeal to penalty services (not sure if this was correct)

- I was trying to appeal the inability to pay 60£

- I did not (pretty poor of me kinda regret that now) however I do have an email from the prosecutions team stating it was "a technical glitch on the system"

hopefully, I do. I know I was technically responsible for selecting the wrong railcard even if it was a complete accident after reading similar threads therefore I'm ok with paying the initial price yfm but the price on top is simply unfair.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Feb 2024 ==


I haven't. I have just been waiting to see what happens with the appeal. Idk who to email and I'm pretty sure they charge to call them. What’s best way to contact them for this type of situation?

Thanks - I would have thought that the you need to be asking the people you were trying to make the payment to (South Western Railway) to allow you to pay at the reduced rate due to the failure of their payment system. If this is not the penalty services organisation then they might not be able to help (they deal with Appeals that concern the legitimacy of the Penalty Fare I think, which is different). You are not 'Appealing the Penalty Fare' here - you are asking to pay the correct sum - ie the £60.

It may help if you can upload anonymous copies of any of the paperwork / e-mails associated with this so people who are experts in how the Penalty Fares system works can check the situation for you.

 

[DIZZ]

Perhaps the best thing to do is to pay the full amount and complain to the train operator's customer services asking for a refund of the £50 difference.

Idk how feasible this is, do they often give refunds?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Feb 2024 ==

Thanks - I would have thought that the you need to be asking the people you were trying to make the payment to (South Western Railway) to allow you to pay at the reduced rate due to the failure of their payment system. If this is not the penalty services organisation then they might not be able to help (they deal with Appeals that concern the legitimacy of the Penalty Fare I think, which is different). You are not 'Appealing the Penalty Fare' here - you are asking to pay the correct sum - ie the £60.

It may help if you can upload anonymous copies of any of the paperwork / e-mails associated with this so people who are experts in how the Penalty Fares system works can check the situation for you.

hmm it's a tricky one

I will, however all I have is the email they sent me.

here is the email, in the email they say that it was a technical glitch in their system

 

[30907]

Here is the email

Thanks.

if you attempt to pay via the link, do they still ask for the higher amount?

 

[DIZZ]

Thanks.

if you attempt to pay via the link, do they still ask for the higher amount?

yes