Stung by SouthWest Trains

edchalk

Hi,

I am posting to seek advice from others who might have suffered a similar experience to myself on SouthWest Trains.

I had prebooked a very cheap Megatrain advance single fare from London Waterloo to Weymouth on Christmas Eve departing at 10:05am. Unfortunately I missed this departure as my tube was delayed underground (with me on it) for 15mins.

When I approached the guard of the next train (10:35) he politely explained that I would need to book another ticket given that the discounted fare was only valid for the specified departure - fair enough. He then sold me a saver return (after subtracting the price of the now useless megatrain ticket) costing me £40.20. I told him that I did not need the return segment as I was travelling back to London by car but he seemed to think it would be cheaper for me this way.

Anyway, the guard then went on to suggest that I could try drafting a refund request to SouthWest Trains on the basis that it was not my fault that I had missed my pre-booked departure.

My question is this - surely if my delay was the fault of the underground network then it should not be directed to SouthWest trains ? And if it were to be directed to the underground network, does anybody have any experience of how seriously this would be taken?

I appreciate that this might sound like a lot of bother for the sake of £40, but it was £40 that I could not afford to spend and I am curious to discove other peoples thoughts on this.

Many thanks in advance

Ed

hothothot_3

this happened to us, we stook to our guns and got the money refunded. we did have to make a small claims court claim, but they paid up instead of going forward with it.

Livingthedream

The problem you will get is SW trains will say that the ticket contract was from London Waterloo to Weymouth and its not their fault the underground delayed you, causing you to miss their train and likewise the underground may refund you just the price of the underground ticket.

I would draft a refund letter to SW Trains and the Underground and see what happens you have nothing to lose in doing this.

newfoundglory

hothothot wrote: »

this happened to us, we stook to our guns and got the money refunded. we did have to make a small claims court claim, but they paid up instead of going forward with it.

The reason they paid up was probably not because they believed you would win, rather, it would have been more expensive for them to proceed with the case.

Whilst you would have represented yourself in court, they would have hired or used a solicitor or barrister from their legal department. Given the hourly rate and likely travel expenses involved it would have been cheaper for them to just pay up.

I am not disputing that this might be a good method to use, but if it had got to the court you may have lost.

You would usually have travel insurance to cover something like this.

edchalk

Thanks for all of your comments -

newfoundglory: I have a gotravelinsurance annual multi-trip travel policy but I was under the impression that this only covered international travel, is this incorrect ?

hothothot: Do you think it is likely that I will get re-imbursed by threatening to take them to the small claims court, or will I actually need to file the paperwork and all that shenanigans?

Thanks again

robt_2

edchalk wrote: »

Thanks for all of your comments -

newfoundglory: I have a gotravelinsurance annual multi-trip travel policy but I was under the impression that this only covered international travel, is this incorrect ?

hothothot: Do you think it is likely that I will get re-imbursed by threatening to take them to the small claims court, or will I actually need to file the paperwork and all that shenanigans?

Thanks again

You will not get reimbursed by writing a threatening letter - they have no liability whosoever and would win in the small claims court if they were to turn up.

You have already said that it is 'fair enough' so it looks like you are the one trying to do the 'stinging' and not South West trains as suggested in the thread title.

Chocolate80

I would suggest that South West trains would say that you should have left more time to get to Waterloo. I'm not trying to be unhelpful but I can just picture that being their response.

But do whatever you feel is right though.

dzug1

TFL will refund the cost of your tube ticket if you were delayed more than 15 minutes - but you normally need the ticket to claim. They won't accept consequential loss.

I doubt if even if your insurance covered this trip (unlikely - those that do do not cover day trips) that it would pay out - you didn't allow enough time if a 'mere' 15 minute delay caused a missed connection.

An off peak single and day return are just about the same price - 10p difference. And he was doing you a favour by deducting the megatrain ticket - he didn't have to.

nomoneytoday

The travel insurance may cover it, but you will probably find the excess would eat up the claim anyway