Transport User Voice – August 2018 – Case study

31 July 2018

Mr G fell ill and was taken to hospital. He was told he would be unfit for travel for the duration of his season ticket, meaning he would be unable to use his season ticket any longer.

He spoke with rail operator c2c at the time and enquired about how to secure a refund for the remainder of his season ticket, but they failed to advise him of the correct procedure – in other words surrender the ticket. Instead he sent in a photocopy of the ticket.

This meant that, since he was technically able to use the ticket, c2c would not provide a full refund on the remainder of his ticket. He was offered only a discretionary award of up to 4 weeks-worth of travel.

Mr G was told after he had recovered from illness that they could not provide full refund because he did not surrender his ticket at the time. He was very unhappy with this because, despite making c2c fully aware of the situation, they did not advise him clearly about this obligation at the time. He had effectively paid for something that it was not possible for him to use.

Mr G came to Transport Focus, who communicated the situation to c2c. They accepted their error and agreed to retrospectively refund Mr G £193.20 to cover the period he was signed off work due to illness, along with £50 in National Rail vouchers as a gesture of goodwill.

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