Great Western Coffee Shop

With First Great Western you get a six week wait for a ticket refund.  ::)

I submitted a refund request for an unused ticket, purchased from First Great Western, for use on First Great Western's services, and returned to a First Great Western station. Incidentally, Swindon, the station nearest the office that deals with refunds.

That submission was made on the 13th October 2014 and only today was the refund credited to my bank account minus the ^10 Administration Fee. A fee that train companies are permitted to charge for processing refunds on unused tickets when the reason for non-use lies with the passenger.

I don't begrudge the fee, but if I'm paying it I don't feel a six week wait is justifiable for that ^10.

Also if there has to be a fee I feel it would be much better if it were a percentage of the ticket cost. That way, nearly everyone (I'd probably set a minimum fare of ^5) who decides not to use a ticket can get a proportion of their money back, whether their ticket cost ^5.50 or ^155.50. At the moment it's hardly worth bothering for a ticket under ^15. And I thought twice about submitting a ^19.80 ticket for refund. All the train operators and ticket retailers would need to do is together (i.e. through ATOC) look at the average ticket price of refunds processed under National Rail Conditions of Carriage condition 26 (c),(d),(e) and set a percentage fee that covers the costs of processing with a similar income to that generated by the current ^10 flat fee. Perhaps even a scale of fees with decreasing percentage the higher the ticket cost. Something like:

20% of the ticket cost for ^5-^49
15% of the ticket cost for ^50-^99
10% of the ticket cost for ^100 and above, with a maximum fee ^20.

Workable? Fair?

Less understable (why should it be different charge - the work is the same, regardless of ticket price), and for that reason, arguably unfair.

I'd prefer to see more ticket holders be eligible, or it worth bothering. At the moment it's not worth bothering for less than a ^15 ticket price I'd say. Even I thought twice about submitting a ^19.80 ticket.

However, whether its status quo or a different system I think six weeks is grossly too long to wait for a refund to be processed when you are paying a fee for the privilege.

Yes, agreed your latter point.

ATOC need to introduce a charter target - say 10 days (if they need longer they need to contact the claimant explaining why, and how long)

Six weeks is unacceptable.

The last time I had a ticket refunded was via Redspottedhanky back in September 2011 and they took less than 2 weeks (including me sending the unused tickets off and the refund being cleared to my credit card, minus the tenner). Pretty good I thought at the time.

South West Trains took 11 weeks to send me RTVs in regard to the disruption last Christmas (and I emailed a scan of the ticket for that one so no postal delays).

While there are no sanctions (other than the goodwill lost) for retailers/TOCs when they process refunds/compensation/handle complaints in a tardy fashion, they'll continue to do so when it suits IMO.

The inconsistent handling of the season ticket void days saga is disgraceful, an immediate automatic refund (forget adding days on) without jumping through hoops should be the order of the day.

Delay/Repay....

Quite agree six weeks is completely unacceptable
However let us not forget tha FGW is a company that is running a railway  and giving a public service for one reason and one reason only that of course is Profit .

I don't recall refunds were even possible under BR

. No they weren't .

As I was intending to travel by rail in 2014 and not by a time machine built in the early 1990s by BREL in Derby, I don't see the relevance of this to the thread.

Western Pathfinders comment about FGW making a profit (hinting that it would be better nationalised), hence my response.

Aha. Apologies for my facetiousness.   :-[

Refunds were possible under BR.  You had to provide 'proof' that the ticket wasn't used, such as a letter signed by the person who gave you a lift instead, and they were processed at the place of issue IIRC, but they were possible.  And an admin fee applied then as well!

I suspected they might have been. Many moons ago at the National Railway Museum I read a copy of the 'British Rail Passenger's Charter' from 1992 (part of then Prime Minister John Major's much trumpeted and much lampooned Citizen's Charter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen%27s_Charter)) and seem to recall there was provision in that charter for refund of unused tickets.

Sadly I can't find a copy of this document (although there are references to it) online. There are a couple of hard copies available on ebay and I am tempted to grab one, just to contrast and compare between then and now.

6 weeks sounds quick. Took them 8 weeks to refund me back in the summer!

I'd be interested to know if you were given a reason for that wait. Once (or if) I've heard from management in the relevant department their reasons for the time taken to process refunds, I plan to take my concerns to Passenger Focus.

In the spring I had a 6+ week wait blamed on February's storms. That was just about acceptable although that reason was only given after I'd complained. An 8 week wait in the Summer and now my 6 weeks wait in October/November says to me there are systematic problems that need addressing. It just isn't on to charge for a service and then provide a service that is nowhere near commensurate with the fee being paid.

Not for one moment did I wish anyone here to think that things would be better if the rail network were to be nationalised again.

Although a few Swindon built diesel hydraulics on the mainline again wouldn't go amiss, eh?  ;) ;D

Quite so BNM  mind you being old enough to remember when a class 52 was a usual way to be hauled from A2B  and of course the introduction of the HST  which was the end of the hydraulic era I wonder how much longer it will be before the HST is regarded as heritage traction ?.

A current report...
I didn't use a ticket for a Bristol-Plymouth journey that I purchased on-line from FGW.   I submitted the online refund form on 15th November, and posted the tickets that day (a Saturday). I have just had an email advising the refund is approved and will appear back in the paying account within 5 days.
^10 deducted as per booking conditions, with which I have no problem.
A different experience (and acceptably speedy) than that reported above!

Could that be perhaps because the online purchase process is contracted out to a third party? ATOS provide the service on behalf of FGW and it is presumably they that process the refund.

Indeed, BNM.......and the cynic would observe that the quicker they process the refund, the greater amount of the ^10 is profit!!