Getting compensation for lost tickets due to trains not running.

[doodlepants]

We booked to go to an event in London, the tickets cost £85. Refundable up to 48 hours before.

I checked our train 48 hours before. I checked it 4 times the morning of our travel. We took the earliest train so that if it got delayed, there were 3 more that would get us there on time.

The train company took us 1 stop then cancelled all trains to London and all trains back home. We couldn't take a taxi home because we had a baby and no car seat. We were stuck there for 6 hours. These problems had been ongoing for more than a month. They knew they weren't getting anyone to London.

The train company are now saying all they can do is refund our train tickets. We have lost £85 on event tickets. The event organiser won't refund. Considering I did everything I could to make sure we got there, is there any way to get the train company to do at for this expense? The train company have said they would refund a taxi ride (which would have been approx £130) but not the event tickets.

They have a duty to get you there, by taxi if needs be. Unfortunately if you turned that down I suspect you won't get a full refund

Did they offer to get you to London by other means or just a taxi home?

You don’t need a car seat in a taxi, so you actually could have taken a taxi and got to the event.

You made the choice not to travel without a car seat, absolutely valid because of the safety aspect, but it was your choice. They would have got you there so they won’t compensate you for the event tickets.

We called several local taxi companies and they wouldn't take us without a car seat and because we had a dog with us (we were travelling with family members who were going to take the dog while we were at the experience)

We were not able to travel further.

@Islam52 I'm afraid it is to me. One day I aspire to be able to lose £85 and not blink twice, though!

@MintTwirl they didn't offer to do anything! They simply told us to wait and that there would be no replacement busses. We waited for 6 hours after being told by local taxi companies that they would not take us.

I only found out after the fact (when I applied for the refund) that they would have reimbursed a taxi.

This is your issue. They offered a reasonable alternative. You had a dog that meant you weren’t able to take it. The dog isn’t their problem.

I suspect the problem was that you had a dog, not a baby. Never heard a taxi company turn down a fare because of a child, given the law stipulates no car seat necessary.

They have to get you to your next destination or home, but they’re not responsible for the dog.

It isn’t fair, and they did leave you stranded but you’re not going to win anything from them because they’re not responsible for your dog.

If the train company allows dogs, surely they should have helped OP get onward travel that also allows dogs?

I don’t think OP will get anywhere with getting the tickets refunded as it’s probably in the train ticket T&Cs, but it is very frustrating.

@BassoContinuo

The dog didn’t have a ticket though. They don’t need to sort out the dog.

But they agreed to take the dog on the train - you can’t just leave a living thing stranded on the station. And I believe some train companies do require dogs to have tickets.

I assume the baby didn’t have a ticket either!

To top it all off, it was my daughter's birthday! She won't remember it but it doesn't feel great to have spent the day in an over-crowded station, with no idea when we were about to get out of there.

At one point we heard a massive roar of a crowd downstairs and it was because a crowd of people (maybe 30?) had been told they weren't going anywhere and were hurling abuse at the train staff. I think they were on the way to a sports match. The atmosphere got really tense in the station fora while. No one knew if it was just all going to unravel.

It does seem like it's a sad reality that I've lost £85, spent my daughters birthday in an overcrowded station with no idea if we could get anywhere, not being offered any alternative travel and been made to wait 6 hours, been allowed on a train with a dog but then from what I've seen from replies the train company can therefore shift all the blame onto me now because I had a dog on a dog-friendly train and am out of pocket for all the expensive food I had to buy at the station because we had no other options!

Never again.

You’re not going to increase your chances of compensation but dropping in that you felt unsafe and felt there was going to be a riot. There wasn’t. You were safe.

It sucks. It isn’t fair. I’d be furious. It really doesn’t seem right that they can get away with it, but they won’t compensate you for the concert tickets.

Any chance you have purchased any annual travel insurance policies for when you go on holiday? An annual policy would cover stuff in the UK too and you could possibly claim through that.

You could always try kicking up a stink on social media, but you’d need to have a large following for it to make an impact on getting them to give you the money.

@Itslegitimatesalvage no, I'm sure there were plenty that of people desperate to get places that day, and probably for much more important reasons so I doubt I'd even be a blip on their radar. Just frustrating that their failing to provide a service can directly affect their customers and the best they can do is offer a refund in the ticket - meaning they essentially lose nothing, when their customer is left having spend their child's birthday stranded and burdened with the financial responsibility for their failure.

I guess I just have to accept it.

Cancelling all trains will be down to a specific issue, not for fun. As annoying as it is, it isn't their problem if you couldn't use a taxi. Dogs are carriers as a courtesy so they don't have to offer replacement travel and you can take babies in taxis

They will expect you to claim on travel insurance for things like event tickets. Do you definitely not have an annual policy, or travel insurance attached to something like a bank account?

It’s harsh but you’d lost the £85 already. It had already been spent on something, so it’s not like you lost £85 in cash.

If train companies reimbursed people for every legitimate expense every time they let someone down they’d have gone bankrupt a long time ago.

Some bookings offer insurance on tickets when you buy. I doubt a regular policy will cover this situation.

Did the dig have a permit to travel?

Did you get ticket insurance when you purchased the theatre tickets? It’s rare that I buy a ticket without it being offered nowadays.

www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act-travel-amendments-aK1gt0V9uQNL#supplying-a-travel-service

You can ask the train company for compensation for consequential losses under the Consumer Rights Act. Read down the above article for details on how to proceed. You'd have to ask a court to enforce this but there's a good chance the company will compensate you to avoid that.