GWR’s compensation scheme is all delay and no repay

[whole diary]

[rogerw]

That's what I would have done had I used those services.  In any case I cannot see how the restriction can be enforced if you don't leave the station and even then how can they prove that you used a Cross Country or Virgin service.

[rogerw]

As a follow up, the cheques have now been received from LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) (and banked).  Still no word from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) 21 days from the initial claim

[martyjon]

I'm still waiting for a claim I made to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on the 17 July 2018 for a journey the previous day which was delayed, by a cancelled service due to lack of drivers.

[TaplowGreen]

I'm still waiting for a claim I made to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on the 17 July 2018 for a journey the previous day which was delayed, by a cancelled service due to lack of drivers.

Email Hopwood directly & cc it to a newspaper giving details of how long you've been waiting, the inconvenience suffered etc etc. You'll be surprised how quickly one of his minions contacts you.....worked for me.

[Adrian]

I had one from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) a few weeks ago that took 13 days including postage - the quickest I can recall.

[rogerw]

I have now received a reply from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - the cheque is in the post.  The time line for this is: initial claim 10 October, first response (with wrong assumption), correction sent 19 October, request fro further information received (and sent) 31 October, final response received 12 November.  Although the whole matter took 33 days, all responses were within the promised 14 days.
However this should be compared to LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) who gave a final response to one claim in 8 days and to the second (after a request for further information) in 11 days so GWR could do better.
In contrast Virgin Trains who are supposed to give excellent customer service took 23 days to even acknowledge the passing of the claim from GWR. Could do better.

[Fourbee]

I'm still waiting for a claim I made to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on the 17 July 2018 for a journey the previous day which was delayed, by a cancelled service due to lack of drivers.

Apologies if this has been asked before - is there a way after the event to establish the reason code for a cancellation? I've just had a claim rejected due to weather related disruption which I wouldn't have bothered claiming for in the first place. The site I consulted said the service was cancelled due to the delay of an inbound service which masked the 'real' reason (weather).

[CyclingSid]

Another view on compensation for "non-journeys" on railways: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/train-delays-cancellations-network-rail-south-western-railway-southern-northern-compensation-a8647221.html, or should Simon Calder stick to his specialist subject of air lines and flying?

[Timmer]

Put a claim in with LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) Wednesday evening. Woke up to an email the following morning confirming payment is being made. Now that’s service. Put a claim in the same evening with GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway). Wonder how long that will take? 

[Timmer]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) finally get back to me about my claim for the chaos on Sunday the 28th of October saying no compensation because the train was only running 26 minutes late which is true, but it started from Reading, my wife was in London!

Journey time between Waterloo and Reading is 75 as apposed to 25 minutes Paddington to Reading so she would have had to have left London a lot earlier in order to meet the train at Reading. I was not happy for her to travel with luggage between Waterloo and Reading as trains were absolutely rammed that afternoon and the alternative route via Basingstoke and Salisbury was closed due to engineering work. As GWR advised tickets were valid for travel on the Monday because of the major disruption we opted for her to travel on the Monday instead.

So as far as I'm concerned we are well over the 2 hours that you can claim compensation. So I have replied to GWR customer services outlining the above. If I get no joy with them then it will be an email to Mark Hopwood. You shouldn't have to do this when its clear there were major issues that afternoon and many hundreds of passengers were badly inconvenienced with many never getting any compensation.

edit to correct spelling

[rogerw]

18 working days after I was told that the cheque would be sent "as soon as possible" I am still waiting.  I shall give them until the beginning of next week and then put in a formal complaint

[ChrisB]

20 working days is the default response time.

[rogerw]

This matter has been running since 10 October and is well over the default response time.  I am awaiting the cheque that was promise 18 working days ago "as soon as possible".  Any decent company should be able to dispatch a cheque within 5 working days.  LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) did.

[rogerw]

On my return today from my time away I find that the cheque has arrived 

[TaplowGreen]

On my return today from my time away I find that the cheque has arrived 

Glad you've finally received your cheque. These are the type of unacceptable & unreasonable delays that the new Ombudsman will (should) be all over. One would hope that it will make GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) up their game, as this aspect of customer service (amongst others) has been very poor for a couple of years now.