Delayed twice on the same trip

Goldwing1

Help!
My wife and daughter travelled from Guildford to Headcorn a couple of weeks ago. The journey was;
Guildford to Waterloo
Waterloo East to Headcorn.

The Guildford train was delayed by 30 minutes (Trespasser) and they missed their connection.
The Waterloo East to Headcorn train was delayed by over an hour (Bridge problem).
Combined they should have arrived at 18:44hrs and they actually arrived at 20:17hrs.

We have lodged one complaint for each ticket even though my wife paid for both.

The first complaint was lodged with Southeastern trains as that is who she bought the tickets from. Southeastern rejected them saying Southwestern had to deal with it.

Southwestern have now rejected them because they say there isn't a train that goes straight from Guildford to Headcorn (Correct).

So what should they have done and what do we do next? Southwestern say appeal but only for the Southwestern bit and lodge a new appeal for the Southeastern bit.

Confused.

JGB1955

Put one claim in for Guildford to Waterloo and another for Waterloo East to Headcorn?

daveyjp

You put one delay repay claim in against the company that caused the initial delay for the total delay of 90 minutes.

That's the operator of the Guildford Waterloo service.

Goldwing1

I should have said that they had a single ticket for the whole journey.

My worry is that, if they claim for;
Guildford to Waterloo as one claim (30 mins) and
Waterloo East to Headcorn as a second claim (Over one hour)

I can only quote the ticket price for the entire journey. Surely the compensation paid in total by doing this would be more than they are entitled and therefore fraudulent?

daveyjp

Already explained in my previous post.

They don't make two claims.

Goldwing1

daveyjp wrote: »

Already explained in my previous post.

They don't make two claims.

But they have already rejected that on the basis that they don't run a train from Guildford to Headcorn and the Soutwestern train was only delayed by 30 minutes.

daveyjp

In which case you raise it as a complaint.

The first company are liable for the 90 minute delay.

A lot of train companies seem to treat delay repay as a game. You submit, they say no. A percentage will accept the no, others won't. You need to be in the second category,

jbuchanangb

Definitely Southwestern. Set out in a clear table the exact times of the trains concerned, both the intended schedule, and the trains actually used. It was the delay of their train that initiated the delay to the journey, they have to compensate you for the actual end to end delay of the whole journey.

If the refuse again, refer the matter to the Railway Ombudsman

yorkie2

Absolutely, as @daveyjp quite rightly says, SWR are liable for Delay Repay compensation, to the value of 100% of the single fare, for a delay of 60+ minutes.


The response from SWR is incorrect, but not surprising: train companies such as SWR employ (or sub-contract) some individuals who are extremely unknowledgeable and lacking in appropriate training who give out incorrect information. But there is no doubt that their response to you was incorrect.


I have experienced poor service from SWR before; if I put in a delay repay request to SWR I will have low expectations and I know that in order to get what I am entitled to, I will have to invest far more time than I would like. But there isn't anyone who can get SWR to behave, so we're stuck with it.



As others have said, chase SWR, and if they refuse to pay out, escalate the case to the Ombudsman: https://www.railombudsman.org/making-a-complaint/start-a-complaint/

McKneff

How much are we talking abiut here.

Goldwing1

Total fare was £77.60.
We've been away and the company hasn't responded. Now escalated.