Irish Rail do they care ?

Shelflife

Ran into problems buying a ticket on line over 6 weeks ago. i emailed them and rang them but suprise suprise there was no customer service available on a sunday.

i got the standard "will get back to you email" on sunday. on monday i rang, spoke to customer services who couldnt/wouldnt help and promised to get back to me that day. needless to say there was no call back.

the following week i wrote to IR and outlined my complaint, 5 weeks later and there is still no reply.

how many times do you have to contact them in order to get a problem sorted? it really shows the contempt and gross inneffeciency that is rife in IR.

It must be great to get paid regardless of whether you do your job well or in the case of IR not at all.

Victor

What is the actual problem?

Shelflife

i tried to book tickets on line for my kids,

1 to avail of the cheap prices
2 so that they would be sitting together

my laser card was out of date so i was prompted to use another card, i tried to use my cc but it wouldnt accept it due to "security reasons" (seemingly if you do as prompted and use a different card this is a security risk).

bottom line is that i couldnt book on line, and my kids had to pay the higher price and sit apart on the train.

My gripe is that i have contacted them 3 times in relation to this and they havent bothered to respond.

Losty Dublin

Shelflife wrote: »

i tried to book tickets on line for my kids,

1 to avail of the cheap prices
2 so that they would be sitting together

my laser card was out of date so i was prompted to use another card, i tried to use my cc but it wouldnt accept it due to "security reasons" (seemingly if you do as prompted and use a different card this is a security risk).

bottom line is that i couldnt book on line, and my kids had to pay the higher price and sit apart on the train.

My gripe is that i have contacted them 3 times in relation to this and they havent bothered to respond.

The only problem here with Irish Rail is in not answering your letter; the laser card was your problem while the credit card would be a matter for the merchant and/or your card provider. Any reason why you didn't call back a second time; not to excuse a long wait but surely to Goodness you didn't sit on your hands for a full 6 weeks waiting back on word before trying to book again?

veryangryman

Not being able to book a (non city-city) trip online is beyond a joke at this stage

Del2005

Shelflife wrote: »

i tried to book tickets on line for my kids,

1 to avail of the cheap prices
2 so that they would be sitting together

my laser card was out of date so i was prompted to use another card, i tried to use my cc but it wouldnt accept it due to "security reasons" (seemingly if you do as prompted and use a different card this is a security risk).

bottom line is that i couldnt book on line, and my kids had to pay the higher price and sit apart on the train.

Sometimes sites have issues with multiple card attempts from the same IP due to scammers. If' you'd logged off or tried the next day it should have worked OK.

Shelflife

Losty Dublin wrote: »

The only problem here with Irish Rail is in not answering your letter; the laser card was your problem while the credit card would be a matter for the merchant and/or your card provider. Any reason why you didn't call back a second time; not to excuse a long wait but surely to Goodness you didn't sit on your hands for a full 6 weeks waiting back on word before trying to book again?

Del2005 wrote: »

Sometimes sites have issues with multiple card attempts from the same IP due to scammers. If' you'd logged off or tried the next day it should have worked OK.

Yes losty thats the main problem, the credit card was fine it was a security issue with the IR site.

I rang on the Sunday, emailed on the sunday, rang on the monday --was told i would be rang back and then i wrote a week later, how many times do i have to contact them to get a hearing? do you just keep ringing/writing and accepting that they wont get back to you?

i would have thought that 3 attempts to contact someone would be more than enough.

thats fair enough del2005 but why prompt for a different card if your site security wont allow it and i couldnt book the following day as the train was full.

Victor

Shelflife wrote: »

thats fair enough del2005 but why prompt for a different card if your site security wont allow it and i couldnt book the following day as the train was full.

I don't think merchants control which cards are rejected for security reasons - thats down to the card issuer.

Shelflife

No Victor the IR site blocked it because i had tried to use another card on my account earlier.

basically IR prompt you to use another card if there is an issue with the first card and then block your purchase attempt because you have used more then one card.

i accept that there can be issues, but what bugs me is there is no customer service/telesales on a sunday and they dont seem to care about their customers as they just ignore anyone with a problem.

markpb

Don't mind Losty, he's never found a problem that he couldn't blame on everyone else but Irish Rail. Most problems can successfully be blamed on the customer.

You should, however, ring your bank to see why they declined the credit card authorisation.

Edit: just read your reply, how do you know it was IR that declined the transaction?

Shelflife

when i rang them on the monday thats what they implied, but they never got back to me to confirm it.

my card worked fine elsewhere over the same weekend.

Del2005

Shelflife wrote: »

No Victor the IR site blocked it because i had tried to use another card on my account earlier.

basically IR prompt you to use another card if there is an issue with the first card and then block your purchase attempt because you have used more then one card.

IR more then likely bought the merchant software and don't have a clue how to work it. It could also be their authorizing bank rejected it as IR haven't told them they have the try another card option enabled or the bank may only allow one card attempt from an IP.

Did you try to purchase the tickets any other time after the 1st attempt was rejected? There are countless reasons why transactions are rejected but trying again a few hours later will usually work.

The one thing I've learned after years of using computes/websites, and calling support, is that switching it off and back on works 95% of the time the other 5% is luck.

Edit/
Just noticed you said train was full the next day so couldn't book.

Shelflife wrote: »

i accept that there can be issues, but what bugs me is there is no customer service/telesales on a sunday and they dont seem to care about their customers as they just ignore anyone with a problem.

I've never had to contact IE but I'd assume they where too busy making tea to answer:D Or else they simply don't have a clue about their own system and are too embarrassed to tell you.

-Chris-

markpb wrote: »

Don't mind Losty, he's never found a problem that he couldn't blame on everyone else but Irish Rail. Most problems can successfully be blamed on the customer.

Attack the post, not the poster.

Shelflife

Ok credit where its due, got a letter this morning apologising for the delay, gave a brief explaination of the issue and a credit note for the difference in the fares that i was charged.

Im happy with that.

-Chris-

Good resolution, cheers for the follow up.

kingshankly

Shelflife wrote: »

Ok credit where its due, got a letter this morning apologising for the delay, gave a brief explaination of the issue and a credit note for the difference in the fares that i was charged.

Im happy with that.

i guess they do care after all

Del2005

Shelflife wrote: »

Ok credit where its due, got a letter this morning apologising for the delay, gave a brief explaination of the issue and a credit note for the difference in the fares that i was charged.

Im happy with that.

What was the issue? May help others if we know what went wrong.

Victor

Del2005 wrote: »

What was the issue? May help others if we know what went wrong.

Read post 3 (this thread ).