Am I entitled to a FULL refund from The Trainline

vivmarple

I had to cancel my trip to London on January 2nd due to both London and my home area (Wolverhampton) now being in Tier 4. The Hotel and the Theatre I was due to be going to have refunded my  money, but The Trainline have taken £10 off my refund on train tickets, and despite arguing this with them they are saying they are governed by Ministry of Transport rules and so the deduction stands. Given that I have 4 more London Theatre weekend trips booked between now and Easter I am asking if anyone else has had this problem and also, if it is legal for them to deduct the £10 every time I am unable to make the trip due to lockdown/tiering due to COVID 19.
Any help or advice much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Westin

Have you checked under their terms & conditions for any travel waiver that might apply to you (you haven't mentioned when you booked so can add further) ? 
https://www.thetrainline.com/trains/latest-coronavirus-travel-information#exchangeandrefund

vivmarple

Hi Westin, Thanks for your input. It does say on the website that if you cancel your ticket, booked through the app (which I did) there is a fee based on the value of the ticket. The feee for my tickets value IS £10, but this doesn't seem very fair when it is not MY decision not to travel, the theatre cancelled the pantomime and the Hotel just refunded our booking. We initially asked about transferring our ticket to another date, but they wouldn't allow that either . Looks as if they will just charge every poor traveller that has to cancel because of COVID restrictions, until this has all gone away. No way out of it 

Caz3121

You can also look at the rail companies rules...if Avanti West Coast they charge a £10 admin fee so this fee would have applied even if you had booked directly
https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/help-and-support/coronavirus-travel-information#changestotravel

[Deleted User]

If they state an admin fee is payable on cancellation then it sounds reasonable enough as your refund had to be physically input by someone. 

mattyprice4004

It's legal - yes. Be thankful you didn't book a flight, as you'd probably get nothing back!
Ultimately the tiers aren't the fault of the train company, so they're entitled to charge an admin fee for their time.

macman

Why book with the Trainline anyway and pay a booking fee each time when you can use any of the other TOC's and pay nothing?