[finneyp]

Though I have booked quite no of Tickets on the IRCTC site in the past, off late it sucks badly, it is very slow during the day time, and in the nights though the access is bit fast, there is some issues after you finish the payment using Netbanking, though payment was successful it returns 'Sorry, your booking has failed due to 1. Communicaton problems. 2. Seat not available blah blah.....!

This damn thing has now happenend twice in the last 3 days, got the refund for the 1st booking, have to wait for 2 - 3 days for the 2nd refund.

I have now lost faith in this site & won't do anymore bookings on this pathetic site.
It is high time they scrap this site & ask one of the IT majors to develop a user-friendly, fast & reliable site.

[kb100]

I have used the IRCTC website many a time to book my tickets - There was this one time that I got this 'communication error' pop up - that too while processing a credit card transaction - but I got a prompt refund without ANY follow up from my side.

I am a happy customer!!

[bigman]

I remember using the site in 2006 and it was a nightmare then. It was slow a very poorly laid out site. However when it worked it worked fine. I even managed to cancel tickets and get a refund.

Sometimes the site would only work in Firefox and at other times only in Internet Explorer. Tickets could only be booked between certain hours. The site has not changed since then. Its a shame as it could be a very useful service if it worked 100%.

I guess until we get a more tech savvy Railways mantre we will have to accept the current site.

I was looking at the IGIA New Delhi airport web site a few days ago. The so called live flight arrival information on the site was for the day before.

[LLL]

Post Edited by the Team-BHP Support : SMS / Slang is STRICTLY prohibited on this community. Please view our board rules carefully before proceeding any further.

Originally Posted by kb100

I have used the IRCTC website many a time to book my tickets - There was this one time that I got this 'communication error' pop up - that too while processing a credit card transaction - but I got a prompt refund without ANY follow up from my side.

I am a happy customer!!

me too...always got refunds for cancellations and errors without any followups and within 2-3 days.

unlike many travel portals which need 7-21 working days. mind you, irctc probably processes 50-100 times more transactions than ezeego1.com

[satish_appasani]

I have been using this site from day one. I might have made atleast 300 bookings so far. I easily ran out of 4 reservation/month per Id quota that they had till recently. 90% of the times, never had issues. Whenever there is a communication failure, a logout and login will help. Lately the performance also has been better.

I believe this site was the best thing to happen to many train commuter who either don't have time to go to reservation counter or hate going there. Let me tell a comic incident that happened few years ago at a reservation counter. I was standing in the credit card counter que. The person two persons before me handed a SBI card to the clerk in the counter. The clerk swiped the card and the card machine was taking forever to respond back (those machines were just launched at that time). Now this is the best thing. The clerk was saying that there would be a person sitting at the other side of the line to approve the credit cards swiped in the machine. That person could have gone for a coffee and so he is not responding. Everybody in the que went blank for few mins and then everyone was rolling. One person got a coffee to the clerk and said you too have coffee.

Back to business, for general enuiries about accomodation, fare, PNR status, timetable i use INDIAN RAILWAYS PASSENGER RESERVATION ENQUIRY which is must faster. And i can see more than one class at a time.

[mjothi]

Guys, anyone recently booked ticket on irctc using ICICI debit card? There use to be a direct debit facility from ICICI on irctc. But now i dont see it, am I missing anything?

[nishantgandhi]

While I have always hated the IRCTC website, a recent event changed my perception (only slightly though). To start with, I have never understood the logic of having an online reservation system, if it gets shut between 2330 and 0830 hrs! On top of it, frequent communication failures and user un-friendliness seem to be the forte of IRCTC!

However, on two separate occasions, I managed to get a refund in somewhat exceptional cases.

Case 1:
By mistake, I had booked the ticket for Monday whereas I was scheduled to travel on a Sunday. I realized this only upon boarding the train, as I had assumed my seat was confirmed. After a lot of haggling, and upon paying the full price of a new ticket, I got a confirmed berth and completed my journey. I was still sour throughout the journey, even though it was purely my own mistake.

Case 2:
Wife was booked on Rajdhani Express from Mumbai to Delhi but ticket was on Waitlist. At the last moment, it got converted to RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation). Now, we are not very adept with Railway rules and upon inquiring, were told that she can board the train.

However, the real horror started at night. Apparently, RAC passengers have to 'share' the berth/seat with another passenger i.e. 2 people per seat. To me, this is a ridiculous concept. Either the Railways should charge half the fare in such a case or if being charged full fare, passenger should be given a full berth/seat.

I could not (and till date, have not) understand the logic of 'Waitlist' being converted to 'RAC' being converted to a 'Confirmed' status.

Resolution:
I discovered TDR (Ticket Deposit Receipt) facility on IRCTC website. It allows you to file for refund, if the customer was not able to perform the journey due to any /or the following reason

1. Train canceled By Railways
2. Train running Late by More than Three hours
3. Difference of Fare in case proper coach not attached
4. AC Failure
5. Traveled without proper ID proof
6. Wrongly charged by TTE
7. Party partially traveled
8. Passenger Not traveled

I filed for refund of my above mentioned tickets under TDR. While Case 1 was under a genuine category of 'Passenger Not traveled', I was not too sure of Case 2. So I filed that citing the real reason and asked for 'at least 50% refund, if not 100%'

The good part is that after 3 months of wait, I got both refunds approved and credited to my credit card account.

Under Case 1, my ticket amount was Rs 755 and I got a refund of Rs 377 (50%).

In case passenger not travelled- refund will be granted by the Chief Commercial Manager/Refunds as per extant Railway rule

However, the unique part is Case 2, wherein they refunded me the full amount of Rs 1955! (maybe it is because of this clarification on IRCTC website)

In case Rlys is not able to provide accommodation-full refund will be granted

I am obviously not complaining. At least I know there exists some kind of mechanism now to claim refund!

[abhilash_iv]

Originally Posted by nishantgandhi

However, the unique part is Case 2, wherein they refunded me the full amount of Rs 1955! (maybe it is because of this clarification on IRCTC website)

So did your wife traveled that day? Or was that also a non-traveled case?
I suppose she had not traveled as you got the full refund.

[rjvora_2000]

Originally Posted by nishantgandhi

asked for 'at least 50% refund, if not 100%'

Did you got 100% refund?

[given2fly]

Does anyone have an idea, how long does it take to get a refund on a waitlisted ticket that wasn't confirmed.

[rjvora_2000]

Originally Posted by given2fly

Does anyone have an idea, how long does it take to get a refund on a waitlisted ticket that wasn't confirmed.

it takes more then a month to received the refund.

[kalpeshc]

I have been using this site extensively and have rarely faced any problems. Yes, I do get the occasional Communication Failure at peak times in the afternoons, but relogin generally helps.

There are times when the tickets are not booked even if the payment is debited, I don't worry at all as the refunds happen within 3 working days without any followup. I just go ahead and make the payment again for the ticket. This website is a boon for those who want to avoid the long queues at the reservation counter.

Also, this is open at the same time that the reservation counters are open to avoid giving the users having online access an unfair advantage. Remember that this site can be used all across India and only a small portion of that population has internet access.

[nishantgandhi]

Originally Posted by abhilash_iv

So did your wife traveled that day? Or was that also a non-traveled case?
I suppose she had not traveled as you got the full refund.

She did travel. As I said before, we weren't aware of the rules surrounding RAC, so she boarded the train (TTE said she was allowed to board the train) and got to know only later that berth will have to be shared. Thats when she called me and I filed for refund.

Originally Posted by rjvora_2000

Did you got 100% refund?

Yes sir, got 100% refund on Mumbai Rajdhani.

Originally Posted by given2fly

Does anyone have an idea, how long does it take to get a refund on a waitlisted ticket that wasn't confirmed.

I can update you as and when the refund happens. I just canceled my Wait list tickets today. But I guess it will come in less than a month (not sure)

[sridhar24]

I have been using IRCTC site since long and quite often, overall its quite good. But only a few times it gets very irritating, especially i observed on the weekends.

[Rajesh Rawal]

Folks...

Train ticket bookings @ cleartrip.com is fast,user friendly...

always a better alternative to irctc for sure....