Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation [IRCTC] Complaints & Reviews

Whenever I try booking tickets on IRCTC in tatkal quota, the website doesn't open up and even if it does, I am unable to book tickets because of the immense load on the website.

By the time the website opens up, no tickets are available anymore. This is due to the strong "agent" network that is functional throughout the country.

Some steps must be taken to stop these agents from taking away all...

I and my brother in law booked tickets using irctc portal from Kottayam - Samalkot and Samalkot - Visakhapatnam for dt.[protected] and[protected] by special trains 0743 and 748B but 0743 which from Quilon - Samalkot was delayed by 7 hours and the connecting train which we've catch was missed by us due to the late running of 0743 special train. So after coming to Visakhapatnam I've filed TDR online through IRCTC requeted for the cancellation of tickets and refund the amount on Dt.[protected] and till now I've not received any amount for the above said transaction and there is no response for the mails I've sent to them. So I request you kindly look in to this matter and see that justice is done to me in a proper way.

The following are the details

FW: Refund status‏
From: Srirangam. Sai Sundar ([protected]@hotmail.com)
Sent: 01 June 2009 06:43AM
To: [protected]@irctc.co.in
Dear sir,
This is my 4th mail for the refund of the following tickets and till now there is no response from your end. It is already 4 and half months from the date of filing the cancellation and usually it shouldn't exceed 90 days but why you are taking these many days I don't understand. So I request you kindly look in to this and see that it is done as early as possible.

Thank you sir,

Regards

Srirangam S S

From: [protected]@hotmail.com
To: [protected]@irctc.co.in
Subject: Refund status
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 06:23:51 +0000

Dear sir
The following are the details of tickets I've applied for refund on 14th Jan 2009 and its been almost 90days and there is no action from your side. So I would like to know when I exactly get my money back.

PNR Number [protected] Booked On 2-1-2009
Transaction ID [protected] Ticket Type eticket
Class 3A Internet Service Charge Rs 20.00
Date Of Journey 13/1/2009 Ticket Charge Rs 266.00
Bank done card Total Rs 286.00
Train No 748B Railway Zone IRCTC
From Station SAMALKOT JN(SLO) IRCTC Zone IRCTC
To Station VISHAKAPATNAM(VSKP) Quota General
Ticket Details

S# Name Age Sex Coach Seat Res-Status

1 S S SUNDAR 36 Male B1 0020 Booked

Reason For TDR : Train missed by us because of
late running of connecting tra
in 743 about 6hrs
TDR Status : CCM Registered
Reference No : ekt[protected]
TDR Filing Date : 14-Jan-2009
Refund Status : Refund under Process
Refund Date : Not Available
Refund Amount : Rs.0.00

This is the second one

PNR Number [protected] Booked On 2-1-2009
Transaction ID [protected] Ticket Type eticket
Class 3A Internet Service Charge Rs 20.00
Date Of Journey 13/1/2009 Ticket Charge Rs 266.00
Bank done card Total Rs 286.00
Train No 748B Railway Zone IRCTC
From Station SAMALKOT JN(SLO) IRCTC Zone IRCTC
To Station VISHAKAPATNAM(VSKP) Quota General
Ticket Details

S# Name Age Sex Coach Seat Res-Status

1 N M SWAMY 28 Male B1 0026 Booked

Reason For TDR : Train missed by us because of
late running of connecting tra
in 743 about 6hrs
TDR Status : CCM Registered
Reference No : ekt[protected]
TDR Filing Date : 14-Jan-2009
Refund Status : Refund under Process
Refund Date : Not Available
Refund Amount : Rs.0.00


Your early response in this regard is highly appreciated

Thank you sir

Regards

Srirangam S S

d/sir
this is regarding booking of tatkal tickets.It is being noticed that tatkal tickets for busy routes such as mumbai, delhi are not booked frequently on this web site.this facility is blocked between 8am -9am till all takal tickets are filled and after 9am only wait list tatkal tickets are made avaliable.this way cheating is done with the valuable customers which is not justified.it appears that this is intentionally being done...

Dear sir,
I have booked an e-ticket on 23rd may 2009 from jalandhar cantt to saharanpur sheduled on 6th june 2009. The ticket was booked and delivered but they debited ammount twice from my account.The detail of e- ticket booked is as:
Passanger Name-- ROBIN TYAGI
Reservation from JALANDHAR CANTT to SAHARANPUR
Train name & no.-- PUNJAB MAIL 3006
Date of Journey-- 6th june 2009
class-- AC 2 TIER SLEEPER

Transaction detail ;
SBI ATM CUM DEBIT CARD
CARD NO.-[protected]
CARD HOLDER NAME-- MANISH KUMAR SINGH
irctc user name is fataltroop

sir please take this matter into consideration, I will be thankful to you if this matter is taken into consideration to get my money back

Dear Sir,
I booked a ticket from Tata to Howrah in Barbil Janshatbdi for 27th.My first transaction was shown invalid due to server failure.Next one was ok.But Money has been deducted from by SBI account for both the transaction, the valid as well as the invalid.Please do something about it.
My IRCTC account is suvrodip

Kindly note that I Miss Sapna Khandelwal had filed an online TDR on 25th Nov 08, details given below through IRCTC, have not yet received the refund for it . 60 days is the turn around time to process the request, have done lots of followup but there was no commitment given regarding refund . Kindly lodge a complaint against IRCTC & help me getting my refund.

PNR number : [protected]
Ticket type : eticket
Ticket charge :Rs 1643.00
Train Number :3352
Reference number : ekt[protected]
TDR filing date :25-Nov-2008
Reason for TDR :Passenger Not Travelled.

I booked an e-ticket on 23rd may 2009, amount was debited from my account but i didn't got the ticket.
Ticket details:
Passanger Name-- ROBIN TYAGI
Reservation from JALANDHAR CANTT to SAHARANPUR
Train name & no.-- PUNJAB MAIL 3006
Date of Journey-- 6th june 2009
class-- AC 2 TIER SLEEPER

Transaction detail ;
SBI ATM CUM DEBIT CARD
CARD NO.-[protected]
CARD HOLDER NAME-- MANISH KUMAR SINGH
Address: Manish Kumar singh
r/o vill- kaithkala, po- siswarkala, Rasra
distt- ballia, (U.P)
pin code- 221712
email id- [protected]@gmail.com

Through this letter I want to bring to your kind attention, the blatant flouting of the norms by the IRCTC approved “Rail Aahar” vendors on most of the railway stations. One such intolerable incident was experienced by me at Bhopal Railway Station while I was travelling from Gwalior to Mumbai on 0132 AGC CSTM Super Special Express on 19th May 2009 (PRN No. [protected]). It was around 2315 hrs, when the train arrived at Bhopal RS. In search of Soft Drinks, I approached one “Tirupati Associates” on PF no. 1 near to the Digital Clock and Cold Water Point and asked for a 500ml pet bottle of Limca. Instead of the printed MRP of Rs.20/-, he asked for Rs.25 from me for the same. I argued with him that why is he charging Rs.5/- extra despite the display on his shop mentioning that “Packed items are sold in MRP prices”. He countered that Rs.5/- is against the cooling charge of the soft drinks. I asked him for his vendor licence no. and threatened him of complaining such menace to the IRCTC authorities, but he did not budge and neither provided me his licence no. He fearlessly exclaimed that all the vendors of Bhopal RS charge the same amount and so does he. Such types of practices are being continuously carried out on many Railway Stations, mainly with respect to Soft Drinks, Mineral Water and Ice-Cream kind of stuffs.
It is my humble request to you to take proper and strict action towards such vendors, who violate and ruin the common law and equity. I also suggest improving and enforcing certain strict guidelines to curb this out and impose heavy penalty to the offenders.

I availed train no. 2863 on 09.05.09 in Coach No. S7 Birth No. 13 having PNR No. [protected]. had lunch plate consisting of Rice, Dal/Curry, Egg Curry(2 eggs) at a cost of Rs. 37 per plate. But while returning by train no. 0201 (YPR-Guwahati exp.) on 19.05.09 Coach No. S7 birth no. 67 PNR No. [protected] had lunch plate consisting of same menu they charged Rs. 55.

Why so disparity?

When asked for bill or rate chart, the IRCTC staff not only refused but also threatened for such query.

Are not they taking advantage from the passengers on board with no other options?

Regarding IRCTC.co.in

What kind of features are you providing. What stupid server it is. I am trying to book a ticket from morning till 2.21 pm. I am not able to book my ticket.

What server are you using. Is it develop for the travelers? I am getting so many error on my system? Who is the developer of this IRCTC.

I am also a web developer. I could understand normal problems on a server or difficulties...

IRCTC has a limit on the number of tickets that you can book per month, and that is 10. When people are paying for their tickets, I do not understand why anyone should limit the number of tickets to 10 per month.

Other issues with the website :
1. Service unavailable often - if your website is down, what should a consumer do if they want to cancel a ticket. Dont you think you should have a backup server, like so many (even small) companies like yahoo, zapak, etc. for something like this? Or there could be a mechanism where at least the payment can be queued at another website, in case the primary website is down.
2. Onward Journey cannot be planned - people have to pay for the break-up journey, which comes to a lot more than if onward journey could have been planned.
3. Credit Card mechanism not robust - Session expires too soon.
4. The website expires by the time you fill up the form. And then you have to fill all over again. Sites like godaddy.com give you a notice that your session is expiring - just click here if you want to keep this session alive. This is a nagging problem, as you have to fill the same form again and again. Granted, the credit card part is critical, but not the form filling and booking section, so why this low session expiry time?

Hope people take this positively, and do positive changes. Otherwise the site is quite good and flexible, quite unlike what is expected out of an indian government site.

Dear sir
I have booked my rail ticket using SBI DEBIT CUM ATM CARD, I didnt got any information about the ticket but money is reduced from my account.I lost Rs 207/-.my transaction no is POS PRCH 62201800861002054829133102999552001.i want my money back.sir kindly do me the favor.thanking you
jesithajayaraj

Sir,

I have got reservation from irctc.co.in through internet. On scrutiny my pass book 08 times i.e. Rs. 503/- has been deducted on 14 and 16 April 2009. Similarly 05 times Rs. 10/- and 493/- has been deposited in my saving bank account. But actually my reservation has been done from Jammu Tawi to Rishikesh vide PNR No. [protected] Transaction ID No. [protected] on 14/04/2009 and return journey from Rishikesh to Jammu tawi vide PNR No. [protected] Transaction ID No. [protected] on 16 April 2009. Whereas six times are required to be refunded from your side. But it is not credited for Rs. 503/- in my saving bank account. Since only my reservation has been done only two times.

2. You are requested to kindly refund my Rs. 503/- in my saving bank account account at the earliest, please.

Yours faithfully


Jasbir Singh Pundir

My user id is mcf_hot. Yesterday (11/5/2009), I was trying to book a SL class ticket. I used my Citi bank credit card and reached to the stage where I clicked on 'Confirm Payment'. However, the next screen stated that 'Service Unavailable' and I was never able to print the e-ticket.

On checking, with Citi Bank, I was told that the amount of Rs. 272/- has not been billed to my account and the reference no for this transaction as per Citi Bank is 089414. I was told to forward a mail. I have done so and sent a mail to [protected]@irctc.co.in requesting the amount of Rs. 272/- to be reverted back to me.

I hope I have done the correct thing, as this is unprofessional on part of the Railways to block this amount as no PNR or transaction no was generated in this case.

If I am missing some procedure in this case, please get back to me at the earliest either though this website or my email id [protected]@hotmail.com

Regards,

Mervin

When I try to book a Tatkal ticket from Dindigul to Chennai for the date of 17th May, I get an error message saying, "Booking not permitted. Try some other Train/Class". I get this message after I entered the passenger details. After confirming the availability, I have tried all the trains and got the same message. I am really frustrated and finally I couldn't reserve my ticket at all. These kind of problems will surely give a very bad name to IRCTC and better they can remove the online tatkal booking option.

Dear Sir/Madam
First i will apologize for my previous complaint, i mentioned wrong train number by mistake. On 11th May 2009, I have booked an online ticket for train number 2820
ORISSA SAMPARK K EXP from NDLS to BBS boarding on 2nd June 2009 for KAUSHIK DOLAI MALE 24 Years of age and JAYASREE DOLAI FEMALE of age 20YEARS. Unfortunately after the payment was made through SBI ATM cum DEBIT card payment gateway, the error, "REDIRECT=https://www.irctc.co.in/cgi-bin/bv60.dll/irctc/booking/bankrespon...⇄ came up without giving me the confirmation of the payment and neither the ticket is generated.The money ( Rs 3, 579.00 ) has already been debited from my SBI acc.but i have not received ticket confirmation

I request IRCTC to help me at the earliest and refund the same amount.

Expecting a reply as soon as possible.

Yours Sincerely
ANAND KUMAR SINGH
+91 [protected]
Email ID : [protected]@gmail.com, [protected]@yahoo.co.in
My S.B.I. ACCONT NO IS -[protected]

Sir
I want to say that for last couple of days I tried to create a new account of mine at your site. Thus I tried several time with user name "archit", which is "available" as per your checking facility provided on the site. But unfortunately I was unable to create it still now. Can you please help me to create the same on your site as soon as possible?
Looking for a positive response from you.
Thanking you

yours truely
Archit Banerjee
N. L. Ghosh Street
Purulia 723101
mob: [protected]
email: [protected]@rediffmail.com

For last 3-4 moths and particularly in last few days I have observed that the tatkal ticket booking through www.irctc.co.in has been highly tailored by the website in such a way that a common public almost does not get chance to get a confirmed berth even if start at the opening time (8 AM sharp) and be online continuously. The website maintain such a drastic corrupt procedure that we get message "service unavailable" or go very very slow or get hanged at any stage even at payment stage. as a result even if a very high number of seats available in the beginning, not a single ticket can be booked by the innocent browser (claimed to be the important citizen). This looks like some people at different level use the irctc website machinary to continue such an extreme level of corruption each and every day that may be a black business of crores. Pl. look into the matter urgently and stop this official country level corruption without which the railway website becomes a farse.

Hi,

I was trying to book tickets for a journey from Nagpur to Bilaspur. I successfully achieved the same at IRCTC. However, whenever I was trying to book the return ticket, irrespective of the browser the transaction always failed. It went through the payment gateway of the Credit Card company, deducted the amount and failed just before the actual showing of the booked ticket. My browser showed an error on the web page where it displayed the absence of some code object. 'document.fssform not defined'.

Why such buggy code is allowed onto a website without proper testing?

I am facing huge trouble since 4000 INR of my money is stuck with IRCTC with 6 failed transactions. I am not too sure how long would it take for them to return this money and to add to it, even my ticket isn;t booked yet. I will have to go to the Reservation window at station in person and get it done.

So much so for the service.

Sir,

Myself along with my wife travelled to Vizag on[protected] by Godavari Express, 2nd AC vide PNR No [protected]. As our ticket was wait listed even at the time of boarding the concerned TTE on checking the chart allotted Upper Berths in Cabin F (1st AC Coach). We too happily occupied the same thanking the Railways as well as ourselves for opting the auto upgrade option at the time of booking. However to our dismay the TTE after a while came in and insisted upon paying the difference amount for 1st class travelling. Not only he seemed unaware of the auto upgrade option and feigned ignorance about the same even when our other two co passengers (Retired IG and another a Professor in Surgery) tried to tell the TTE that such a facility was indeed there and he should not be charging for auto upgrading. He bluntly refused to at least hear us out!!

Left with no option we paid th difference amount of Rs. 1375/- (Rupees one thousand three hundred and seventy five) vide Excess Fare Ticket No 347317 and reached our destination.

This is unfair and I request the Railways to immediately refund the amount of Rs. 1375/- (Rupees one thousand three hundred and seventy five) charged vide Excess Fare Ticket No 347317 as we did not ask for 1st class accomodation and were instead allotted by the TTE.

Arun Kumar HG
Ph:[protected]
email: [protected]@gmail.com