London Midland Admin Charge

winterfell74

I’m very frustrated. I booked a train ticket online yesteday(Thurs 16th) for today(Fri 17th) When I got to the station this morning I realised I booked my train for tomorrow(Sat 18th) instead of today. The guy at the station told me I had to cancel it online to get my refund. I get home, I can't cancel online so I ring them up. They said, “Ok no problem, we can refund that for you, for an administration charge of £10”
So in order to get the £13.20 back I paid, I have to pay a fee of £10 which leaves me 3.20. And there's not a damn thing I can do about it. Rage. Not at the operator but the situation. ATOC regulate these charges and LM say say its not a consumer issue. Is that right? Are you powerless in getting a full refund, without penalty, for a train train ticket you don't use. Any words of wisdom?

Mandybham

I did the same and double booked the same train twice by mistake and wasn't refunded without a charge. Sorry but in the end your the one that made the mistake not them. You booked it for the wrong day so it's not like it's them delaying or cancelled and your seat would of been booked, taking up air, due to the fact that it will be very hard for them to sell the seat in time.

winterfell74

Thanks for that, I know what you're sayin but the ticket is for tomorrow(Sat 18th) if I cancelled this morning its more than reasonable to expect them to sell that seat.The point I was trying to make is that the admin charge is unreasonably high and dispropotionate. Thanks again.

dzug1

No seat would have been booked - LM don't do reservations.

They will be selling tickets for the same journey regardless of that.

Admin is expensive - it doesn't come free.

LexyBoy

You'll often get a full refund if you make a mistake and immediately contact support, but is you've found procedure is an admin charge which is the same for all refunds and amendments. (with the exception of if you choose not to travel due to disruption affecting the journey, in which case you're entitled to a full refund on taking the ticket to the ticket office).

In future, either buy on the day - this was a walk-up fare (no refunds at all on Advance tickets, and no reservations on LM), or book online with LM's sister company Southern, who have a 'rainy day guarantee' - you can refund, in full, any tickets not collected through your account on their website (except Advance tickets).

Crabman

dzug1 wrote: »

Admin is expensive - it doesn't come free.

Admin is not expensive - admin staff are generally paid the minimum wage.

Charging £10 specifically to cover administration costs would suggest that processing the refund required more than an hour's worth of input.

OP - the only way to get this back will be to appeal to London Midland & emphasise that it was a mistake. It may be worth mentioning to them what Lexyboy said about their sister company offering a refund on tickets without an admin fee. If you do get anything back it will only be on a goodwill basis.

p00hsticks

Crabman wrote: »

Admin is not expensive - admin staff are generally paid the minimum wage.

Charging £10 specifically to cover administration costs would suggest that processing the refund required more than an hour's worth of input.

But chances are that they will be processing that refund via functionality in a computer system that has cost many thousands of pounds to build and maintain. Your argument is a bit like saying that bus fares should be cheap because a bus driver gets low wages - you're ignoring the cost of the bus.

DCodd

p00hsticks wrote: »

But chances are that they will be processing that refund via functionality in a computer system that has cost many thousands of pounds to build and maintain. Your argument is a bit like saying that bus fares should be cheap because a bus driver gets low wages - you're ignoring the cost of the bus.

I'm sorry but that is not correct. The computer system is a fixed cost, pre-costed as part of their business model. The only variable cost is the time taken to administer the refund. The same apples to the cost of the bus, that is fixed and pre-costed into the financial business model for the operator.

p00hsticks

DCodd wrote: »

I'm sorry but that is not correct. The computer system is a fixed cost, pre-costed as part of their business model. The only variable cost is the time taken to administer the refund. The same apples to the cost of the bus, that is fixed and pre-costed into the financial business model for the operator.

It may be a fixed cost, but it doesn't mean that it shouldn't be factored into the prices charged - it just means that the price set should depend on how many transactions are made. The more transactions there are for the fixed cost to be spread over, the lower the price needs to be for the operator to break even on the operation.

So you will determine the price you charge for making an administrative change by looking both at the fixed cost of putting the equipment in place to offer that service and the variable cost of staffing.

martindow

I imagine if there were no charges made for refunds they would end up processing much larger numbers of refunds. The fee is presumably designed to discourage people from asking for refunds.

yangptangkipperbang

Crabman wrote: »

Admin is not expensive - admin staff are generally paid the minimum wage.

Charging £10 specifically to cover administration costs would suggest that processing the refund required more than an hour's worth of input.

You obviously have never employed anyone yourself ! If you take into a account all the "extras" the employer has to pay: - NI, Insurance, Business Rates, building costs/rent, heating/lighting, IT equipment/infrastructure, furniture, pension - the true cost of employing a person is a lot more than their hourly wage.

A rule of thumb figure is that a single employee needs to bring in 3 to 4 times their salary to make it worth their employer giving them a job...............