Roger French (again) on Delay Repay at GWR

Virtually the last item on this months blog

GWR’s appalling customer service continues
https://busandtrainuser.com/2025/12/30/seen-around-40/

Sadly easyJet don’t do Delay Repay so no compensation for my delayed arrival in the Isle of Man mentioned earlier, but back on the tracks I wonder if GWR are aiming to mimic Ryanair’s notorious approach to poor customer service with its continued hassle-as-standard ‘built in’ for any Delay Repay claim that’s just slightly more complicated than a straight A to B one operator journey claim.

Readers will recall me reporting GWR cancelled my intended train from Paddington to Castle Cary on 20th November with passengers having to travel by another train to Reading where we boarded the curtailed train that left Reading over half an hour late.

...snip......continues.........

 

This again shows that the delay repay system only works for a simple one train one ticket journey.

I had simular with a journey from Banbury to Pershore. Cross Country where running almost exactly 2 hours late from Banbury to Oxford. This made little difference to my Journey as I just caught the first available train and actually arrived at Oxford a few minutes early.
However I then found the Cotswold line was blocked by a failed train and eventualy got to Pershore about an hour and 40 late after a very uncomfortable taxi ride at GWR's expense. GWR rejected the claim because they claimed Cross Country where at fault.

 
I guess it will follow the creation of GB Railways in 2023

 
Interesting 'blog'? from Roger French (BusandTrainUser) today.

https://busandtrainuser.com/2021/09/19/customer-service-resolutions/

Shame the DfT/Treasury can't utilise one (simple) form for any delay repay for all TOC's - too much to ask I guess

 
Have to say I was quite impressed - put in a delay repay claim online last Friday for a journey made on 9 Sept - acknowledged the next day, refund paid today.

 
I made a claim for a late running train stuck at Bramley for 2 hours 30 mins due to a freight train stuck over Southcoate Junction. I filled in the form and sent it in, and GWR said my claim wasn't valid! I think if the form was filled in online and sent to GWR straight away, delay repay would be far more efficient in my opinion.

 
Update:

The repayment  has been rejected............

Reason: "some of the required information is missing from your application". This is not correct, ALL the requested information was supplied - the form was fully completed and additional information (booking ref) was enclosed with it.  When I go to the "appeal" page on the GWR website there is no ticket information shown on the original repayment request - even though this was supplied. (it asks for ticket "medium".....which is not requested on the claim form)
When I try and fill in the ticket details (again !) on the appeals form, it tells me that I can only claim a refund within 28 days of the journey - which has now, of course, been passed. The rejection email, however, tells me that I can appeal "before Mon, 11 Oct 2021" -  but the system won't let me do that !  As I said earlier in the thread "Heads GWR win, tails I lose".

Has anyone come across this problem before and has discovered a way round it ? or do I now put in a complaint about the delay repay system ? (I note that the full blown complaints form allows 5000 characters to be used - the "other" information box on the delay repay site allows a mere 250 !!)

 
That sounds a bit like "Heads I (GWR) win, tails you lose". It was the lateness of the train that caused her to be 1h 20m late at Cowes.
I must say that the paper form is a lot less specific/complicated that the on line version.  We'll see what happens.

 
I Made a claim some while ago for a Journey from Pershore to Yarmouth. I know the problem is not the same as It only involves Lymington Pier as a change point not a seperate ferry terminal. The Journey to Lymington pier was delayed by 30 minutes making me 1 hour late at Yarmouth.
You should expect to get a payment based on the lateness at SOU not at WTW however it should be a percentage of the whole fare including the ferry part of the fare.

 
Get a paper Delay & Repay form from a station and fill that in. That won't require any codes to be input, you can just write what happened in the comment section. It can be sent to a Freepost address, and you do get a reply, though it takes time...

 
My wife is trying to make a delay repay claim for a missed ferry connection (to the IoW) caused by a late running train. She had a through "railway" ticket covering the 3 legs of the journey. The GWR journey planner details the four "stations" on the trip: WMN - SOU - STQ- WTW...............but the delay repay system tells her that STQ is not a valid station ! The delay was 1h 10m - luckily the ferry trip was an open ticket. Any ideas please ?
She picked that particular train as it had the best reliability figures - huh !!