Ticket Refund - £10 Administration Fee!!!

Ticket Refund - £10 Administration Fee!!!

Author
Discussion

sa_20v

Original Poster:

4,108 posts

238 months

Wednesday 27th May 2009
quotequote all
Having bought a £40 ticket to travel into London last week, I had literally walked onto the station when I received two calls informing me both my meetings had been cancelled. Anyway, I walked back into the ticket office, and after some diplomacy I finally convinced the clerk that I hadn't already used the ticket (which I had purchased from her just 2 minutes earlier) and filled out the necessary refund forms.

When a refund for £30 came through I assumed they had made an error, but no - apparently I had to pay an administration fee of £10!

I'm f***ing outraged, I spend a small fortune to travel in considerable discomfort each year on their service, and now I discover I have to pay for refunds too - how can this be right or fair?

prand

6,021 posts

203 months

Wednesday 27th May 2009
quotequote all
I feel your pain, but that's nothing.

Wait till you book in advance online (as recomended not only by the train companies, but also trainliine.com, and my company for business travel), you select the cheapest ticket which suits the time you travel, and a reasonable price to save yourself or your company money.

- You get ZERO refund for this if you cannot use the ticket (see their terms and conditions) - think for example when travel was made "difficult" by the snow in Feb, or your meeting was moved to another location the day you booked it.

- You have to pay FULL FARE (eg £120 on a London to Leeds single) if you try to travel on another booked train without the correct ticket and booking in advance.

So f*ck you customer!

The best thing is that if you are organised, you can get really good value travel on trains nowadays, especially over long distance. If you are not organised, or have to travel at short notice, then you are generally screwed.

oyster

12,859 posts

255 months

Wednesday 27th May 2009
quotequote all
Is this really a 'Holidays & Travel' topic? I guess it'll now get 3 responses instead of 20 as it would in The Lounge, or 40 as in the old P&P.

Anyway. I guess it's in the T&Cs of the ticket purchase, and it could be argued that they don't actually have to refund you at all. After all, many boat, plane, hotel, car rental fees et al are non-refundable.

£10 is a bit steep though for about 30 seconds effort at the counter.

oyster

12,859 posts

255 months

Wednesday 27th May 2009
quotequote all
prand said:
I feel your pain, but that's nothing.

Wait till you book in advance online (as recomended not only by the train companies, but also trainliine.com, and my company for business travel), you select the cheapest ticket which suits the time you travel, and a reasonable price to save yourself or your company money.

- You get ZERO refund for this if you cannot use the ticket (see their terms and conditions) - think for example when travel was made "difficult" by the snow in Feb, or your meeting was moved to another location the day you booked it.

- You have to pay FULL FARE (eg £120 on a London to Leeds single) if you try to travel on another booked train without the correct ticket and booking in advance.

So f*ck you customer!

The best thing is that if you are organised, you can get really good value travel on trains nowadays, especially over long distance. If you are not organised, or have to travel at short notice, then you are generally screwed.
Unlike the OP's post, I have no sympathy with yours.

If you want flexibility then surely you have to pay for it. If you pay a cheap fare then you get little with it.