legal advice on reimbursement please

[bingybong]

I'm currently locking horns with thetrainline.com who I feel are out of order. It is a long-winded story but in a nutshell: booked train tickets over phone, when they arrived they had wrong date on them. they eventually admitted it was their error but would only refund original tickets not issue new ones - I had to buy new ones which cost almost £100 more than the price I had originally paid. I spent around £25 on phone calls to them trying to sort this out. I wrote a letter of complaint and have had no response, except for a refund of the original (incorrect) tickets into my bank account. They haven't even refunded the handling fee I paid to them for my original purchase.

Am I entitled to be reimbursed for the cost of the tickets I had to buy in order to travel after their mistake?
Am I entitled to my costs re phone calls (I had to phone them as they didn't call me when they were supposed to).

Please help - I am really angry at their approach to customer service!

Their terms and conditions state "we will pay for all reasonable and foreseeable direct costs which you incur in relation to the provision of tickets by us, and which are directly caused as a result of our negligence or a breach of any of these terms by us and which you could not have avoided or reduced by taking reasonable steps". Those words are part of their "Liability Disclaimer".

You say they have already admitted negligence in sending you tickets for the wrong date. As far as I can see there are no reasonable steps you could have taken to avoid or reduce your costs. The costs you have incurred in buying the correct tickets were reasonable and forseeable. So it seems to me that they are in breach of contract.

They may dispute your telephone costs but I would argue that they are a direct result of Trainline.com Ltd's breach of contract. You will probably need to produce supporting evidence such as a phone bill.

If it were me, I would write to them setting out your claim in full, pointing them at their own Ts & Cs and threatening to take them to the small claims court unless they settle in full within, say, 14 days. You should include details of their admission that they were at fault - a copy of the letter/email or the date and time of the phone call. You should also include evidence to support your phone costs - copies in case you need to originals for going to court.

Good luck.

Thank you prh47bridge for the advice. I will write to them using that terminology. It seems to me their process is deliberately difficult in order to deter people persuing costs. I certainly won't use them again.

I missed the error when I first checked the tickets and it was actually about 5 weeks later when I realised the mistake. Does this make a difference?

I would tell them you only opened the tickets to check 5 weeks later. I often don't open tickets until just before I travel/go to a concert etc (as it is easier to lose them once I have opened the envelope)

It weakens your case a little. They might try to argue that you could have avoided or reduced your losses by checking the tickets when you received them, assuming the tickets for the correct date cost less at that time (which they would have to prove if they wanted to make that argument). I would argue that you took all reasonable steps once you were aware of their negligence.

I wouldn't worry about that at this stage. Concentrate on their negligence causing your loss.

Hi bingybong,

I work for thetrainline.com Perhaps I can help. Please can you contact me with your e-mail address and reference number so that I can resolve this for you.

Thanks

Thanks Niki. We have computer gremlins at the moment and our home pc has packed in - so my email is currently down. I'll contact you when it is back up. Which department do you work in? I have tried to get through to a complaints department but keep getting stuck with a call centre abroad who are no help whatsoever. Does a complaints department actually exist?

Hi bingybong,

We have a Customer Relationd department. If you e-mail us at [email protected] and use MUMSNET in the subject heading so that I can get this resolved for you.

NIKI - I am expecting my home pc back today, so should hopefully be able to email. I will put MUMSNET in the heading - should I also mark it for your attention so it isn't picked up and passed over by someone else? Many thanks in advance.