We made an online booking for DB travel before we left home, and paid 198 euro for the ticket which we printed. When we presented the ticket and our proof of identity on the night of travel to the conductor, he accepted the ticket. However, 30 minutes later, a second conductor said that because the ticket was not of A4 size, it was not a valid ticket, and we needed to immediately pay the onboard fare of 330 euro.
At the time of writing this, I have paid 528 euro for that particular travel, but have applied for a refund of the 330 euro, believing that we had a valid ticket and reservation.
Does anyone know the postal or email address of DB so that I could follow up any refund?
Make sure, to avoid hassles, that you print online tickets in A4 size. I think the same issue may arise on Italian trains.
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our railway company is a big joke in terms of customer service, i´m sorry to hear what happened to you :(
The homepage doesn´t give away an email adress at all, here is a phone number for calls from outside of germany :
(+49)1805 996633
I highly doubt they´ll do anything about it though, since there´s no harm for them in you being unhappy as for them you aren´t a current customer anymore being thousands of miles away and everything ... Your best bet would be to contact any travel agency you booked the trip/flight with and ask them for advice how to handle this.
Or are you still in germany ? If you are and near a big city you might consider going to the help desk at the city´s railway station, chances of getting sth done/discussed with them are often better than via phone or mail.
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Ridiculous! I wouldn%26#39;t have paid this..... What would the guy do, throw you out?
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That is a nightmare; there is no A4 in America.
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in adition, people at help desks of major railway stations often speak a better english.
or just take a shot at contacting the UK office and see if they might be willing to help you out (i realize you aren´t from the UK, but who knows if they´don´t have some time at their hands to give you a hand ?) :
sales@bahn.co.uk
(you can contact the german Bahn as well but not with an email adress but by filling out a form and nothing really fits for your case)
again, it´s a freaking joke that you had to pay extra. I never had any problems getting an exception in all countries i´ve been in and found conductors by and large to be very understanding of your situation if you explained to them you are not from the country. So it pains me to see what happens here in germany very regularly ... I myself once spent half an hout arguing in case of a japanese exchange student who accidentily put in the wrong station and was made to pay a horendous fee for it ...
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Joke or not, I suspect NOBODY here would have been very successful in arguing against the railway official whether he was right or wrong. If they say you are off the train then you are off...
On the contrary, I have had excellent service from the Bahn site with refunds, etc., and it was helpful to call them directly in each case which I suggest you take the time to do and good luck
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Thanks for that advice and those comments. It was disappointing that the first conductor accepted the ticket, while the second (more senior) conductor did not ,despite our having all of the supporting documentation. And he was not willing to accept payment for the difference between the 330 and 198 euro. He wanted the full onboard fare.
Even a travel agent in the UK cannot locate a DB address or contact for me.
But, other than this, our DB experiences were good.
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On what paper format did you print the ticket?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size
Australia does use A4 (ISO 216/DIN 476) since 1974.
There are a number of remarks that the ticket should be printed on A4.
Paper size letter/legal may work as the 2D barcode of the ticket should be of similar size on these papers. If the 2D barcode comes out in a different size it may not be scanned correctly anymore. The ticket is in this case indeed void.
DB Vertrieb GmbH
Fulfillment Center
Postfach 60 05 04
D-22205 Hamburg
Germany
Phone: +49 1805 10111
Refund Claim Form (in German and English)
bahn.de/p/view/mdb/bahnintern/agb/befoerderu…
Albeit the refund form is not exactly for this case.
If you have still both tickets:
You could write them a letter with copies of both tickets. If they answer and want to have the original tickets you have already nearly won.
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Thanks abalada,
Subsequently, I saw that the ticket should have been printed as an A4, but nowhere, as far as I can see, does it say that the ticket will not be accepted unless it is A4 size.
At a minimum, I wanted to alert other travellers to our experience, so that they could avoid it.
Cheers
