I am trying to book a special offer ticket on SBB site....have attempted 5 times and always turned away at final purchase. Does anyone know how I can proceed to get the ticket when the Swiss site prevents purchase? Any way through? Thanks for any help! This is a great special offer that I don't want to miss. I am trying to book the ticket from Zurich to Milano Centrale. Everything great except rejection. :(
Sally
I've never had a problem using a Visa card, but try another credit card (after letting them know of pending purchase). You can also ask SBB using the contact form on the website, but you won't get an answer until Monday morning as it is now the weekend.
Try using a different internet browser.
I had a similar problem with Thalys. I got all the way to "pay" and got a response that they were unable to complete the transaction. I even tried with my bank's customer service person on the phone and he said that the bank did not get a payment request from Thalys; the transcation did not make it through to the bank.
I posted a question about this under "general europe" called "help with Thalys".
I got several useful responses, however what worked was using Safari rather than Explorer.
You say you have "clearance by my cc company" in your heading. Does that mean that you called them immediately prior to trying the online purchase and notified them of the amount of the purchase and that the purchase would be in Switzerland?
Experience tells me that the problem is way more likely to be with the credit card than the SBB.
The other rule of thumb when dealing with travel sites is to blow out all your cookies every so often, because they are notorious for tracking your every move and sometimes not even allowing you to re-see a great fare you had seen earlier because now they know you're on the hook.
I had a similar issue. Six denials with two cards, a VISA and MC. I called my credit card company and they also said they had never been asked to approve. It turned out to be the security feature used on the web site for VISA and MC. When I switched to Amex, it was approved a few seconds later.
I hope you were able to buy them. I had the exact same problem, and called my bank to have them say they saw no transaction trying to come through. I also emailed SBB but their answer was not helpful. As someone else mentioned, switching to American Express worked for me. (Although annoying since my Visa has no international fees but the AmEx did.)
