refunds on all advance tickets?

[whole diary]

[infoman]

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/coronavirus-government-refund-train-tickets-21737099

[rogerw]

Still waiting for the refund on my advance tickets booked through GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) for travel at the beginning of April.  My account shows awaiting refund.  No news of any possible refund from SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) for my booked advance ticket for travel mid May

[Sixty3Closure]

Mine from the end of march hasn't appeared yet either.

[Electric train]

The teams of staff that normally deal with this have a massive work load, not only advance tickets there is also season ticket refunds.

Also it should be remembered this staff group will be either working from home or the numbers of staff able to work in their offices could be reduced to 25% of the normal desk occupancy to manage the social distancing.

Given the office capacity the ToC's may have deemed the teams that deal with refunds as not key allowing office space available for the people who managing the current services.

[TaplowGreen]

The teams of staff that normally deal with this have a massive work load, not only advance tickets there is also season ticket refunds.

Also it should be remembered this staff group will be either working from home or the numbers of staff able to work in their offices could be reduced to 25% of the normal desk occupancy to manage the social distancing.

Given the office capacity the ToC's may have deemed the teams that deal with refunds as not key allowing office space available for the people who managing the current services.

That's understandable if it's the case, but why not communicate the reason for delay and give a likely timescale? Manage expectations!

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are hopeless when it comes to customer communications and this is another example.

[rogerw]

Today I tried to claim a refund on an advance ticket booked through the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) site in mid March. Despite guidance to the contrary on the site there is no facility to claim the refund in "My Account". There is an on line form to claim refunds and I duly completed this.  However getting it to submit proved a step too far as I was repeatedly getting error messages - refresh and try again.  I finally resorted to using their standard feedback form and have received an automated acknowledgement. An exercise in making the simple difficult.  Has anyone else experiemced this problem with the SWR site?

[rogerpatenall]

Not SWR^» (South Western Railway - about), but a similar story on the Avanti site. Am trying to get a refund on a Euston - Machynlleth return. Can not do this on line as the site seems to accept only West Coast stations, not Wales. Currently seeking manual help.

[Surrey 455]

Today I tried to claim a refund on an advance ticket booked through the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) site in mid March. Despite guidance to the contrary on the site there is no facility to claim the refund in "My Account". There is an on line form to claim refunds and I duly completed this.  However getting it to submit proved a step too far as I was repeatedly getting error messages - refresh and try again.  I finally resorted to using their standard feedback form and have received an automated acknowledgement. An exercise in making the simple difficult.  Has anyone else experiemced this problem with the SWR site?

This was tweeted by SWR yesterday, although I am sure it's a repeat of one tweeted in the last week or two.

We’re working hard to process refunds quickly, but with a large increase in requests this is taking longer than usual.

We’ve increased the capacity at our refund centre, so we can speed up the process and get your refund processed sooner.

Thank you for your patience.

At least one reply states that the online form did not work for them. Most replies are from customers asking where their refunds are though!

[grahame]

Interesting item in The Guardian

Why is Eurostar setting a deadline for using its vouchers?

It won’t offer a refund as only one leg of the journey has been cancelled due to coronavirus

I guess National Rail rules don't apply to Eurostar, as their services are International.

As I read it, the person who's written in (and the journalist have investigated) has a trip booked from pre-pandemic days out to France and back a fortnight later.    The outbound service has been cancelled. The return service - weeks later - is still showing as running but Eurostar are not offering a refund if the people travelling wish to cancel that (surely they would if they can't travel out in the first place) but is instead offering vouchers - and vouchers with relatively short timeframes on rebooking (by end of September) and travelling (by end of April next).

Personal view - if a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) cancels one leg of a ticket with an itinerary, the whole thing should be refundable unless there's a virtually-identical equivalent offered for the lost leg.

[Sixty3Closure]

A colleague had a similar problem with flights to France. BA^» (British Airways - about) cancelled the outward journey but said that didn't impact the return journey even though they'd cancelled all flights to the city.

[Surrey 455]

Mark Hopwood has posted a video on Twitter today regarding SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) refunds.

We’ve received around 23,000 requests for refunds in the last five weeks, of which 5,000 have already been processed.

For those who have requested a refund, please see below an important message from our MD Mark Hopwood

https://twitter.com/SW_Help/status/1255149532507070468

Once you've watched that, there's another video from the refund processing centre if you scroll down.

[Sixty3Closure]

Had an email from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) telling me my refund hadn't been forgotten.

[bobm]

Caledonian Sleeper have updated their refund arrangements.   Prior to yesterday you could apply for a refund on an advance "fixed" ticket for all journeys until the end of May without penalty.

The new policy is

We continue to keep our refund policy under review during the period of COVD 19 restrictions and understand that the virus may have impacted our guests’ reasons for travel after the end of May. We await further Government guidance on any changes to current restrictions.

However, we do recognise that for some guests plans may have already been impacted.

Any guest who has purchased a Fixed Ticket prior to March 22nd and was planning to attend an event or travel from overseas between 30th May and 31st August 2020, and has now had an element of their trip cancelled, can apply for a refund, with no administration fee

I am not sure how strictly the necessity for an event to be cancelled to qualify would (or indeed could) be checked.

I was due to travel in the first week of June.   I applied this morning and this afternoon had an email telling me the refund will be in my bank next Tuesday.

[Celestial]

I got a refund for some advance tickets last week around 4 weeks after posting them off.  That doesn't seem an unreasonable time under the current circumstances.

[rogerw]

Still no communication from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).  We are now over 6 weeks since the claim which was made through the "My Account" section of their site and 5 weeks since the intended travel date. I have not even received the email apologising for the delay. By contrast my claim to SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) submitted on 27 April has been approved today. I wonder of my problem is the method of submission of the claim and should I contact them to check on its status. Any views?