Trainpal - Cancel for any reason policy - misselling

Pickledonionlover

Highlighting this as the £1.99 policy which is offered isn't worth a jot.

The company hide T&C's away which means that if your circumstances change they won't refund the fares on Advance tickets

This policy shouldn't be offered on such tickets.

Their agents are poor too. They clearly come across this lots as post screenshots on the chat within seconds and extend faux sorry in broken English.

Advice on how to escalate this to Martin (so he no longer promotes this company) and the Rail Ombudsman please.

James_Londoner

It's hard to tell from your post what happened and whether or not it was reasonable.

Could you explain a bit more what you thought would be covered that then turned out not to be accepted as a reason to claim?

magicmoneyportaloo

Have you experienced an issue using one of these policies?

I've used them fine for a couple of cancellations.

daveyjp

Don't bother trying to esclate or get a resolution. The set up is part of trip.com and based overseas. Their knowledge of UK rail ticketing and passenger rights could be written on the head of a pin.

Far easier to put it down to experience, don't use them (or trip.com) and spread the word.

Pickledonionlover

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82071522#Comment_82071522

Attempted to cancel two fares after buying 'Cancel for any reason' policies.

Subsequently advised that Cancellation on the two fares and getting a refund wasn't an option as the tickets were Advance fares.

So they offer a policy on ticket purchases which can only be utilised on certain fares.

They've clearly made the decision to design the IT in such a way.

Pickledonionlover

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82071534#Comment_82071534

Definitely won't be using them again

Awful experience.

James_Londoner

OK, so the product (as of now, anyway, isn't called 'cancel for any reason' - it's called 'free change & refund'
The blurb says 'only for refundable or changeable tickets'.

So you would have been able to change your Advance tickets to the same product for a future date but would not have been automatically entitled to a refund.

Depending on your reason for not travelling (eg train cancelled or delayed so you opted not to travel), you may have another route to claiming a refund.

For reference, there are other ticket retailers (such as Uber) which currently offer free changes to Advance tickets without paying a 1.99 surcharge.

Pickledonionlover

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82071593#Comment_82071593

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82071593#Comment_82071593

The product, as of three days ago on my receipt, is called:

Cancel for any reason.

Most people would have expected it meant just that

On the website it's actually called Free Change or Refund.

Hence neither are what you've quoted but again I hazard most people would have expected either version of what they've quoted would have meant a refund was possible - if it wasn't they should not have been offered on the specific tickets.