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Help with advance purchase of train tickets fromTrenatalia

Posted by on

HI,

Can anyone provide some help? We went on line last night to purchase train tickets from Trenatalia from Venice to Florence. When trying to complete the transaction, it appeared to be "hung up" while we needed to obtain a Verisign security password. Once we entered that, we got a numeric error code with no further info. We did not get any confirmation via email or other. We assumed it did not go through so tried again and found that the seats we selected were no longer available (implying that the transaction did go through).

We verified with VISA that it was posted.

Can any one tell me :

  1. what type of confirmation we should expect? and how long should we expect to wait for it?

  2. If not received, how would we best resolve this? (I tried going on line and filing out their "complaint form" and there are issues with that as well. Although they asked for home or cell number as a requirement, you get an error message if only one is filed in and if you fill in two numbers, you get a more blatant error message. )

  3. If we have to call them, should we expect to get English speaking operators and how long should we expect to be on hold? (it is quite pricey)

  4. Any other tactics / phone nos./ advice woudl be appreciated.

Thank you so much!

Posted by
1625 posts

I received an email with all my travel information, a PRN number and a Bar code. It was delivered immediately after my purchase. I also ran into the same problem with the VeriSign pop-up using the Debit Card from my bank (they knew I was doing international purchases). So I just used a different card (Chase Sapphire) and it went through just fine. The price also changing on the website, the lower fare showed sold out after my first failed attempt. Because it was 120 days before my trip I was thinking "How could they sell out so quickly". I went back in after 30 min and the original price was again available (I purchased at that time). Have you looked in your junk folder?

Posted by
16321 posts

If it was actually charged to your credit card ( not simply posted as "pending") there should be an email confirmation. Check your spam folder.

If you do call them, the cost will depend on how long you are on "hold" before reaching an English-speaking agent. we have never tried calling Trenitalia, but we did call Italo trains and the cost ended up around $30.

Posted by
922 posts

You should have received the tickets almost immediately upon purchase. Did you sign up for an account on Trenitalia? If so, you should be able to log in, see the ticket and get the PNR code and print your tix if the transaction went through.

Posted by
11613 posts

I have called Trenitalia several times over the years, they have English-speaking operators readily available, I think my longest time on hold was four minutes. Be sure to call during Italian working hours (6 hours ahead of the U.S. east coast).

Posted by
32212 posts

Morgan,

For future reference with ticket purchases in Italy, you might try www.capitainetrain.com. The website is very user friendly, and they're able to provide tickets for both Trenitalia and Italo. Another site you could look at is ItaliaRail.com but I believe they charge a small service fee.

Good luck!

Posted by
11294 posts

If you aren't set up for Skype, you can reduce the cost of calls to Italy by using a service like 10-10-987: http://www.1010987.com/. With them, it's $0.83 to connect, then $0.11 per minute. So, a 30 minute call is $4.13 - not a lot as a fraction of your whole trip.

Posted by
2 posts

Thanks to all for the replies.
In the end, a travel agent referred us to Rail Europe.com (800-622-8600). You can book on line(with e-tickets) , or with the agent(mailed tickets and a bit more cost). No long distance calls oversees, no language or accent barriers. We went with e-tickets and found it very easy.
There was a slight increase in price but well worth it for the immediacy of confirmation and ease of process. Hope this helps someone else down the road
(the 10-10-987 calling option gave us calling errors , fyi)

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