Delay Delay Delay Repay

It's often literally not worth my time claiming the pittance you get for late trains with delay repay, but it's the only way you can punish them for being late, so I try to do it out of principal, but boy they don't make it easy. The number of times I've had to clarify my claim or correct the response, but this really takes the biscuit. I was delayed on a journey that had three legs and I didn't realise it mattered which train company I claimed from, so I started, in December 2019, with West Midlands who passed my claim on to Southern who passed my claim on to South Western who I realised recently had never got back to me, but when they did initially tried to pass me back to West Midlands and had three different reasons for not paying up, and by this time I could barely remember what had happened.

Dear Mr Kitson

Thank you for contacting us.

I have checked your claim which was sent into us from Southern Railway on 23 January 2020.

Our claim reference XXX. According to the notes, you have already claimed with West Midland Railway as they were the original delay in your journey, this caused you to miss your connection at Harrow & Wealdstone which in turn made you miss the Clapham Junction to Winnersh Triangle leg.

As this is the case, the delay repay claim for the entire journey would be the responsibility of West Midland Railway.

I am sorry that this information was not passed onto you when the decision was made. An email should have been sent explaining the rejection decision.

Kind regards

Hi,

My memory is that it was the final leg of the journey that was delayed and that I didn't miss any connections. I know this because I met friends on the final leg and we all got the same train. West Midlands rejected my claim and passed it on to Southern who forwarded it on to you.

Jamie Kitson

Dear Mr Kitson,

Thank you for your recent correspondence.

With regards to your query, I have checked the logs for the 07.58 service from Clapham Junction to Winnersh Triangle and it is showing this service was delayed by 12 minutes. Therefore, on this occasion, as you were delayed less than 15 minutes there is no compensation due.

I am sorry this is not the answer you were hoping for.

Kind regards,

Hi,

The train was late so it didn't stop at Winnersh Triangle. We had to go to the end of the line stay on the train and go back. We were more than 30 minutes late.

Jamie Kitson

Dear Mr Kitson,

Thank you for your recent correspondence.

With regards to your Delay Repay, I am sorry the previous information I supplied was incorrect. Upon further investigation I can see the service did not stop at Winnersh Triangle and you were delayed for 50 minutes. Therefore, you are entitled to 50% of the single ticket fare.

Could you please confirm how you would like to receive this payment of £14.00. Your options are:

National Rail Vouchers (valid for 12 months and will be received within 5-7 working days)

Cheque (will be received within 20 working days)

Once again, please accept my renewed apologies and I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

A cheque please.

How do I make a complaint about this?

Thanks, Jamie Kitson

Dear Mr Kitson,

Thank you for your email.

Your query has been escalated to me and I am keen to resolve it for you. I am sorry to hear that you have experienced disruption whilst travelling with us and for the confusion whilst claiming for this delay, through our Delay Repay compensation scheme. I have investigated your query further and retrieved your claim on our Delay Repay records, and I understand that this claim was rejected due to the time we received the claim from the other train company, which was over the 28 days after your journey. However, as a gesture of goodwill, I am happy to send you a cheque for £28.00, that is the full cost of your ticket, due to the delay and confusion in resolving your query.

Please allow up to 21 working days for the cheque to arrive in the post.

Once again, I am sorry for the inconvenience and any upset caused. Please do not hesitate to contact us, if you have any further queries regarding the above,

Kind regards,

Hi,

Thanks for your response. That's the third reason I've heard for my claim being denied. The biggest issue though was that I wasn't informed that my claim had been denied. If I'd been contacted I would have been able to explain that it was late because I hadn't known that it mattered which company I claimed through so initially I contacted West Midland within the 28 days who then forwarded my claim to Southern who then forwarded it to you. The incident would also have been fresher in my memory so I would have been surer about which leg of the journey was delayed and the fact that it was the train not stopping at our station which had made us more than thirty minutes late.

Cheers, Jamie

In response to this last email I received a duplicate of their last email.