GTR Delay Repay - Two passengers making the same journey but paid different amounts

[Silver Cobra]

Hi everyone,

Back on 26th July myself and my brother made a journey from Arlesey to Sheffield to visit the National Video Game Museum, using advance singles costing £12.80 each way (total cost £51.20) routed ‘Peterborough & LNER’ and changing trains at Peterborough and Doncaster. This was the day after the complete meltdown of the ECML, WCML and MML, so there were still some residual delays and cancellations of Thameslink services. Our booked Thameslink service, the 0755 to Peterborough, was one of the several cancelled services that morning, with the first service to run following that being the 0855. We decided to go with travelling on the 0855, and after making changes at Peterborough and Doncaster, we eventually arrived into Sheffield around 64 minutes late against our original booked arrival time of 1044. Here’s a summary of the itinerary that we were originally booked on and the services we used on the day*:

Original Itinerary
0755 Arlesey -> Peterborough 0840 (Thameslink)
0851 Peterborough -> Doncaster 0940 (LNER)
1004 Doncaster -> Sheffield 1044 (Northern)

Actual Journey
0855 Arlesey -> Peterborough 0940 (Thameslink)
0959 Peterborough -> Doncaster 1103 (LNER)
1119 Doncaster -> Sheffield 1148 (Northern)

Upon getting back home (no issues/delays with the return journey), I submitted a delay repay claim with Thameslink for my outbound ticket and my brother submitted one for his (he said that as I had paid for both of our tickets and our entry fees for the NVGM, he was happy for his delay repay payment to go into my bank account, so he used my card details for where the payment should be made). Yesterday, I received an email from Thameslink to confirm that I would receive 100% delay repay for the 60+ minute delay, which I expected my brother also got. Today, I check my bank account to see that I got the full £12.80 for my claim, but only received £6.40 for my brother’s, meaning his was deemed only a 30-59 minute delay despite us both making the same journey. I understand that claims can be handled by different members of staff, and in this case it seems the person handling my brother’s claim judged his delay was only 30-59 minutes, whereas the person handling mine agreed that it was 60+ minutes. I’ve asked my brother to forward the email he should have received from Thameslink regarding the payment they were due to process, hoping it would explain how they came to the judgement of it being only a 30-59 minute delay, but he’s yet to send it. Still, considering the services running that day, I can’t come up with a possible itinerary that could arrive into Sheffield less than an hour later than our original booked arrival time of 1044.

How would my brother go about raising a dispute with Thameslink regarding this underpayment? I checked the FAQ on their website, but couldn’t find anything on this subject.

Many thanks.

*I’ve put the scheduled departure and arrival times for the services we did use, as I can’t find the information on the actual departure/arrival times on the day. RTT only holds the information for the last 7 days.

 

[hkstudent]

Hi everyone,

Back on 26th July myself and my brother made a journey from Arlesey to Sheffield to visit the National Video Game Museum, using advance singles costing £12.80 each way (total cost £51.20) routed ‘Peterborough & LNER’ and changing trains at Peterborough and Doncaster. This was the day after the complete meltdown of the ECML, WCML and MML, so there were still some residual delays and cancellations of Thameslink services. Our booked Thameslink service, the 0755 to Peterborough, was one of the several cancelled services that morning, with the first service to run following that being the 0855. We decided to go with travelling on the 0855, and after making changes at Peterborough and Doncaster, we eventually arrived into Sheffield around 64 minutes late against our original booked arrival time of 1044. Here’s a summary of the itinerary that we were originally booked on and the services we used on the day*:

Original Itinerary
0755 Arlesey -> Peterborough 0840 (Thameslink)
0851 Peterborough -> Doncaster 0940 (LNER)
1004 Doncaster -> Sheffield 1044 (Northern)

Actual Journey
0855 Arlesey -> Peterborough 0940 (Thameslink)
0959 Peterborough -> Doncaster 1103 (LNER)
1119 Doncaster -> Sheffield 1148 (Northern)

Upon getting back home (no issues/delays with the return journey), I submitted a delay repay claim with Thameslink for my outbound ticket and my brother submitted one for his (he said that as I had paid for both of our tickets and our entry fees for the NVGM, he was happy for his delay repay payment to go into my bank account, so he used my card details for where the payment should be made). Yesterday, I received an email from Thameslink to confirm that I would receive 100% delay repay for the 60+ minute delay, which I expected my brother also got. Today, I check my bank account to see that I got the full £12.80 for my claim, but only received £6.40 for my brother’s, meaning his was deemed only a 30-59 minute delay despite us both making the same journey. I understand that claims can be handled by different members of staff, and in this case it seems the person handling my brother’s claim judged his delay was only 30-59 minutes, whereas the person handling mine agreed that it was 60+ minutes. I’ve asked my brother to forward the email he should have received from Thameslink regarding the payment they were due to process, hoping it would explain how they came to the judgement of it being only a 30-59 minute delay, but he’s yet to send it. Still, considering the services running that day, I can’t come up with a possible itinerary that could arrive into Sheffield less than an hour later than our original booked arrival time of 1044.

How would my brother go about raising a dispute with Thameslink regarding this underpayment? I checked the FAQ on their website, but couldn’t find anything on this subject.

Many thanks.

*I’ve put the scheduled departure and arrival times for the services we did use, as I can’t find the information on the actual departure/arrival times on the day. RTT only holds the information for the last 7 days.

Well, submit another claim with "more information", quoting the reference number and requesting payment of the underpayment. It will be reviewed again.

 

[717001]

Well, submit another claim with "more information", quoting the reference number and requesting payment of the underpayment. It will be reviewed again.

You need to select the resubmission option under type of claim and it will get looked at again more closely. Also ensure original and actual arrival times are clearly stated.

 

[yorkie]

This is quite normal, especially with GTR. In fact you are lucky if GTR pay at all.

I was once refused compensation with SWR (illegally but I couldn't be bothered to fight it, as it was a small amount) and on another occasion Grand Central fought us over delay repay and caved in with me and someone else but refused to compensate the others.

It's a constant battle to get anything from some of these companies. It's rarely worth claiming for low value claims as the time spent making the claim (sometimes using really complicated forms) and then appealing either a rejection or incorrect amount just isn't worth the time that could be spent more productively.

 

[Silver Cobra]

Thanks for your replies. When I next speak to my brother, I'll help him resubmit the claim to Thameslink for further review (I've been away from home for the last few days, so I'll most likely catch up with him later tonight or tomorrow).

Checking Recent Train Times for the arrival times of the trains we used that day, it shows that we eventually arrived into Sheffield at 1200 (1119 from Doncaster was 12 minutes late into Sheffield), which means we arrived 76 minutes late against our booked arrival time of 1044. It makes me even more curious as to how they worked out the delay was less than 60 minutes.