Help with train refund please.

Daisies14

Hi everyone.
Hoping you can help me with my issue. Will try to keep it as brief as I can but don't want to miss anything important out.

Over 6 weeks ago now I bought a return train ticket online at a cost of £86.90 for London to Manchester to travel that day. The ticket validity was to come back within one month.
Now I needed to pick up the ticket using the machines in the station but when I got there it wouldn't give me my ticket. So after being told by the ticket office and also the helpline that I would need to purchase a new ticket in order to travel I bought a new ticket at a cost of £169. This time I only bought a single ticket as the return would be £338. I was told that I would get a refund for the ticket within 24-72 hours.
After about 3 weeks I managed to get them to refund the £169 ticket but they are still debating the £86.90 ticket which is the original ticket.
Now the month validity has long since passed but I haven't had the goods in full that I paid for.
What is my best course of action now?
Thanks for your help.

agrinnall

How did you make the return leg of the journey? Did you buy another ticket, or have you not make the journey at all? If you did buy another ticket did you get a refund for that too?

stragglebod

Why did the ticket office not print your original tickets? They can do that if they've not already been collected. Or did you not leave enough time before ordering and trying to collect them?

£86.90 is an off peak return, a walk up fare. You don't need to buy in advance.

Why did you did you order them for collection on the same day, when you'd have to collect them from a machine anyway why not just buy from the machine or ticket office when you got to the station?

And £169 is an anytime single. If you did need to buy another ticket, why didn't you just buy another £86.90 off peak return?

And as @agrinnall says, how did you get back to London?

discat11

If they refunded the £169 ticket you presumably owe them the fare for the single to London?
I'll assume you came back another way or have not made that journey yet.

If so you there is very little difference between a single discounted fare and the corresponding return fare i.e. £85.90, so effectively they owe you £1, this might be below a minimum refundable though- if such a thing exists.

Daisies14

Hi everyone and thanks for the replies.
I normally buy my train tickets at least a week in advance (often its a few weeks) online but as I was waiting for a cheque to clear so I could travel this time I bought them online on the day of travel. I assumed it would cost even more if I went to the station and bought them at the ticket office just before I was about to travel so paid online about 6 hours before I was due to get the train.
I haven't made the return journey yet. My plan was to travel back to London at Easter but as I didn't have the ticket I didn't end up going.
At the station I tried to get my ticket out of the machine and it wouldnt recognise my reference number. After retrying it a few times I enlisted the help of one of the Virgin train members of staff. She tried it then said I would need to go to the ticket office. When I went to the ticket office after the ticket machine wouldn't give me my ticket they said my ticket has been processed. I said that it definitely hasn't and they said I would need to buy a new ticket as I couldn't travel without one and that I would need to phone the Virgin trains online helpdesk as I purchased the ticket online.
So I did and was put on hold then eventually got thru to someone and they said I would need to buy a new ticket to travel that day and that I would get a refund for the ticket within 24-72 hours.

Daisies14

I didn't buy another £86.90 ticket as that option wasn't available to me. It was either a £169 single ticket or a £338 return ticket.

discat11

So, they've refunded the ticket you were forced to buy to travel and owe you £1 -the difference between the journey you made and the journey your purchased where you didn't use the return half.

Daisies14

Am I not entitled to the single journey back to London as that is what I paid for? As in a paid for a return but have only gone one way but that was because I didn't have the physical ticket. Yes the validity of it has expired as it was for a month but thats not my fault. I actually wanted to travel back over 3 weeks ago but couldn't do as I didn't have the ticket.

discat11

I suggest you ask them for that, however legally - no you're not.

The cash value of the journey you made is £1 less than a return ticket, this is perfectly normal with anything other than 'full fare' returns.

Had you paid for a full return fare then I assume you'd have been refunded in full for that also, meaning you'd have paid £86.90 for a return.

You'd certainly have had an argument had you contacted the issuer within the cheaper tickets return validity, as to be fair the return half of an expired ticket isn't worth even £1.

stragglebod

If the £86.90 ticket wasn't available then you were travelling at peak time. So you've already made a profit by getting a peak time single at about half the price.

Daisies14

Yes I travelled at peak time but that was because I had an appointment in Manchester that I needed to be back for. I wouldn't have chosen to travel back at peak time as it was a crowded busy train which I try to avoid when I can.

I have been phoning them and emailing them trying to resolve this and they just say they are investigating. I have repeatedly asked them if they have listened to the phone call in which I was promised a refund and so far they have avoided answering my question.
I usually pay around £50 for an advanced return (by buying 2 singles in advance) so to have paid the amount I did is frustrating.