Am posting here for advice as I genuinely don't know what to do. I started a new job in April. The role was in Charity retail, where I am very experienced and I was very much looking forward to it. Was told before I started that I would have to do a couple of weeks training in a store further away as that's where the trainer was based..... fine, I have no problem with this and thought it would just be a case of learning the new charity's computer systems and paperwork requirements. This training store was twice as far as the store I was hired to work in, so I was travelling an extra 30 miles per day during this period. Anyway, this two week 'training' period turned into over 4 weeks and the 'training' was, quite frankly, a joke. The time I spent doing the introductory paperwork and learning the systems with the trainer amounted to approximately two days - this is literally all that I needed in order to go on and do my job. The rest of the time was, basically, like being a glorified full time volunteer. I raised it with my area manager several times, and was just told that 'I was there to do the training'. It was immensely frustrating and the additional travelling time impacted on my family commitments getting the DC to sports training on time etc. I was also expected to work there on the weekend when the trainer had their day off. It was like I was making up the numbers! I also had to attend a mandatory managers meeting, located in the middle of nowhere (so not able to use public transport). This was a 200 mile round trip door to door. I took a colleague to carshare and reduce costs for the charity.
I also was told in order to claim any of this mileage back I had to have business insurance on my car insurance policy. This cost me £35 to add to my policy (which, incidentally was only a couple of weeks old and had I known I would have added it when I renewed, thus saving me the £20 admin costs).
When I tried to claim the mileage for the additional travel and driving to the compulsory meeting, I was informed that my car needed to be registered on their system..... fine, so I started the process of adding my car.
However, TBH, the frustrating 'training', along with the culture and general bad feeling about working there led me to hand my notice in after two months. On my last day I received a message from the transport department telling me that my vehicle was now registered on the system and that if I made a mileage claim, they would process it that day. My area manager was fully aware of this and I asked them to chase up for me if there were any problems. All fine, yes yes, ok, no problem!
However, a month on I am NOT regretting leaving one iota, but I have not yet received the money I am owed for the additional mileage incurred. This amounts to close to £300 so not insignificant and I'm not prepared to just let it go. I attended the training and the meeting in good faith and was informed that I would be able to make this claim. I paid extra on my insurance premium specifically to do this.
Initially I received emails from my area manager asking me if I'd received the money yet and that they were chasing it up for me. I emailed them last week and they have since ignored me. I emailed the transport department. They emailed back saying there was nothing they could do and my area manager needed to contact finance. I emailed finance (cc'd my 'ex' area manager), they emailed back saying I needed to contact somewhere else, and so on...... I'm getting nowhere with this. So far I've been extremely polite, just stating that a month on this should really be resolved now.
So what are my options? I don't want to get shirty and think this won't get me anywhere anyway. I could threaten small claims but really want to avoid this if possible. Like I say, it's £300..... the job was MW so this is a lot of money. Do I go to the CEO or what? I just want my money and to get on with my life!