London Midland Admin Charge

Crabman

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

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.

Those costs are payable anyway and are reasonable costs that go with operating a rail franchise. It can hardly be argued that London Midland had to purchase new furniture to deal with the OP's refund request.

As someone else has already mentioned, Southern Rail offers refunds without deduction of an admin fee (even if you're not travelling on their network). This is great for consumers and other TOCs should follow suit.

yangptangkipperbang

Crabman wrote: »

Those costs are payable anyway and are reasonable costs that go with operating a rail franchise. It can hardly be argued that London Midland had to purchase new furniture to deal with the OP's refund request.

You obviously have no idea of running a business !

These costs are NOT "payable anyway".

The TOC DID have to buy furniture to house the people dealing with the OP's request. There wouldn't be "spare" people, sitting in "spare" chairs at "spare" IT terminals in "spare" offices until someone thought of using using these "spare" people to deal with refund requests !

Every single person would be "costed", as would every chair - no business is going to keep spare anything - it all costs money.

dzug1

Admin staff on minimum wage? Piffle. Probably at least 50% higher. (Unless in India of course)

Few business these days average out their entire overhead costs over their entire business - they sectorise it. So refund processing will bear its own overheads

That is allegedly a Good Thing - I'm not wholly convinced. But claiming that marginal costs of one transaction are minimal therefore the charge should be minimal just doesn't cut it.

Crabman

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

These costs are NOT "payable anyway".

Yes they are. If the OP hadn't made their refund request, are you seriously seeking to assert that the individual(s) processing the refund would not therefore have been employed?

Use some common sense and consider what happened when MSE started pushing for bank charges refunds. Same for MSE's PPI reclaiming campaign. Did the banks successfully justify their costs or did they end up paying out £billions?

As I've already mentioned (I note you haven't referred to it) Southern Rail is able to offer refunds without an admin charge.

If you genuinely believe that London Midland had to buy "furniture" to "house" people to specifically deal with the OP's refund request then I suggest we agree to disagree

Dogger69

Crabman wrote: »

Yes they are. If the OP hadn't made their refund request, are you seriously seeking to assert that the individual(s) processing the refund would not therefore have been employed?

Use some common sense and consider what happened when MSE started pushing for bank charges refunds. Same for MSE's PPI reclaiming campaign. Did the banks successfully justify their costs or did they end up paying out £billions?

As I've already mentioned (I note you haven't referred to it) Southern Rail is able to offer refunds without an admin charge.

If you genuinely believe that London Midland had to buy "furniture" to "house" people to specifically deal with the OP's refund request then I suggest we agree to disagree

Please listen to yangptangkipperbang et al, as you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.

You will find that the banks did eventually justify their costs - an admin fee of £13 was deemed reasonable for CC late payments.

Crabman

Dogger69 wrote: »

Please listen to yangptangkipperbang et al, as you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.

*sigh*

In that case, the staff at Southern Railway don't know what they're talking about either:

http://www.southernrailway.com/tickets-and-fares/refunds/money-back-guarantee/

Dogger69

Crabman wrote: »

*sigh*

In that case, the staff at Southern Railway don't know what they're talking about either:

http://www.southernrailway.com/tickets-and-fares/refunds/money-back-guarantee/

Southern Railway choose not to charge an admin fee. That does not mean they do not incur costs in providing a refund, but rather they choose to absorb those costs elsewhere. Should they wish to change their policy, it would be lawful for them to do so.

Crabman

Dogger69 wrote: »

Southern Railway choose not to charge an admin fee.

Glad you agree.

If other train operating companies were to follow suit, it would be good news for consumers.

Dogger69

Crabman wrote: »

Glad you agree.

If other train operating companies were to follow suit, it would be good news for consumers.

You now understand the difference between choice and law, and that it does cost companies money to issue refunds?

Crabman

Dogger69 wrote: »

You now understand the difference between choice and law, and that it does cost companies money to issue refunds?

Here's a previous post of mine, in case you didn't see it

Crabman wrote: »

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.