GWR Delay Compensation - Only half refund

brynhh

Hi all. I'm a little confused as to GWR's policy on delay refunds, if anyone is able to offer advice it would be really appreciated.

So a couple of weeks ago we went to Bath, got there no problem on the Friday, went back to Bristol that night then due to signalling issues had a 3-4 hour delay to get home from Temple Meads on the Saturday. The ticket we had was a standard off peak return, with a two together railcard, costing 62.60.

Going by this website https://www.gwr.com/help-and-support/refunds-and-compensation/delay-compensation, it states this:

If you’re delayed by more than an hour, we’ll compensate you for the full value of that part of the journey. That’s 50% of the cost of a return, and 100% of a single. If you’re delayed by more than two hours, we’ll compensate you for the full cost of your ticket.

It also says:

You can choose to receive your compensation in the following ways:
eVoucher

We’ll credit your compensation to your online GWR account; where you can use it as full or part payment for travel anywhere in Great Britain.
Rail Travel Vouchers

These are valid for 12 months and can be used as full or part payment at any station ticket office, for travel anywhere in Great Britain.
Credit or debit card

When we’ve validated your claim, we’ll get back in touch for your card details. Payment then takes between one and three days.
Cheque

We’ll send you a cheque in the post.

So I submitted a claim for the full 62.60 given it was well over 2 hours, and payment by debit card. I had a reply stating I would get a refund of 31.30 via cheque. So I replied highlighting their refund and payment text on their website and had this reply today:

Thank you for contacting us
Thank you for your email regarding your refund, the amount that was sent to you is correct because you have a return ticket and the line you travelled on,we can only give you 50% of the return cost to keep in line with the passengers charter.
At the moment we dont have the facilities to to transfer any refunds into bank accounts this may be looked in to in the future.
Once again
Thank you for getting in touch if you have any further questions please don't hesitate to get in touch

This seems very odd to me and they are making it up as they go along, in comparison to what the website says. So are they indeed incorrect, or have I just mis-interpreted the meaning of the website?

Thanks a lot.

KeithP

jimmyhart wrote: »

So a couple of weeks ago we went to Bath, got there no problem on the Friday, went back to Bristol that night then due to signalling issues had a 3-4 hour delay to get home from Temple Meads on the Saturday. The ticket we had was a standard off peak return, with a two together railcard, costing 62.60.

That bit isn't very clear to me.

On Friday you travelled from somewhere to Bath.

On Friday night you travelled from Bath to Bristol TM. Was that part of the outward leg or return leg of your journey?

But then you say 3 - 4 hr delay from Bristol TM to home on Saturday. Where is home?

What is the origin and destination on your tickets?

brynhh

KeithP wrote: »

That bit isn't very clear to me.

On Friday you travelled from somewhere to Bath.

On Friday night you travelled from Bath to Bristol TM. Was that part of the outward leg or return leg of your journey?

But then you say 3 - 4 hr delay from Bristol TM to home on Saturday. Where is home?

What is the origin and destination on your tickets?

Apologies for the lack of clarity, here's the full details:

2x off peak return tickets from "home" to Bath, with a 2 together railcard.

Home - Bath : Friday afternoon (so outward ticket fully used).
Bath - Bristol : Fri evening (return partially used, allowed cause it was a regular off peak return, not an advance).
Bristol - Home: Saturday (the same return ticket, as above, big delay).

stragglebod

You've quoted very selectively from that web page, and refused to tell us the details of your journey, so how do you expect people to be able to help you?

brynhh

stragglebod wrote: »

You've quoted very selectively from that web page, and refused to tell us the details of your journey, so how do you expect people to be able to help you?

KeithP replied asking for clarification (which was fair enough, I probably wasn't very clear), which I've hopefully now given. I'm not refusing to tell people anything, I've explained the full journey above, but I don't see why people need to know where "home" is, apart from it's all GWR trains between home, Bath and Bristol and the delay was between 3-4 hours from Bristol to home.

If I'm being selective and have missed something important on that page and the journey is still unclear, why not explain why and it'll help me understand why I'm selective or where I'm not clear?

KeithP

I don't care where home is. Perhaps I should not have asked where home is.

Without knowing the origin of the ticket, I'm sorry but I can't help further.

You might want to ask the question on www.railforums.co.uk

brynhh

KeithP wrote: »

I don't care where home is. Perhaps I should not have asked where home is.

Without knowing the origin of the ticket, I'm sorry but I can't help further.

You might want to ask the question on www.railforums.co.uk

That's fair enough, if you need to know it it's no problem, I'd just generally rather not publish certain details unless it's required.

It's Swansea, so the ticket was Swansea - Bath and the return portion was 2 journeys as we stayed in Bristol.

I believe the departure time from Temple Meads was around 1520 as we were due to change at Newport at 1609 then arrive home around 1720, but arrived at 9pm.

They've already agreed to half of the total price as per emails above, but my interpretation of the website is if there is more than 2 hour delay, there is a full refund of the ticket, over 1 hour is 50%.

KeithP

Yes, I agree with you that they should be compensating you for the full ticket price.

Now that you have queried their resolution, I would suggest you need to raise a formal complaint with GWR:

GWR - Making a Complaint

If that doesn't get a satisfactory solution, you might like to consider asking Transport Focus to help you.

KeithP

Which Saturday are we talking about here? Date?

brynhh

KeithP wrote: »

Yes, I agree with you that they should be compensating you for the full ticket price.

Now that you have queried their resolution, I would suggest you need to raise a formal complaint with GWR:

GWR - Making a Complaint

If that doesn't get a satisfactory solution, you might like to consider asking Transport Focus to help you.

Great, thanks for the help. I did wonder if they meant a full refund of that part of the journey and 50% for over an hour is 50% of that part, but that should be explicit really as otherwise it's really confusing (not that it isn't anyway).

brynhh

KeithP wrote: »

Which Saturday are we talking about here? Date?

7th April, the signalling was down between Newport and Cardiff so pretty much all trains got delayed for hours or cancelled.