I am so angry@ penalty fare

somersertboy

Well finally today and just short of six weeks later, I have received virtually a carbon copy of the original standardised letter from the IAS stating I must pay the £42.50 within 14 days...with two omissions!!!- 1st being the outstanding amount box is now 0.00 and was £42.50 on the previous letter and with a change to the sentence "I am unable to uphold your appeal" -to today's letter "I am able to uphold this appeal"

So it seems after running it by their legal team a no no was decided.

What a surprise uh? :beer:
I received a letter from Great South Western-in reply to my letter stating "regrettably we couldn't possibly refund my fare as it would set an unfavourable precedence for future cases" and went on to say "In view of this I would advise you to pay the outstanding amount at my earliest opportunity" and they hoped "despite this experience I would feel able to use their services again in the future" ... yeah like that's going to happen.Will write back to them and say only in your wildest dreams, GSW shove it!!!

Now, any suggestions how I can go about recouping some of my losses-not to mention the bullying, stress and worry of a possible conviction.What can I do to them now is how I am feeling!

Thanks to all the replies on this thread, sorry I haven't been able to reply to each one individually-This thread seems to me to be a bit of a first 'recorded' instance of this particular situation,there seems like no level low enough for them to stoop. Its just great that it is here now forever so if anyone else gets in this predicament this will be a great reference.I certainly will be storing a hard copy of the thread for my own future reference.

Something I have learned though, these train companies and the so called 'independent' appeals service are not to be trusted-it is a thick web of deceit and outdated rules and laws that are aiming to cash in & punish innocent, honest fare paying people into paying more.

Much like so many other organisations in this land then.

I've a tax credit overpayment of £182 to shrug off now!
Long live people power, my advice,don't automatically pay their demands.:money:

Livingthedream

Happy with that result

With your other problem First Great Western, you could try the 'chargeback' option as I described before here

somersertboy

hmmm,it puts me in a favourable position with GSw as effectively the IAS are backing me! good point livingthedream.

mwhaaaaaa :rotfl:

_ollie_

I may have missed it, but I can't see at any point you have paid money to First Great Western? So how would you propose doing a chargeback on them :S
Do point me to the post if I have missed it.

Livingthedream

_ollie_ wrote: »

I may have missed it, but I can't see at any point you have paid money to First Great Western? So how would you propose doing a chargeback on them :S
Do point me to the post if I have missed it.

Which guide to Chargebacks

'When can chargeback be used? Like section 75, chargeback can be used in cases of goods not arriving, arriving damaged, arriving not as described, or where the merchant has ceased trading.'

Due to no fault of the OP with a letter from First Great Western 'stating they were short of resources that day and had to close the ticket office' the OP couldn't collect his 'ticket on departure' rail tickets, when he arrived at the station to travel. Which the OP had previously purchased online.

So the goods didn't arrive due to a problem with the train company and this was outside the control of the OP.

_ollie_

But to my knowledge and based on your link chargebacks can only be done with the original merchant..which is Cross Country.

And he paid for a train journey, he got the train journey. It's unfortunate he had a poor experience, but he still got what he paid for.

Livingthedream

Aye, you could be right there ollie, I could have got mixed up with Crosscountry and First Great Western but to the point which either Train company the OP purchased his tickets from.

As to the morals of the chargeback in this case, I'll leave this to the OP to decide on what to do.

_ollie_

As a suggestion he could forward the letter he got from IAS to both Cross Country and FGW and put his case forward for some compensation due to hassle that it has all caused..he may get some vouchers.

Or as you say Livingthedream..a chargeback to CrossCountry, but may fail due to the fact he did get the journey he paid for.

somersertboy

It's a tricky one Ollie as they all have had sloping shoulders in this turn of events.You are correct to say that I did buy my tickets through crosscountry-but they will not accept any liability as FGW own the station and should have been able to issue the tickets, FGW say-its all in the hands of the IAS and cannot intervene.etc etc.ow yeah they can shove their poxy vouchers where the sun dont' shine.told them that already.Vouchers.They would probably try and 'do'me for something else as soon as I got on the train.no thanks.

_ollie_

Well I guess your main gripe was the unpaid fare notice you got, which has been cancelled, so atleast you have had the right outcome in that respect.