I have been having problems with Great Western Railway over refunds for late trains – three are outstanding – and I am sure I am not alone. The first dates back to the end of August when I made the claim the day after travel. Having heard nothing by the end of September, I sent an email to GWR’s managing director, Mark Hopwood, and received a polite reply asking for details of my case (which I did the same day) and promising to look into it.
By the beginning of November I had heard nothing and again emailed Hopwood. Once more I received a reply the following day asking for the details and promising to look into it. These were sent immediately.
I have heard nothing since. I would suggest that this shows something is wrong with GWR’s administration.
As far as I can make out it is running at least three months behind on claims, even if you contact the MD. The current spate of cancellations due to recent Storm Angus is not going to help. JH, London
Although it’s now common for consumers to contact company bosses directly (and there are entire websites dedicated to listing their contact details) you really shouldn’t have had to be in this position over simple refunds for late running services, to which you are entitled.
This is bread and butter for train companies but, inevitably, backlogs do build up following exceptional and ongoing poor weather conditions, including flooding.
Many railway lines were affected by major flooding from Storm Angus in November, reporting delays and blocked lines. Great Western Railway even advised commuters not to travel owing to the “severe flooding at a number of separate locations” across its network.
The company has apologised to you for dragging its feet and sent you £88 in refunds. “We are sorry for the time it has taken our customer service team to respond. We’ve recently moved our contact centre to a new site, bringing all our customer service work back to the UK, and the move means some detailed responses are taking longer than we would like. We are working with our new team to improve our response rates.”
That said, we are still receiving complaints from readers about delays in receiving compensation.
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