Problems with Rail Europe - France

melissa,

I'm not sure it's fair to say that Rail Europe "perpetrated fraud", as the reason your trip was disrupted (the strike) is something that wasn't foreseen and was beyond their control. The rail network (SNCF) was responsible for providing service and in light of their failure to do so, it appears that they chose to defer responsibility to the agency that sold the tickets. These types of disputes are quite common where tickets are sold by someone other than the agency that actually operates the service (ie: booking flights through Priceline, Kayak or whatever, rather than directly from the airline). They simply "pass the buck" until the customer gets tired of fighting and goes away.

I'm not sure what to suggest to resolve this problem, but hopefully one of the others will have some tips.

were these print-at-home tickets? In that case I don't see how stamping them is going to mean anything; you could print off as many copies as you want and travel using one that was not stamped. Sounds like a phony reason to me.

However I doubt you're going to change their minds, although it doesn't hurt to keep trying; each time you call you'll get a different agent.

A more practical approach, if you paid by credit card, is to dispute the charge with your card company. Although given our experience getting a refund on the City Night Line service when they didn't give us the type of cabin we paid for, don't have a lot of hope of this working either.

Christopher Elliott, of National Geographic, writes a column called "The Travel Troubleshooter," which deals with problems like yours. I suggest you contact him.

This is yet another reason for dealing directly with the source, rather than using a third-party agent like Rail Europe. The strike was not their doing, and they probably have been hit hard, but if you expect a refund you need to have complied with their terms and conditions---which most of us never review before booking.

Part of the problem could be that other trains were running to Reims for the one-hour ride, and you could have jumped on any other train, taken any open seat, or stood for the ride. No line was ever completely shut down. Most of the time the trains were running at 50-65 percent with no controllers validating the tickets. That's could be why Rail Europe is dragging its behind.

Thank you for your responses. Bets, The next train running to Reims was hours later--after 1:00 in the afternoon so would have arrived too late for us to do what we had planned for the day.

Ken, No, the strike was not created by Rail Europe, but they refused to repay the tickets for even one direction, and they undoubtedly don't have to pay for train when the train is cancelled. They sell to me for a train trip that they don't have to pay for and refuse to give me my money back, hence the fraud. I agree that their hope is that I will shut up and go away--which surely won't happen easily.

John, Yes, these were print at home tickets. And yes, I did have to print out a second copy to make sure my folks and I had a copy in case anyone forgot them. If stamping them was standard protocol, why didn't they offer that option to me at the station after I'd stood in long lines at customer service? Clearly, it's not something they regularly do for customers. That reasoning on their part stinks.

Rosalyn, Thank you for your idea about Christopher Elliott. I'll look into that for sure.

Also, does anyone know who owns Rail Europe? Because I've read on the web that SNCF owns Rail Europe. I'm having trouble verifying that, but, if true, it makes both parties' failure to stand by their sales even more inexcusable.

Ken's response is likely the most accurate in your case. You bought tickets through a 3rd party vendor and it is very possible that SCNF agents did not perform the steps that RailEurope requires in its terms and conditions. There is likely some very fine print on your tickets or the website when you bought them. The agent may not have known, may not have cared, or may simply have been overwhelmed because of the strike. If their terms were not met, your credit card will not support your claim.

Lesson learned is to buy tickets from the actual service provider whenever possible. And this might not have been a factor in your case, but know that RailEurope does not [always] provide the discounted rail tickets that most national rail services offer.

Yep - I would DEFINITELY dispute that charge. If RE sells them (even though they're a just a 3rd party) they still need to make good on their sale. And that means a refund if needed. I would never ever ever use RailEurope again.

From what I have seen recently, Rail Europe has been sending advance warning emails directly to customers who hold tickets for a cancelled train. While their instructions are a bit cryptic, they do specifically ask you to try to get your ticket marked as unused by rail staff if you're not going to travel. This must be because you could use the ticket on any other train and there is no way for either Rail Europe or SNCF to know whether you did. They don't routinely scan used tickets into any database and they often don't even check tickets during a strike.

I recently questioned the necessity of getting a Print-at-Home ticket stamped and received this response from RE's director of customer service:
We advise all customers to get tickets endorsed when possible. When a ticket is endorsed, the carrier is supposed to cancel the space (if before departure) which allows us to process the refund immediately when received within 60 days of train travel. We advise customers to return within 30 days so Rail Europe has time to process it with the carrier since this is their time limit. Even PAH or TOD tickets can be endorsed so space is cancelled and carrier knows the ticket was not used.

Melissa's assumption that Rail Europe "doesn't have to pay for" the ticket is wrong. They pay for the ticket at the same time that you do and they can't get any refund on it without following SNCF rules. Their close association with SNCF doesn't make much difference.

I'd be happy to forward the issue to the manager I mentioned. It would help if you send me your booking number or ticket number.

P.S. If you paid $160 for three people roundtrip then you did get an advance-discount rate that has extra restrictions. (I see Rail Europe offering one-way 2nd class prices of $19, 25, or 49, each with different rules.) This may have an affect on your issue, though I don't think it's the crux of the matter.

I can't offer much advice as to this mess, since when our TGV was cancelled in March (tickets bought from Captaintrain), we took another one that day. But when I received an email informing me that my train was cancelled, I don't remember anything in the email about having to get the ticket stamped in order to get a refund. But since I didn't plan to get a refund, maybe I didn't pay attention to that part. In any event, there's this, for what it's worth: "Rail Europe is a joint venture between the French National Railways (SNCF) and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB)."

This same thing happened to us. We were on a train around 9:30 to Reims, got to the station and printed our tickets and then the train wasn't on the board. The next train was also 1:00 for us and although we probably could have done everything we wanted to there was no guarantee that we would be able to get back to Paris at a reasonable hour.

But we bought from Captain Train and when we cancelled, we just had to mail back the original tickets to them for a refund. If we had cancelled before printing they would have refunded the money right away. But as it turned out Captain Train is in Paris and we had our refund before we ever made it home.

I imagine the problem is that because they were printed at home, there is no way for them to know if you took the train or not. But I would still either complain up the chain or dispute with my credit card. Good luck!