Great Western Coffee Shop

Thought people might like to have a look at this;

http://trainrefunds.co.uk/

Roll on delayrepay! Is there an app for lack of seating in 1st class yet?  :D

Hmmn, does seem to me that it could be used by unscrupulous ticket / season holders to find the biggest delay for the journey shown on the ticket and claim for it, rather than the train on which they actually travelled.

I agree - add rovers to that list as well.  That is why if ever I am delayed while using a non train specific ticket I always try to get the ticket endorsed by a train manager or some other form of evidence from him/her.

Absolutely, although that is a criminal offence of fraud, so passengers can take that path at their own risk.

That's a possibility of course, there will always be a minority of dishonest people who try to buck the system, but balanced against the hoops through which customers have to jump to get information, never mind an outcome on this subject, to say nothing of the unscrupulous way in which FGW fails to sell the most economical ticket for its journeys via its TVMs (for which it has been publicly censured), I'd trust human decency/honesty over Corporate greed any day of the week!

I have never found refunds that hard to get.  I simply writer a letter spelling out which train it was, enclose the ticket(s) and send it to the freepost address in Plymouth.

Any company worth its salt will be keeping a note of who its good customers are, and who's caused it problems with things like refunds in the past.   Added to this, I'm sure there are characteristics of claims which will indicate which ones are almost certainly AOK, and which ones are especially dubious.  So not everyone can expect the same treatment.  The regular traveller, with a long history of ticket purchase and a consistent occasional claim record is likely to be approved "on the nod", the person who's been penalty fared a couple of times and presents a claim which at face value could be questionable is likely to find it hard, and the "no prior record" majority will be somewhere in between.

Nor have I - but I tend to take a photo of the ticket on my iPad, crop it and email it to customer services along with the required detail. Never had a problem so far

I've heard rumours (and I must repeay that they are rumours) that a number of TOCs are developing a system to share information on delay repay claims.  The idea being to work out where passengers claim to be travelling on different trains at the same time or where they claim to have made an impossible combination of journeys on the same day.  I was also told that the system could potentially flag up constant claimers.

Although getting the ticket endorsed is a good idea, it isn't particularly practical when on a busy train (e.g. a 12-car 450, 8-car HST or a train without a guard).  It does, however, provide you with proof that you were on the specified service.

Interesting set of priorities.I'd rather they spent time and resources developing systems to make trains reliable and punctual, TVMs that don't rip off customers, information systems that keep customers informed during disruption etc that would save everyone concerned a great deal of time and money?

Seriously?  Last time I checked, revenue protection departments were not responsible for providing the train service or customer service/disruption information.  The clue is in the name!  ::)

The fact that TOCs think it is worth the investment speaks more about the attitudes and behaviours of society as a whole that such fraud will go on and need monitoring.

Having said that, if you would like RP to run the train service I am sure they would cancel all trains and then they can sleep easy knowing no-one had a free ride  ;D

"I've heard rumours (and I must repeat that they are rumours) that a number of TOCs are developing a system to share information on delay repay claims."

I have some experience of this type of action regarding insurance claims and claims against supermarkets. Very difficult to administer within the existing Data Protection laws. A minefield, really.

My point is (and it clearly referred to the TOCs as a whole, not just individual departments) that if you treat the cause of a problem, the symptoms generally go away....provide/invest in a better all round service, and there won't be mountains of claims/complaints.

I'm sorry that you have such a cynical view of society's "attitudes and behaviours" - is this based on rigorous peer reviewed sociological research, or the front page of the Daily Mail?

I've noticed a few posters getting all quote crazy again.  Hope the mods don't mind me raising it, but there's no need to provide four levels of quotes for a reply - especially if they're long quotes.  It makes for untidy reading, and looks awful on devices like mobiles with their small screens.  I guess it's tempting as it saves time, and I may have been guilty on one or two occasions in the past, but can I put a polite request out there to limit the use of the quote button, especially when replying to the last message on a given topic.

Mea culpa, fair point  :-[

Agree if it's the previous post being quoted. However on mobile devices with small screens it's very difficult to edit down quoted material to only leave the point you are replying to.

Many thanks for your positive (and timely) suggestion, IndustryInsider.  ;)

In the past, we did get to the stage of having some posts containing a whole screen's worth of quotes, with the ultimate reply being, 'Yes.'  ::)

Making allowances for anyone using mobile devices to read and reply on the Coffee Shop forum these days, I'm rather less inclined to suffer apoplexy if anyone 'quotes' in their post.  However, if we can all minimise the use of 'reply with quote' where possible, that will be brilliant.  ;D