Have namechanged as this is outing.
I’ve been turned down for a train ticket refund, via the app I bought the tickets from, with no explanation and the only option to follow up is through automated chat which isn’t helpful.
I’m hoping if I can explain the circumstances someone could point me in the right direction.
Ds and I had tickets to return home from a short trip to London. As Kings Cross northern line is out of action we had to go to St Pancras instead - we got there an hour early (DS is autistic, being organised and early helps him) to be herded by East Midlands Railway staff into a queue that had over a thousand passengers waiting for a train (I am also autistic and didn’t have the time to process the unexpected - with hindsight I know exactly what I should have done!).
Our train was the 18.02 to Sheffield but all ticket systems were abandoned in favour of a “queue everyone up and cram as many people onto a train as possible” chaotic disaster.
EMR staff were shouting at people to keep them as close to each other as possible, and were avoiding passengers as many were, understandably, angry.
We queued for over an hour and a half, couldn’t see anyone to talk to, were too jammed in to easily get out of the queue, when ds had a meltdown - he was trying to run away and was sobbing (his first public meltdown), so we had to push backwards out of the queue to get out. By that time we would miss our last connecting train which would add more chaos for ds, so i eventually found someone who would talk to me, who was lovely and said she could get us on the next train, but agreed that by that stage we would be better applying for a refund for that journey, buying another set of tickets and booking assistance.
I did that, and had to book an extra night at a hotel as ds by that time was unable to travel anywhere. I booked more tickets, applied for a refund, booked assistance, all well.
The refund has been refused so including the hotel I’m over £200 down.
I knew the northern line was down, but was certain that ds could cope with the journey based on the (I think) reasonable assumption that we’d get on the train we booked (I’ve travelled on trains a lot and have never had anything like this happen!). Ds managed the train journeys the next day fine, helped by being able to avoid the initial queue as I’d booked assistance (which I will do from now on!).
EMR says I have to apply through the app I bought the tickets from (TrainPal), but they’ve rejected the claim.
What do I do? Can I ask EMR for the cost of the hotel back too?
Had there been any warning that they would adopt a first come first served system, ignoring any of the times that passengers had booked, I would have had time to make other arrangements. Apart from knowing that the journey would take three trains instead of 1, and being 1-2 hours longer, there was no warning of the utter chaos that was St Pancras on Sunday night.
Thank you if you’ve managed to get through all of that!