Greater Anglia train ticket cancellation fail

I’ve gone on about how their new trains are nice, but when it comes to after-sales service, and more specifically my attempt to cancel a ticket due to my wife being sick, Greater Anglia‘s policies seem very much like Ryanair.

I had spent £40 on tickets, and would have appreciated getting a refund as she could no longer use them.

Instead I was told each leg-cancellation had a ‘£10 admin fee’. (Erm, what? Is there someone who charges for their time clicking a ‘cancel’ button?) So that was £20 lost. Then the remaining cost of £20 would be refunded, except you have to first drive (petrol) to the train station to print and collect the tickets (that you won’t use), then drive (more petrol) to the post office to send via recorded delivery (£3) to Edinburgh (carbon footprint), where someone would then write a refund cheque and send that back (extra cost and carbon footprint).

I’m sorry not-so-Greater Anglia, but why not just accept the refund request and simply press ‘refund’ on your credit card transaction machine online. Result: much fewer un-needed journeys, wasted carbon, money, and happier customers.