Thameslink Refund Due To An Accident

dommy27 · 8 April 2019 at 11:32AM

Hi there,

I wondered if anyone might be able to help or advise on my recent situation.

I have a Thameslink train season ticket which I purchased in July of last year. In January of this year I had an accident where I broke my leg. I work in London and luckily my company agreed I could work from home until I was able to come back to the office.

When I was first signed off, I contacted Thameslink advising them I couldn't travel and whether I was able to have a refund on my season ticket for the duration of time I was going to have off. I was told that I would need to provide all the necessary documentation (hospital discharge letter, sick note) but only to send this over when I returned back to work.

I had in total 10 weeks off work, thankfully I have almost made a full recovery and finally went back to work on a phased return a few weeks ago. Just before I went back I contacted Thameslink again advising them of my situation and was told by another adviser to complete an online request form and send copies of my documents, which I did.

Last week I just wanted to chase Thameslink to see whether they received all the items in the post, but to my disappointment I was told by another adviser that I was informed of the wrong information and that I should have surrendered my season ticket in the first instance then re-apply for another season ticket when I was fit to return back to work. I explained that this wasn't what I was originally told and also the fact this wouldn't be suitable for 2 reasons - firstly, buying a season ticket for this year would be more expensive seeing as I purchased it last year at the 2018 rate, and secondly, I am on a contract role which is due to expire in July of this year so past July I wouldn't require a season ticket.

I've raised a complaint with Thameslink and I'm hoping to hear back this week but overall I'm extremely disappointed to be told conflicting information, especially as my season ticket costs nearly £4,700.

I would really appreciate anyone's help or advise on the matter.

Thanks for reading.

agrinnall · 8 April 2019 at 1:34PM

I think what you were told the second time is correct. I would push Thameslink to accept that the date you first contacted them is the date of surrender, but it's not going to be easy if you actually still had the season ticket after that. The higher cost of a 2019 season ticket isn't their issue, and you can buy a season ticket for any period I believe so you can get one up to the date your contract ends.

lisyloo · 8 April 2019 at 1:35PM

I think you’ve done the right thing.
For future reference when I am told something that has potentially costly consequences I take the name, date and time (so recordings could theoretically be checked).
If they are called Jon smith I usually ask for a more detailed reference as they might have 20 Jon smiths.

Could you ask for the equivalent of a subject access request (SAR) under data protection regulations (not sure if the name has changed unde Gdpr but basically all the details they hold on you).
They might have transcripts of their phone calls.

dommy27 · 8 April 2019 at 2:30PM

agrinnall wrote: »

I think what you were told the second time is correct. I would push Thameslink to accept that the date you first contacted them is the date of surrender, but it's not going to be easy if you actually still had the season ticket after that. The higher cost of a 2019 season ticket isn't their issue, and you can buy a season ticket for any period I believe so you can get one up to the date your contract ends.

Thanks. The issue is that on the initial 2 times I contacted Thameslink, they didn't suggest surrendering my ticket. Of course, had I known all this back in January, I would have just surrendered my ticket, received a 6 month refund and purchased another ticket to cover me from when I was able to return to work until my contract ends. Will have to see what they say.

dommy27 · 8 April 2019 at 2:32PM

lisyloo wrote: »

I think you’ve done the right thing.
For future reference when I am told something that has potentially costly consequences I take the name, date and time (so recordings could theoretically be checked).
If they are called Jon smith I usually ask for a more detailed reference as they might have 20 Jon smiths.

Could you ask for the equivalent of a subject access request (SAR) under data protection regulations (not sure if the name has changed unde Gdpr but basically all the details they hold on you).
They might have transcripts of their phone calls.

Thanks. Thameslink have already said they will listen into the calls as I told them the dates and times I called, but I'm just hoping this can be sorted. Very unfair if I can't get anything back but I'll keep trying.

Commy_Trooper · 8 April 2019 at 7:47PM

I can see Thameslink's POV.
Even if you didn't use your ticket, you could have let somebody else use it.
Not saying you did, or would, but could have.

How do they know that you didn't?

dommy27 · 9 April 2019 at 7:31AM

Commy_Trooper wrote: »

I can see Thameslink's POV.
Even if you didn't use your ticket, you could have let somebody else use it.
Not saying you did, or would, but could have.

How do they know that you didn't?

That is a good point, however my season ticket has to be displayed with my photo ID, so you can’t just travel with the ticket as far as I understand.

surreysaver · 9 April 2019 at 7:55PM

I used to work in a ticket office. In this situation, you could use either method. However, if you wanted to claim a refund for a duration of a ticket that wasn't used, you would have to wait until the ticket expired before handing it in along with your sick note.
You don't say how long your season ticket is valid for, but assuming its a year, and you didn't use it for ten weeks, there wouldn't be any refund value as an annual is the same price as a 10 month 14 day ticket (40 weeks), so unless there were 12 or more weeks it wasn't used for, there would be no refund.
The other way of surrendering it when you first couldn't use it, if you had used it for six months you would have had a refund to the value of 4 months 12 days, but like you say you would have bought a new ticket at the new price when you went back to work, so may have ended up worse off

Thameslink Refund Due To An Accident

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free