Despite being one of the biggest rail networks, Indian Railways is worst in terms of customer satisfaction. Right from booking of Ticket to undertaking journey, travellers are no short of complaints. Someone finds a cockroach in food while somebody isn’t happy with the cleanliness and sanitation facilities. Problem of not getting confirmed ticket remains a persistent issue with many.

1. TDR Filed, No Refund

If a train is delayed (or cancelled) by more than 3 hours before reaching the boarding station of passenger, it can be cancelled with full refund if cancellation is done before the actual departure time of train from the same station. Most people get no refund because they are unaware of the new cancellation rule and hence fail to file TDR on time.

Best way to do this is to file TDR with proper reason and also send an email to [email protected] explaining that you’ve cancelled ticket because of train delay. However, sending email isn’t compulsory but it acts as a proof when your TDR is denied because of some reason.

More often than not you’ll get your money back. But if you’re filing TDR late, you’ll be considered as a travelled passenger and no refund will be given. You should always remember that you may be a good guy but there are lot of those bad guys who ask for cancellation after undertaking the journey.

2. Amount Deducted, Ticket Not Booked

Online payments are atomic in nature which means they’ll either be a complete success or complete fail. If money is deducted, ticket will get booked else not.

But there are instances where amount is deducted from account but ticket isn’t booked. In such situations, settlement is initiated automatically by irctc and money is credited back to the user account in 3-4 working days. But if any transaction error on the part of bank, you’ve to contact your bank and ask for money back. In more than 98% cases, settlement is done successfully, on time.

3. Ticket Damaged or Lost. What to do?

If you haven’t got anything – no paper ticket, no SMS, nothing then you should contact the station master with a valid identity proof. Station master can reissue a duplicate ticket for damaged tickets but in very rare cases if station master wants, can issue a duplicate ticket on lost ticket after verifying the traveller with provided identity proof(s). Extra fee is charged for issuing duplicate tickets.

4. Wrong Age, Phone Number or other Correction in Ticket

Correction in booked e-ticket isn’t possible but minor mistake in name, age, phone number is not a big issue. But if you have a tatkal ticket with error in id number then it’s a thing of worry because it’s up to the TTE to understand your situation. He may/may not allow you to travel or impose fine.

5. Change of Passenger or Boarding Station

Passenger name and boarding station in e-tickets can be changed by contacting nearest railway reservation counter with printed ticket and a valid id proof 24 hours before the departure of train. Ticket can only be transferred to any family members – Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Son, Daughter, Husband and Wife. Also a valid proof clarifying the relation must be presented before the booking clerk.

6. Food Complaint, Misbehaving TTE or Attendant

Complaint can be lodged online against misbehaving TTEs, attendants, food-selling railways vendors, poor food quality, cleanliness and sanitation in train, or on any other matter on http://customercare.indianrailways.gov.in/criscm/home.seam. For complaint specifically against poor food quality you can also call directly to the toll free number 1800111321. All complaints are treated in real-time by a team of mobile squads.

7. IRCTC account not-activated, de-activated or Password Lost

If your irctc account is not-activated after registration or de-activated due to some reason, you can send an email to [email protected] from your registered email id explaining the situation. Your problem will get resolved within 1-2 days. In case you’ve lost password, you can recover it by answering security question you entered at the time of account creation. If you don’t remember the security question as well, contacting customer care is the only solution.

8. Charged Extra Money on IRCTC

Ticket booked online on irctc is costlier than the same booked from ticket counter. It has an additional charge of making online payment so it might appear little costly to you. If you pay by credit card you’ll pay an extra 1.65% of ticket while paying by debit card/netbanking is flat Rs 10 more than fare amount. However, there is nothing extra you pay at reservation counters because you pay in cash.

9. Cancel online ticket offline

Online tickets booked through irctc can be cancelled in 2 ways – from irctc account with which booking was made, or by requesting for cancellation to [email protected] from the email id connected to the irctc account. Offline cancellation of e-ticket or through some other irctc accounts isn’t possible.

These are few of those hundreds of complaints posted by passengers in different forums across the web. We’ll continuously update the post as we find more. Feel free to share your views(and complaints) in the comment section and we’ll try to resolve it asap.