Customers are fuming with Trainline for slapping them with a £10 admin fee to process ticket refunds.
The payment applies to tickets worth over £13, according to the company's website, while those at a lower value are charged a lower fee.
Tickets worth £12 to £12.99 are charged a £9 admin fee, while those between £5 and £5.99 are charged £3, for example.
One customer labelled the charge "ridiculous" after being repaid only a third of his original ticket price.
He wrote on Twitter: "We have £15 train tickets which are going to cost me a £10 admin fee from Trainline to get back."
And another said he was "robbed" of over half his refund after being charged £7.50 for a £10.80 ticket, leaving him with just £3.30.
They shared a screenshot from the Trainline app showing a breakdown of the charges, posting: "What's the point in offering a refund if you're just gonna rob us of 3/4s of it?"
A Trainline spokesperson replied to the tweet, writing: "It's confirmed in the T&Cs that any refund requested within T&Cs will face an admin fee of up to £10.
"This applies to bookings across the industry, regardless of where they were purchased."
After the customer said they couldn't get a train due to a cancellation, the spokesperson confirmed they were entitled to a full refund and recommended completing their webform instead of going on the app.
A third customer complained about the "audacious" fee last month, adding: "I've done more admin paying for the ticket and requesting the refund in the first place."
And a fourth tweeted: "What is going on, train cancelled this morning and when I go to get a refund in your app, you want to charge me a £10 admin fee. Surely that cannot be right?"
A spokesman said they were owed a full refund, due to the journey disruption, and said it could be requested via the 'My Account' section on the app.
But the customer replied: "The 'my account' route always wants to charge a £10 admin fee, which is so wrong."
Another social media user said: "I spent a chunk of time on the phone yesterday claiming refunds for cancelled trains… If you call the trainline, they will refund you that extra £10 for the cancelled train.
"If you claim the refund online, they automatically charge you an admin fee. Joy!"
In its ticket refund and changes section online, Trainline states: "Depending on your ticket type, you may be eligible for a refund or an exchange on your ticket.
"We charge a fee, based on your ticket value to do this.
"If you haven't collected your ticket by the expiry date of the ticket, we'll automatically refund your ticket subject to our refund fee and our terms and conditions."
Trainline confirmed that customers can receive a full refund without an admin fee if their train is cancelled.
A spokesperson told the Mirror: “When our customers need a refund, we try to make the process easy, seamless and fair for them. We follow the rail industry’s rules on when administration fees are charged for refunds.
"This includes a full refund without admin fee if a customer's train is cancelled, or they can choose to travel on the next available train with their existing ticket.
"Customers with non-refundable Advance tickets can also currently change their booking without any admin fee, up to 18.00 the day before travel.
“As far as possible, we empower our customers to self-serve their refund through their account, so they can get their money back quickly and easily without needing to contact us further.
"We also proactively contact our customers when we are notified their train is cancelled, and set out their refund options.
"However on rare occasions, if the industry database has not yet been updated with details of the cancellation then customers will need to contact us to receive their full refund.
“Where an admin fee is due, we've introduced a tiered system that means often we charge less than the industry standard £10 fee, and makes a refund possible for more low-value tickets.”
Railway customers can also claim for a full refund directly through the operator, via the ‘delay repay’ scheme - which pays out a certain amount if the train is more than 15 or 30 minutes late.
Under the most generous ‘Delay Repay 15’ scheme, you get 25 per cent of the single fare you paid if you’re delayed by 15 to 29 minutes (depending on the operator).
If you’re delayed by 30-59 minutes it’s 50 per cent and if you’re delayed by 60 or more minutes it’s 100 per cent.
For return tickets, it’s a calculation based on whether one or both legs of your journey was delayed.
However, single or return, you get 100 per cent of the whole ticket price you paid if one leg is more than 120 minutes late.
