East Coast trains

NeverAgain_2

...That has no relevance to the thread this is not a late payment charge...

It is a big company refunding a charge to the customer when it doesn't have to, which is what the OP is hoping will happen with his booking fee.

yorkie2

Cobby wrote: »

I booked 8 day return tickets from Leeds to London on Sunday May 8th all on one booking delivered in one envolope on one credit card transaction at a cost of £266. This was for a football match but the football league have brought all the fixtures forward a day!!!.
So I had a look at changing the tickets.But East Coast will only allow me to change the outbound and inbound seperately. They also charge an admin fee of £10 per ticket per journey giving a total adin charge of £160.The outbound journey would cost another extra £52 and thats when I stopped looking.
It was cheaper to rebook.

I don't think you bought day returns (that would work out at £16.65 each), I think you bought Advance singles, at an average price of £8.30 each.

These are effectively non-refundable/changeable due to the change fee being £10 which is MORE than the ticket price. This is the case with any rail ticket costing less than £10.

If the trains are cancelled on the day then you can apply for a refund (you can always hope..!)

As you say it may be cheaper to buy new tickets.

The rules are very harsh against Advance ticket holders, because unlike Return ticket holders you have to pay the admin fee TWICE! If you had a bona fide return costing £16 each you would only be stung for £10 each.

The rules really are unfair but they are the same for all rail companies. I suggest writing to your MP if you want the rules changed. You could try calling East Coast, a lot of people will have this problem and if too many people go to the Press it could generate them bad publicity, at times when many people are affected by something out of their control the TOCs do sometimes show leniency.

Cobby

The Football League aside and also the t&c.The point is that this was one booking(Only 1 booking ref &postage charged).Is £160 a reasonable charge for admin for something that is done over the internet. I doubt any humans will be involved so why the cost.

wealdroam

Cobby wrote: »

The Football League aside and also the t&c.The point is that this was one booking(Only 1 booking ref &postage charged).Is £160 a reasonable charge for admin for something that is done over the internet. I doubt any humans will be involved so why the cost.

Did you read the last paragraph of the post above yours...

yorkie2 wrote: »

The rules really are unfair but they are the same for all rail companies. I suggest writing to your MP if you want the rules changed. You could try calling East Coast, a lot of people will have this problem and if too many people go to the Press it could generate them bad publicity, at times when many people are affected by something out of their control the TOCs do sometimes show leniency.

Cobby

I suppose the big problem is because I booked 8 at one go I got the group discount but when changing you dont get any discount.

Livingthedream

yorkie2 wrote: »

The rules really are unfair but they are the same for all rail companies.

The rules for advance tickets are written to the advantage of the train company, I would love to know the amount of advance tickets bought 2 months in the future are actually used by the passenger for travel, or like me or the OP an unforeseen incident occurs and your £16 advance tickets are worthless (unless the booked train is late or canceled )

It's a risk you take with advance tickets, there cheap for a reason and the Train Company will always get their money, you've just got to hope that your travel plans don't change.