Rail Vouchers for a season ticket?

Drachenfach

After much wrangling with London Midland, who seem to delight in ignoring customer complaints right up until Passenger Focus get involved, I have finally received a refund for a 4 hour delay/cancelled train/general all-around failure.

This is in the form of rail vouchers, but as I have an annual pass for my travel, and it is bought through my work on a sort of direct debit affair (they pay it up front, then take it out of my salary), I'm not sure whether I can use them to offset my next season ticket. I don't do much train travel otherwise, so I'm a bit stumped as to what I can do with these vouchers

Anyone got any advice on this? I will of course be asking our HR department, but I suspect the vouchers will have long expired before I get a reply!

RichyRich

Do your HR department transfer the money directly to the operator? If they give you cash could you just ask for £x (the amount of the vouchers) less than the ticket price?

Drachenfach

I don't know how my company wrangles it with the train and bus companies, but they pay it up front and then deduct a certain amount from my paycheque each month. We're a very large company, so there's no cash changing hands at any point.

I will ask them if I can have the vouchers offset against my payments, but I suspect the answer will be no, because HR tend not to be good with questions more complicated than 'what day is it?' The bigger the company, the more tangled the red tape!

Livingthedream

Is there a friend or work college who could benefit from the vouchers, I sure they would give you some suitable recompense for them.

BookWorm

I have a season ticket loan through work. They give me the full amount each year and then it gets paid back from my salary each month. I have in fact renewed my annual season ticket this week and used rail vouchers as part payment.
I tend to save the various vouchers up all year (I get a lot of delays lol) and then just request a lesser amount for my season ticket loan. Perhaps you could do the same if your HR dept allows it?

p.s The rail vouchers should be good for a year

Drachenfach

Thanks for the advice folks.

I shall have a chat with HR, although I don;t anticipate it going anywhere positive. I'll just have to keep an eye out for people I know who might be making a trip soon.

I've filed another 7 delay repay forms since this one, so this could be a recurring 'problem' for me.

Just a thought, can you use the rail vouchers to top up an oyster card?