Avanti's scam Claim Delay Repay

Car1980

Train was 81 minutes late, so put in a claim for the 100% refund I'm owed. Avanti sent me the money within hours - but only half of it, claiming it was less than 60 minutes late.

So I emailed a complaint and they replied with:

Thank you for getting in contact with Avanti West Coast regarding your Delay Repay compensation claim XXXXXXXXXX.

I was sorry to hear your journey with us did not go as expected. I know how disruptive delays can be and I hope that you can accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. 

When you receive a decision for a Delay Repay compensation claim, you are given the option to appeal the decision if you do not agree with the outcome. 

The process can be found at the bottom of the decision email sent to you. 

Please revisit the email sent and follow the steps provided to make an appeal directly with the Delay Repay team. 

You will need to select the "other" option and add a brief comment with the specific details of why you are appealing to provide more context. This can include that the length of the delay was longer than what was found. Please always include the rough time you arrived at your booked destination and the route you took, alongside any supporting evidence. 

Dependent on the reason for the appeal, if you don't provide the additional context especially the details of the journey you took and the rough time you arrived details as stated above, it is possible the claim will be rejected or no change in the decision would be reached so please make sure you provide these. The team will not email to ask further information on an appeal and will use the information you provide in the "other" section. 

Once received the team will reconsider the get back to you in due course.

The appeals portal is an absolute con, hence why I emailed a complaint instead. You cannot upload any supporting evidence on their appeal form. There is space to write text and nothing else.

And then they have set down irrelevant reasons for themselves to reject, which will handily come into play because I can't upload the simple proof from recentraintimes.com. I've seen private parking companies with better appeals systems.

There seems to be a widespread system of paying everyone half, hoping they'll go away, and pocketing the rest.

Any ideas of what the best thing to do next is? I'm thinking just kicking off and sticking with the official complaint email system, but presumably they'll just stick to their "use the scam appeal portal" guns.

Or would it be better to jump through their hoops, get rejected and just do a bank chargeback? I've used the process previously with success.

HillStreetBlues

A chargeback shouldn't actually work, as delay repay is compensation for the delay not a refund of the ticket price, and you have used the ticket that's been paid for.

Woodstok2000

So you had a single ticket from Manchester to Euston, and they're only paying a 50% refund of that fare? Doesn't seem right based on your info above, but delay/repay goes by the timetable on the day, not necessarily the regular timetable (if there are changes). It's hard to say it's a scam until you try it, so I would follow their appeal route.

Car1980

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82078143#Comment_82078143

Depends if they challenge it. Chargebacks stick if the other side doesn't respond in my experience.

Car1980

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82078274#Comment_82078274

They've clearly replied saying the delay was less than 60 mins, even though the conductor said 80 minutes as we were leaving. You can see from recentraintimes.com that it was 81. Timetable was normal. There was congestion apparently so we were late setting off, and then the rails were too hot at Milton Keynes.

I'm just wary because it feels like a private parking ticket - they're going to reject. And why am I "appealing". You don't "appeal" if you order from Amazon and half your order doesn't arrive!

Woodstok2000

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82078299#Comment_82078299

The most likely explanation is they've made an error, or there was a timetable change on the day. Appeal it and see what happens - youve got nothing to lose.

daveyjp

Mistakes happen, it certainly isn't a scam. You have the option to appeal so do so.