So where to start?
Well, as it was we actually had a pretty busy first day back; Simon had an eye appointment, we had a delivery due and I had a hairdressers appointment. We managed to fit everything in around a walk to a local cafe for a late breakfast and while out and about I caught up on some social media posts. I decided to make an Instagram post about our 'interesting' journey home and tagged Eurostar in the caption and thought no more of it.
Whilst sat at the hairdressers having my hair colour reinvigorated I received a notification; Eurostar had commented on my post asking me to 'DM' them...which I dutifully did! This started a conversation in which they asked for details of what had happened. They then opened up a case number and gave me an email address with which to communicate. Perhaps this would avoid me having to search their website for the correct forms to complete in order to claim back all the extra expenses involved with getting home...only time would tell.
I'd discovered on their website that any reasonable hotel and food expenses, within set limits per room/night and meal, would be covered. Looking at what we'd spent everything fell within those limits and so I was hopeful that we would be able to get a full refund. The only question mark was the cost of the train tickets home as we'd sorted these ourselves rather than waiting for Eurostar to organise (as we'd been led to believe).
I dutifully crafted an email cataloguing all the various travel events and expenses and hit the send button.
The following day I received an email from Eurostar but this was not in response to my email this one was evidently their response to the cancelling of the train home. They offered a full refund of the original tickets plus an e-voucher to the same value. The e-voucher was received straight away. But I had to request the refund by accessing my account and choosing the refund option...mmm...that would be the option that didn't exist no matter what I tried. I did try to reply to this email but received no response, which I presume was because this was a standard email sent to everyone affected.
It also clarified why we'd had so much trouble with communication at the time of making our way home. Eurostar's computer system had recorded our tickets as being 'used' because we had boarded a train that had departed on time. But what the system didn't 'know' was that the full journey had not been completed which meant it could not automate a refund or response at the time. Unfortunately for us the staff on duty cannot have appreciated this and hence their instructions of 'you'll have an email within the hour' was never going to come true!
Then I waited...
Nine days later I decided to send another email and was once again left waiting...
Three days after that I decided to try another approach and jumped on my Instagram messages to see if anyone could tell me what was happening or at least what timescales we were talking. The following day I received a response to apologise for the delay and that a new agent was taking over my case as the original agent was 'absent'. And within 90 minutes I had an email confirming that all payments and compensations, including a full refund of the tickets home, would be paid as soon as possible!
Amazingly 24 days after getting home all the promised refunds and compensation payments had been received.
Whether this process would have happened so quickly using 'official' channels who knows, but it does go to show how sometimes a social media post can often have a positive impact, and in this case likely saved me from a lot of form filling!
Now we just need an excuse to use the vouchers we were given!!
