£10 admin fee for train ticket refund!

I can't travel tomorrow, so I was hoping to go on the National Express website to get an electronic refund.

I spent around £12 on a ticket, and apparently I can only get £2 back due to 'administration fees'. I looked in the customer service section and apparently this applies to all refunds!

Now, I know some of you might say to book the train for when you can actually make it. But due to unforeseen things which occur, this isn't always feasible.

I just think a £10 admin fee to cancel a ticket is totally excessive.

Reply 1

nearlyheadlessian

15

I am Hades

I can't travel tomorrow, so I was hoping to go on the National Express website to get an electronic refund.

I spent around £12 on a ticket, and apparently I can only get £2 back due to 'administration fees'. I looked in the customer service section and apparently this applies to all refunds!

Now, I know some of you might say to book the train for when you can actually make it. But due to unforeseen things which occur, this isn't always feasible.

I just think a £10 admin fee to cancel a ticket is totally excessive.

By booking a fare in advance you take a calculated risk. You were made aware of the administration fee in advance. It's only £12...

Reply 2

SpiritedAway

17

Not at all, administration needs to earn too, it is a business :dontknow:

. It isn't the company's fault that something "came up", and they're not taking your right to a refund away, so I find it totally sensible.

Reply 3

I am Hades

OP

nearlyheadlessian

By booking a fare in advance you take a calculated risk. You were made aware of the administration fee in advance. It's only £12...

I would understand (albeit disappointed with the level of customer service) if they had a policy whereby only a certain % of the purchase price was refunded for tickets booked in advance. However, this is due to an 'administration fee' which seems rather arbitrary. I am curious as to how it costs £10 to cancel an electronic ticket. £10 is almost 2 hours of work for your average customer service employee, does it take almost 2 hours to cancel an electronic ticket?

Reply 4

nearlyheadlessian

15

I am Hades

I would understand (albeit disappointed with the level of customer service) if they had a policy whereby only a certain % of the purchase price was refunded for tickets booked in advance. However, this is due to an 'administration fee' which seems rather arbitrary. I am curious as to how it costs £10 to cancel an electronic ticket. £10 is almost 2 hours of work for your average customer service employee, does it take almost 2 hours to cancel an electronic ticket?

No, the £10 is the penalty you have to pay for choosing not to travel - they lose a stream of revenue when you choose not to travel and to cash in your ticket. Say you've bought your fare online, the seller may well have posted the ticket to you for free, as well as processing the journey booking, paying to process your card payment (and paying to process your card refund in this event). Add in to that that there is a website at all, and you can probably put a value on the whole service of several £. Of course, it's not worth £10, but it's a deterrent to encourage to travel or simply not bother cancelling. Have to point out they've not done anything poor in terms of customer service - this is common across the rail network and you're made aware of it when you purchase your tickets.

Reply 5

Steeps

11

By booking a ticket in advance you are usually getting a large discount on the price of the ticket, it helps the companies get an idea how busy a service will be (if a lot of people book) and they then try to match this demand in the future. When you cancel a ticket you're basically screwing over the company by not wishing to use a service when they have allocated resources to it. Coaches/Trains don't run on thin air so your cancellation fee does not just go to your average customer service employee.

Reply 6

dusk

In addition, it stops people booking up all the advance tickets on the cheap just on the off-chance that they travel. Yea it sucks, but booking an advance ticket is a gamble.

Reply 7

blue_shift86

been there, done that, it sucks. Accept it and move on and be more careful in the future i guess! On the bright side....think of it as minor...If you bought a £40 with another company, which is fully refundable but you could have made the journey you'd have been £28 out of pocket, so sometimes it's worth the calculated risk just to take the cheap ticket and accept the risk of not being able to get your money back!

All the best for the future mate :smile:

. Also another random idea. I see a lot of such ads on the internet. "london to milton keynes ticket for £5" or whatever - you can still get more than the £2 back if you sell it online to someone wanting a cheap ticket to the same destination. That way you both win :smile:

.

Reply 8

MadnessRed

1

Been in the same situation. Forgot a season ticket. Asked the ticket guy, he said I could by a day return and get a refund the next day. Did that and found its £10 admin for a £8 ticket.

Wouldn't mind working for a company where 5 mins admin is £10.
Thats £120 an hour.
Edit: ^ That was sarcasm for whoever couldn't tell. Obviously the station staff aren't paid that much.

Also, I wouldn't mind paying a bit of admin, if I knew it was actually going to the person who was going to the trouble of giving me a refund. However, fining customers for something they allow in there tos under the pretence its going to be put towards admin, when it clearly isn't, is just wrong.