EMR delay repay - not impressed

[Old Yard Dog]

On 4th November, I travelled from Little Sutton to Nottingham and back, changing at Liverpool. My ME train to Liverpool was on time, my EMR train to Nottingham arrived 43 minutes late. A simple case for EMR's Delay Repay system you would think. I should be entitled to a 25% refund from EMR on my return ticket.

However EMR's online delay repay system was a pain in the a***. It was painfully slow, taking forever before it finally came up with my journey at the third or fourth time of trying. I then had to photograph my ticket. The automated system then refused my claim saying Merseyrail were responsible even though it was an EMR train that was late. So I had to submit an appeal which was another slow pain in the a***. I was told an agent would look at my claim manually and I was promised a response within 10 working days. 15 working days later, I had heard nothing so I sent in a complaint.

Today I received an email from Merseyrail offering me a 20% refund, not 25%, requiring me to provide various phone & presumably banking details. I had asked for travel vouchers from EMT as I don't trust online banking. Why are ME paying and not EMR whose fault it was?

What an illogical, unfair and customer hostile system!

 

[WesternLancer]

On 4th November, I travelled from Little Sutton to Nottingham and back, changing at Liverpool. My ME train to Liverpool was on time, my EMR train to Nottingham arrived 43 minutes late. A simple case for EMR's Delay Repay system you would think. I should be entitled to a 25% refund from EMR on my return ticket.

However EMR's online delay repay system was a pain in the a***. It was painfully slow, taking forever before it finally came up with my journey at the third or fourth time of trying. I then had to photograph my ticket. The automated system then refused my claim saying Merseyrail were responsible even though it was an EMR train that was late. So I had to submit an appeal which was another slow pain in the a***. I was told an agent would look at my claim manually and I was promised a response within 10 working days. 15 working days later, I had heard nothing so I sent in a complaint.

Today I received an email from Merseyrail offering me a 20% refund, not 25%, requiring me to provide various phone & presumably banking details. I had asked for travel vouchers from EMT as I don't trust online banking. Why are ME paying and not EMR whose fault it was?

What an illogical, unfair and customer hostile system!

I find EMR's system 'sub optimal' to say the least - In making a claim recently the system let me upload a ticket from a previous (resolved) claim by mistake - that was a much more expensive ticket for a different journey. No way on the online system to cancel the claim and stop it - and only way I could find to ask for that to happen was to e-mail customer services asking them to ask the DR team to cancel my erroneous claim it (got no reply as yet) - eventually the DR was paid for this erroneous amount paying me ten times the sum I was owed (310 instead of c£1)- yet surely the whole point of uploading an image of your ticket is so that it can be checked to prevent wrong claims like this being paid!

My only option then was to Appeal the claim and ask them not to pay it. That was a week ago and I'm still waiting to see how they will resolve this. I do not want money I am not owed after all.

What was so frustrating was how easy it was to upload the wrong ticket details from the previous claim, but no ability to then amend or cancel a claim - even though I realised immediately what had gone wrong.

When I have Appealed in the past - when payment not paid that should have been - it has been resolved in my favour - tho often not quite in the target timescales.

 

[Nickpbo]

On 4th November, I travelled from Little Sutton to Nottingham and back, changing at Liverpool. My ME train to Liverpool was on time, my EMR train to Nottingham arrived 43 minutes late. A simple case for EMR's Delay Repay system you would think. I should be entitled to a 25% refund from EMR on my return ticket.

However EMR's online delay repay system was a pain in the a***. It was painfully slow, taking forever before it finally came up with my journey at the third or fourth time of trying. I then had to photograph my ticket. The automated system then refused my claim saying Merseyrail were responsible even though it was an EMR train that was late. So I had to submit an appeal which was another slow pain in the a***. I was told an agent would look at my claim manually and I was promised a response within 10 working days. 15 working days later, I had heard nothing so I sent in a complaint.

Today I received an email from Merseyrail offering me a 20% refund, not 25%, requiring me to provide various phone & presumably banking details. I had asked for travel vouchers from EMT as I don't trust online banking. Why are ME paying and not EMR whose fault it was?

What an illogical, unfair and customer hostile system!

What justification is there for 'only' paying 20%? are you not entitled to 25%?
I'm in a similar situation with Nothern and LNER: My train into Doncaster on a Northern train was delayed by 23 minutes. Had my connecting LNER train been on time I'd have missed it, but it was actually 55 late, and I arrived at my destination 61 late. I submitted a claim to LNER who declined, and forwarded it to Northern, they also declined and passed it back to LNER who then closed the case. I pursuaded LNER to reopen it, but they've insisted it's Northern's problem and have sent it back. They base their justification on the hypothetical situation that as the Northern train was late, and if theirs was on time then it would have been Northern's problem. The LNER person referred to the Conditions of travel as being their reason, so I challenged that and asked them to tell me which clause they were relying on, answer 32. Of course it says nothing of the sort, rather it says that the company responsible for the delay in *completing* your journey is the one liable. It seems to me that in my case it's LNER and in OP's case it was EMR.
(NB On the same journey a few months ago, my Northern train was cancelled so I ended up on an LNER one an hour later. In that case I submitted my claim to Northern who paid promptly)

 

[Hubjhbuy]

What I want to know is there any recourse for a TOC taking longer than their own duration listed on their website to process a claim? Are there standards somewhere for how long it should all take?

 

[jon81uk]

requiring me to provide various phone & presumably banking details. I had asked for travel vouchers from EMT as I don't trust online banking.

FYI, bank details have nothing to do with online banking, your sort code and account number will be printed on your cheques too.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Nevertheless the fewer people who have those details the better as they are a potential godsend to scammers My cheques are so out of date, as I only use a handful a year, that the branch printed thereupon is the last but one that my account was actually registered with. Branches near me just keep on closing and mine doesn't even have the decency to tell me when it moves my account; fortunately the sort code stays the same.

 

[AlterEgo]

Nevertheless the fewer people who have those details the better as they are a potential godsend to scammers

They aren’t. You can’t do anything with just an account number and sort code. It’s on many debit cards you just hand over and it’s on all your cheques.

You’ve given a website more than enough information about yourself on here anyway; surprisingly few people are truly anonymous online.

 

[Deerfold]

Nevertheless the fewer people who have those details the better as they are a potential godsend to scammers My cheques are so out of date, as I only use a handful a year, that the branch printed thereupon is the last but one that my account was actually registered with. Branches near me just keep on closing and mine doesn't even have the decency to tell me when it moves my account; fortunately the sort code stays the same.

If the sort codes stays the same, your cheques aren't out of date - the relevant details are the sort code, account number and your name.

 

[Adam Williams]

They aren’t. You can’t do anything with just an account number and sort code. It’s on many debit cards you just hand over and it’s on all your cheques.

You’ve given a website more than enough information about yourself on here anyway; surprisingly few people are truly anonymous online.

You can cause somebody a great deal of hassle by setting up a direct debit with just this information.

You'll probably be able to get the debits back via the Direct Debit guarantee, if you notice, but that doesn't mean it won't cause you a ton of hassle or indirect losses (if your other payments fail to go out).

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Nevertheless the fewer people who have those details the better as they are a potential godsend to scammers My cheques are so out of date, as I only use a handful a year, that the branch printed thereupon is the last but one that my account was actually registered with. Branches near me just keep on closing and mine doesn't even have the decency to tell me when it moves my account; fortunately the sort code stays the same.

Have you overlooked the fact your cheques aren’t out of date if the sort code stays the same…

 

[JamesT]

You can cause somebody a great deal of hassle by setting up a direct debit with just this information.

You'll probably be able to get the debits back via the Direct Debit guarantee, if you notice, but that doesn't mean it won't cause you a ton of hassle or indirect losses (if your other payments fail to go out).

For a high profile case of that, see Jeremy Clarkson - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm

TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has lost money after publishing his bank details in his newspaper column.

 

[jon81uk]

For a high profile case of that, see Jeremy Clarkson - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm

Not sure a fifteen year old news report about someone deliberately putting their details out in a very public way and goading people to attack them is comparable to giving limited information to a trusted organisation.
I think a good rule of thumb is that if you would give someone a cheque then you should trust them with your bank details too.

 

[lachlan]

What justification is there for 'only' paying 20%? are you not entitled to 25%?
I'm in a similar situation with Nothern and LNER: My train into Doncaster on a Northern train was delayed by 23 minutes. Had my connecting LNER train been on time I'd have missed it, but it was actually 55 late, and I arrived at my destination 61 late. I submitted a claim to LNER who declined, and forwarded it to Northern, they also declined and passed it back to LNER who then closed the case. I pursuaded LNER to reopen it, but they've insisted it's Northern's problem and have sent it back. They base their justification on the hypothetical situation that as the Northern train was late, and if theirs was on time then it would have been Northern's problem. The LNER person referred to the Conditions of travel as being their reason, so I challenged that and asked them to tell me which clause they were relying on, answer 32. Of course it says nothing of the sort, rather it says that the company responsible for the delay in *completing* your journey is the one liable. It seems to me that in my case it's LNER and in OP's case it was EMR.
(NB On the same journey a few months ago, my Northern train was cancelled so I ended up on an LNER one an hour later. In that case I submitted my claim to Northern who paid promptly)

I would try giving LNER a phone call, last time I had a delay repay issue a call resolved it (though they did take over 10 minutes on hold)

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Have you overlooked the fact your cheques aren’t out of date if the sort code stays the same…

I did know that thanks. I am still using my old cheques & paying-in slips and I haven't had to change my direct debits.