Southern Rail - Impossible to get a refund for a ticket I couldn't use due to COVID

epm-84

barbarawright said:

It actually says on the Southern website  that you can't get a refund on a season ticket  after 10 months and 12 days. Had you asked when you knew you weren't going to use it for a while, you'd have been fine. Seems reasonable to me (I applied  for a refund on my annual TFL card as soon as lockdown was declared  and got about 90%  of the unused part back) 
https://www.southernrailway.com/tickets/buy-tickets/refunds-and-changing-your-ticket

The price of an annual season ticket takes into consideration that it will be valid on days when employees are on holiday, so gives an appropriate discount for that.  It also gives a discount for committing to using the train for a full year.  What train companies don't want is people with a bit of money in the bank to buy an annual season ticket for a temp job and then to claim the unused portion, instead of buying a more appropriate weekly or monthly ticket.  That's why if you get a refund after 3 months you don't get 3/4 of the value back.

epm-84

Graham38475 said:

so I thought after a few months I'll probably be back and Southern will just extend my ticket for the time I couldn't use it. 

That's the mistake you made.  Train companies were offering refunds on season tickets and at the time were waving admin fees that would normally apply.  You presumed you could ignore that offer and a better one would come along but it didn't.

It's worth remembering an annual season ticket can be purchased on almost any date, in fact buying one on the day you return to work after New Year is the worst day of the year to buy one, as that's the day the ticket prices increase.  Some people would have had season tickets ending in April, so if Southern were going to do the offer you were hoping it would have been announced 6 months ago.

mattyprice4004

Making assumptions and waiting so long have scuppered this one for you - the best you can do is learn from it, you won't be getting a refund.