Thanks. I guessed that the app sales were subcontracted when Northern's twitter response directed me to
[email protected]. If I'd known the app was operated by Trainline I wouldn't have touched them with the proverbial bargepole! I much prefer to deal direct where I can, if things go wrong, the fewer organisations standing between me and the supplier of goods or services, the better IMO.
The latest bull**** from them is to to state that the screenshot I sent them doesn't show HOW and WHEN the ticket expired. Even if I could see some way of getting that information from the mobile app (not sure where that information would be), I consider that to be irrelevant (as I've already demonstrated that the return portion of the ticket had expired when I came to try to activate it, so there's either a problem with their mobile app or they are accusing me of fraud), and then goes on to request (another) copy of the 'newly purchased' ticket, in other words, they are asking me to send them a copy of a ticket they have already rejected a refund request for.
I can't decide if they are taking the p***, trying to make the process even more frustrating than it needs to be in a hopeless attempt to make me give up, or are just trying to string me along long enough to make it difficult to take the matter further via either some kind of ombudsman, a chargeback to my debit card or just take the case to court.
Which would you recommend?
Thanks for the hints about alternative tickets. I'd looked into it in the past, but past experience has taught me that it's not a good idea to restrict myself to Northern's services on a journey with multiple connections, if one connection is missed it is sometimes easier to catch a West Coast Mainline or Transpennine Express from Carlisle or Lancaster to Preston or Manchester than be restricted to waiting for the next Northern train going in the right direction, that's especially true of the Lancaster-Leeds segment, which is both inconveniently infrequent and frequently inconvenient. Shall we put it this way, I'm no stranger to Northern's implementation of Delay Repay.