As I eagerly plan my family’s upcoming trip to Italy, I had two very different experiences in booking Trenitalia rides. The first experience was booking through Trenitalia directly, Trenitalia.com. The booking went smoothly, and I got exactly what I was intending to book.
I had a very different experience when I searched Trenitalia on Google and ended up at the Railclick.com website, Italiatren.com (notice how similar the name is to the official Trenitalia website). The website uses dark patterns for e-commerce. Specifically, they automatically add a “Get All Your Money Back” fee to the tickets. If you do not de-select, this fee is added to your ticket prices. And, this Money Back uses broad language on the screen “Get a 100% refund. Changed travel plans? Get a full refund for covered reasons.” It turns out the reasons for change include only extreme challenges such as a documented medical condition preventing travel or loss of a job. You must read the fine print through additional click throughs to get to the specifics.
They use pressure tactics of “A lot of demand for thus route! Hurry Up!” And a count down clock to create a sense of pressure to buy the tickets very quickly.
Upon purchase of the tickets, luckily I took a screenshot because the email confirmation did not come through, even 30+ minutes after purchase, and I double checked that I had provided the correct email address. And, I checked my spam folder multiple times.
As soon I had purchased the “purchase” button and received a confirmation, I realized that the date of the tickets was off by 1 month. I called the help desk immediately, and despite having (accidentally) paid the “Money Back Fee” that equaled the total cost of the tickets, I was told that the tickets could not be exchanged for the date for which they are needed.
I acknowledge that as a consumer it is my responsibility to review all of the details of transactions before moving through the process. And, there are also practices in web design that provide high transparency so that buyers easily can see the details of what they are buying versus darker practices that intentionally hide the details and mislead customers with gimmicky descriptions and pressure tactics.
The lesson learned here is to always double check and be on the official rail or transportation provider website for a straight forward, more transparent purchasing experience.