Senior Railcard rip off

I asked for a refund or an extension for the unused card, this is the reply from Railcard
There must be thousands of Railcards which have been paid for and not used
I hope Martin and his team can highlight this rip off
Hi Phil
Thanks for taking the time to write to us, I understand that you recently contacted us to ask whether there would be any extensions or refunds to your Senior Railcard due being unable to use it during the COVID pandemic.
We’d like to thank you for your patience, as we know you have been waiting for an update.
After careful consideration, the government has confirmed to us that Railcards will remain non-refundable and will not be extended.
This is because, due to the pandemic fewer people have been travelling by train.
Which is why the government has been offering additional financial backing to the rail industry so that services keep running to support the economy.
Refunding or extending Railcards for over 5.1m customers would come at a significant cost?to the taxpayer, at a?time when the focus must be on maintaining rail services to support the country’s recovery from the pandemic.
Please be rest assured that this decision hasn’t been taken lightly, and we’re truly sorry that this may not be the outcome you had been hoping for.
Thanks again for contacting us. I wish you the best of health and hope this clarifies your query.
Kind regards
Misbah Shaikh
The Railcard Help Team
Replies
Personally, I'd happily forfeit the £30 if it meant enabling rail services to continue to run & I'm sure we're all aware that the financial cost of the pandemic to our government will have to try to be recouped in some way in the future.
I should mention that there's only one of me, don't confuse me with others of the same name.
I have travelled regularly on trains since Covid. So unfortunately your personal choice not to?
There must be thousands of people who have railcards who have used the trains.
And as usual with new posters they always manage to get Scam or Ripoff into their thread
I haven't traveled as much as usual but from last week I'm now in profit so to speak.
The opposite of a rip off I feel
Cost of a 1 year card is less than 60p per WEEK!!!
As we only use the card for leisure trips and for the majority of holding this card, we've been told essential trips only. We're essentially £27down as we never got to use it.
We asked about at least a partial refund and got the same answer as OP. Due to the fact of we'd use it even once we could've saved more than the card was worth.
My problem is that I renewed it as the last one ran out, rather than wait till it was needed.
What I will do in future is wait until we're ready for a journey THEN purchase the railcard. Kinda my fault for just renewing straight away.