HELP !!, I have been Shafted by Royal Mail & Transpennine Trains

dazza001

Just Over a month ago I tried to organise a group trip to Edinburgh from Bolton by Train for 14 people.

I was told that I could use the Group booking service to get a cheaper rate but I would have to make two seperate bookings, One with Transpennine Express from Bolton to Lancaster and the other with Virgin Trains from Lancaster to Edinburgh.

So I rang up both companies and was told that Transpennine could take payment immediatley by credit card, and Virgin said I would have to ring back on Monday to reserve my tickets.

So thats what I did and I paid £145 on my credit card to Transpennine Express, and I rang virgin back on the Monday only to be told that Virgin had Engineering works planned so their train could not be guaranteed.

So we decided to travel by MiniBus and forget the train.

I rang Transpennine Express and they said that I could have a refund, all I had to do was send the tickets back to them and they would refund my card.

Anyway a month has passed, and still no refund, so I rang Transpennine and they told me that they have not received the tickets and therefore they will not issue a refund.

It appears that the Post Office has lost my letter (not for the first time), and because I did not send it recorded delivery (stupid me) I have no proof that I sent them back.

So it seems I am stuck, Transpennine refuse to refund my card, even though the tickets were not used, and Royal mail refuse to accept any liability for the letter.

Needless to say I can not believe this situation, I am furious, Surely Transpenine can tell whether the tickets were used or not, and Royal mail just can not be trusted at all any more as this is now the 3rd letter that they have lost of mine.

It amazes me that we as customers just have to pay first on the card and trust that they will send us tickets and that they can take money straight away, but when it comes to refunds it is all in their favour, and even if they do give refunds it takes 28 days.

Does anybody have any advise or do I just have to write off this money and put it down to experience.

Regards

hollydays

The inependant postal Watchdog is https://www.postwatch.co.uk.

Voyager2002

I would contact your credit card provider and ask whether they can do a chargeback.

dazza001

Cheers folks, but I tried contacting Mastercard and they say that because there is no proof that I sent the tickets back they can not reclaim the money.

paul_h

It sounds like you've had it.:(

For future reference, it's worth bearing in mind that if you ask for a free 'Certificate of Posting' when posting a letter, this gives you the same insurance cover as Recorded Delivery - i.e. only up to £32 and this excludes certain items including cash, stamps, gift tokens, vouchers and tickets. You need to use Special Delivery for these which gives £500 cover, and higher cover with an additional fee.

Astaroth

The train companies dont register who uses tickets because of the way the whole system is setup where you can phone virgin to buy tickets for a route that only GNER runs and everyone has to charge the same prices etc.

As you said yourself, you effectively made the mistake of sending £145 of cash in the post and it went awol. Annoying from a royal mail perspective but for all you know it went missing in the offices of the train company after being delivered, but no one truely to blame but yourself.

soolin

It's harsh I know but if you have had problems with the Royal Mail before then I would have thought you were more likely to be careful to use Special delivery if sending high value tickets through the post.

Unfortunately I can't see that there is anything at all you can do here.

Soo

hollydays

My sons had so many parcels stolen,he now has to send them to his workplace

happyhunter

dazza001 wrote:

Needless to say I can not believe this situation, I am furious, Surely Transpenine can tell whether the tickets were used or not, and Royal mail just can not be trusted at all any more as this is now the 3rd letter that they have lost of mine.

You can only tell if the tickets been used or not by actually inspecting the paper ticket - i.e. date stamp or punched a hole. Unless they have a 'boarding' procedure similar to airlines there's no way they can tell without seeing the tickets.

dazza001

Well Cheers for your replies folks, Boy have I learnt a harsh lesson here.

No way will I ever use normal postage again, everything will be recorded delivery from now on and I cant wait for it to become open to other service providers because Royal Mail is Totally S**t.

As for Transpennine, well I will never use their service again as I can prove by means of receipts, ticket stubs and credit card statements that I did not use their service on that day but their attitude is just to refuse point blank and their customer service was actually quite rude and patronising.

We are all supposed to use public transport and ditch the car, no way not when this is the alternative.

Regards

A very angry Dazza

Voyager2002

dazza001 wrote:

As for Transpennine, well I will never use their service again as I can prove by means of receipts, ticket stubs and credit card statements that I did not use their service on that day but their attitude is just to refuse point blank and their customer service was actually quite rude and patronising.

A very angry Dazza

In your position I would get on to the rail regulator.

I suppose that the train company could argue that whoever stole the tickets in the mail might have used them, or sold them to other people who used them, but under the circumstances I would certainly hope that they could be more helpful than this.

One problem might be that the CS people who answer the 'phone don't have any discretion to help you, and the more senior managers are insulated from contact with the public. At least if you could get the regulator to write to them, someone with at least half a brain would read the letter.