Rail Ombudsman Opiniones 

The purpose of my complaint was being abandoned without any assistance whatsoever which GWR have chosen not to address when they finally responded? Why your operation needed to be involved to achieve even a response from GWR should not have been necessary!

After waiting what seemed like an eternity, I had a response from the Rail Ombudsman, which failed to even acknowledge two of the three points of my complaint.

I asked for a review of the decision.

It was indeed reviewed – but by the same person who had provided the original threadbare and irrelevant response. Needless to say, he did not deign to find fault with his own initial findings.

It's hard to imagine a review process that could be more flawed, but it got worse.

The matter then pinged to his line manager, a 'lead ombudsman', so surely this would now get sorted?

Not a chance – she appears to be a close personal friend of his, judging by an avalanche of their shared social media activity.

Surely, she would recuse herself and pass the case on to another manager?

She did not.

Surely someone in senior management might at some stage step in to rearrange the lines of escalation for the purposes of maintaining impartial checks and balances, particularly when a claim to objectivity stands as the bedrock of the organisational mission?

They did not.

The senior ombudsperson found in favour of the original findings without actually saying why.

Furthermore, she made two staggering assertions along the way:

– Complaints are addressed 'as a whole'. This means that if a rail provider can provide a level of justification for any one single issue you raise, they win. The remaining points you make will not be considered at all. It's why service complaints never garner a single acknowledgement.

– Secondly, the threshold for the said justification can be met by evidence that is provided in secret. You are simply told that the rail organisation has satisfied the ombudsman that they were right, and nothing about that evidence is disclosed at all.

The escalated review response was jumbled and ungrammatical, so I asked for some clarification. My communications were ignored.

It's a challenge to see this as anything other than a fundamentally inadequate approach to complaints investigation and resolution.

The Rail Ombudsman is a private, for-profit organisation who mark their own homework and are accountable to nobody. Their other role is that they are the Furniture Ombudsman.

Take a brief moment to contemplate that.

It hardly fills you with confidence regarding their industry expertise.

Moreover, their whole commercial model is apparently as questionable as their operational processes.

They are funded by the very organisations they supposedly regulate, which leads to one possible and very problematic conclusion: an abundance in findings for consumers might very well create an existential crisis for their own business.

How can they therefore remain impartial and hope to stay in business? The answer to that may be that they cannot, which perhaps somewhat explains their opaque and seemingly indefensible methods and attitude.

The only parties who regularly benefit from their activities are the Rail Ombudsman themselves, who spoon in a fee for every complaint received, and the rail companies, who are provided with the routine stamp of approval for their frequent, flagrant abuses of consumer rights.

I would recommend giving them a wide berth.

Customers will arguably be better off running a case in the small claims court where a decision will be based impartially on evidence and consumer law.

If enough people go down this track (pun intended), rail companies may not feel they are getting their money's worth, and hopefully this organisation will be superseded by an impartial and competent governmental equivalent.

After being forced to take taxis due to Northern cancelling 2 trains at the last minute I was left £45 out of pocket with taxi fares. Northern only agreed to pay half of that back which wasn't fair as it was their fault I had to get the taxis as there was no way of being able to make the journeys without cancelling my plans any other way than a taxi thanks to the cancelled trains.
I contacted The Rail Ombudsman and explained how there was no way I could make those journeys without using a taxi. Despite all the proof they not only ruled against me, I didn't get a penny of the money I am owed, they completely failed to provide any explanation of what I should have done barring plan for your trains to be cancelled or cancel your plans. Absolutely pathetic. Oh yeah, and it took almost 2 months to find this out.
An absolute waste of space. I won't ever bother with the Rail Ombudsman again. They are clearly there just to support the rail companies. Obviously very partial and biased.

Whilst the ombudsman only partially upheld my claim, I was very struck by how thorough, professional and impartial they were. They went through a tremendous effort to get all the facts from both parties and wrote a hugely comprehensive report. Very impressive.

Poor decision making and no power to force train operators to provide explanations. Just a post box. My letters were extremely detailed and set out the situation in a reasoned manner. They are so lazy they did not even read all the documents I sent them as they failed to send Avanti my complaint summary letter!! They do not get to the root of the problem and consider that if AVANTI offer you a free rail ticket that’s a result. WRONG!! When I rejected AVANTI’s offer they offered me 2 free tickets!! Don’t waste your time and effort on this ineffective ombudsman. Use an airline instead of AVANTI

I did not believe my side of the dispute would be considered. I had to give a huge amount of detailed fact and information which was onerous, however, all of the information was used by the adjudicator and was presented by them in a clear way. This meant that there was no doubt on why I had a successful claim. Thank you

I had an issue getting paid for a "delay repay" payment from Avanti West Coast. Had excellent service from the Rail Ombudsman by a lady called Claire . She got a response sorted within a fortnight that was fair. Thank you so much. Have nothing but praise for this service.

I contacted the ombudsman about appalling treatment from Avanti West Coast. It was dealt with very professionally, efficiently and quickly by Claire and I received a full refund. Very pleased with the service-thank you.

Excellent service from the RO I learnt a lot about how to handle a claim. My contact Ms Smith was absolutely first class.

I've had to wait nearly a year because CROSS COUNTRY RAIL have been ignoring my emails, contacted the rail ombudsman service in a matter of days I'll be getting compensation for poor train service THANK YOU RAIL OMBUDSMAN fantastic service

Back in December 2021, Avanti West Coast (AWC) declassified the First Class carriage I was booked on due to overcrowding. When I claimed this back, they took a very long time to respond and initially over a voucher for half the price. When pushing for a refund, they refused. I took it to the Ombudsman and AWC offered a £5 refund. I refused and AWC went quiet (dragging out the days).
Eventually the Ombudsman asked me to provide evidence as AWC could not find any evidence of the train being declassified! Note that "no evidence" does not mean it didn't happen... I only had two WhatsApp chats showing conversations with family that the train had been declassified, and I was sceptical. However the next day I had a refund issued, which took about ten days to arrive by cheque. I recommend using the Ombudsman as AWC will fob you off and drag out the process hoping you will not bother to claim. My advice - get evidence on board from a member of staff and use it to get the refund you want.

Dont bother going to the Ombudsman for help, they're all it in it together, despite Transport for Wales lying and saying a matter had been escalated to a higher level when it hadn't (I provided four emails to the ombudsman as evidence asking for escalation which were all ignored) none of this was investigated or mentioned in the final adjudication. No explanation provided to emails being ignored that Transport for Wales said were replied to (but didn't need to provide evidence). No explanation to why the railway only seemed to make contact when the ombudsman got involved, no apology from anyone despite having evidence, months after being told to email tickets over for a refund was I then told they needed to be posted. An absolute shambles both Transport for Wales and the Ombudsman.

I would like to thank the Rail Ombudsman team for assisting to get a successful outcome with regards to an issue with a refund from Avanti West Coast.
Even though the exact same information was provided to both Avanti and the Rail Ombudsman - it took the RO getting involved to get this resolved.
I'm very grateful for their assistance.

After being ignored by Avanti on 2 separate occasions the ombudsman resolved my issue with the company. Unfortunate the public have to resort to 3rd parties to get the TOC's to honor their obligations, we are luck to have a free impartial service to support us.

I just thank goodness that the ombudsman is available and free to use. GWR owed me a substantial amount of money that it cost me for my failed journey, after the refused, I contacted the ombudsman. My claim has been settled in full. Its well worth pursuing.

Fantastic service which swiftly resolved a claim I’d been pursuing for three months with no success. A great organisation to reach out to for anyone experiencing similar issues.

Avanti turned down our claim for delay compensation giving two different reasons why another company was at fault, although the delay was clearly caused by their cancellation of the train on which we had booked seats.
The ombudsman service was prompt and effective. Thank you!

Quick response to my complaint and it produced a good result from the railway company after months of delays and inaction. Polite, helpful and informative.

LNWR had been dragging their heels for months, as soon as I had logged a complaint via Rail Ombudsman they resolved my complaint within two days. Thanks Rail Ombudsman 👍

Back in October I had a small issue with GWR whereby their App stated that for the train departure we needed, only 1st Class tickets were available. On getting to the train, it was obvious that there was plenty of space available in Standard Class. I therefore requested a refund for the difference in price from GWR. They could have dealt with this quickly and sensibly. Instead they chose to prevaricate and delay...and two months later, refused to pay the difference. The issue therefore became one of principle, and not of money. Having requested the Rail Ombudsman to review, I was impressed by their calm and measured efficiency. A lady called Rosie took over the case and within a very short timeframe, had completely settled it. A really excellent service and thank goodness they exist - if we had to rely on GWR Customer Services we would still be arguing this time next year. Many thanks to the Rail Ombudsman for your excellent service.