Who do I contact if I am not happy with Chiltern Railway response?

KittaKatta

Hi, I wonder if someone can help me. On 18th January I left work and was walking to the rail station when I got an official alert on my mobile from Chiltern Rail to let me know that a problem with line-side equipment may cancel or delay two trains that I was hoping to get. Since it was snowing and I did not want to get stuck in central London, I went to catch the tube instead.
I have an annual ticked with Chiltern which cost me £1500, but I had to pay extra for the tube to go home. When I arrived I wrote to CR to ask them to refund the tube fare.
Their reply:
"Thank you for your email.

I was concerned to learn of the problems you experienced on 18th January and am sorry to learn that you chose not to travel with Chiltern Railways.

Upon investigation, I can see that due to operational difficulties, there was a possibility that some trains would be cancelled on the 18th January and therefore alerts were sent out to advise this may happen. However, we were fortunately able to rectify the problems and ensure both the 16.30 and 16.57 services could operate, although the 16.30 service ran a couple of minutes later than scheduled.

Therefore, as we still operated a service on this occasion, we are unfortunately unable to compensate you and we can only apologise if you are unhappy with this.

Thank you, once again, for taking the time to contact us."

I do not think that this is fair and would like to take it further, but cannot find any information on who I could contact. Can anyone help?
Many thanks!

dude89

KittaKatta wrote: »

Hi, I wonder if someone can help me. On 18th January I left work and was walking to the rail station when I got an official alert on my mobile from Chiltern Rail to let me know that a problem with line-side equipment may cancel or delay two trains that I was hoping to get. Since it was snowing and I did not want to get stuck in central London, I went to catch the tube instead.
I have an annual ticked with Chiltern which cost me £1500, but I had to pay extra for the tube to go home. When I arrived I wrote to CR to ask them to refund the tube fare.
Their reply:
"Thank you for your email.

I was concerned to learn of the problems you experienced on 18th January and am sorry to learn that you chose not to travel with Chiltern Railways.

Upon investigation, I can see that due to operational difficulties, there was a possibility that some trains would be cancelled on the 18th January and therefore alerts were sent out to advise this may happen. However, we were fortunately able to rectify the problems and ensure both the 16.30 and 16.57 services could operate, although the 16.30 service ran a couple of minutes later than scheduled.

Therefore, as we still operated a service on this occasion, we are unfortunately unable to compensate you and we can only apologise if you are unhappy with this.

Thank you, once again, for taking the time to contact us."

I do not think that this is fair and would like to take it further, but cannot find any information on who I could contact. Can anyone help?
Many thanks!

Why do you not think this is fair? They gave you advance warning that there MAY be a problem giving you chance to plan for potential disruption. They then made every effort to return services back to normal. The fact that you then made alternative plans without actually checking the upto date status of the service hardly seems like chilterns fault. I would consider this very good customer service if the same happened to me

Aylesbury_Duck

I agree with dude89. I don't think you have good grounds for a refund. They provided the service you pay for. The important word in their text was MAY.

KittaKatta

Thanks for your replies. I suppose I am a bit frustrated because in the past month I have had several services cancelled (in some cases being told whilst sitting on the train) and had to wait at the stations for ages for the next available service (which is often not even mentioned on the board!). When it happens over and over again one starts taking a MAY as a fact...
But thank you for bringing me down to earth. I still wonder, however, if there would be an ombudsman?