frustrenitalia
 

Hi--this is my first post here, and from what I can see there are some savvy travelers, so I hope you can suggest something...I have spent at least a couple hours trying to get the Trenitalia website to let me spend my money. I have had two credit cards repeatedly denied; my credit card companies claim that the "merchant" is relaying the wrong three digit code, the CVV code...I am tired of beating my head against the virtual wall. Unfortunately, I am quite adept at using my credit card online so the problem is not, as one "customer service" person implied to me, user error.

Since this is going noplace fast, I am wondering what the best alternative is for securing tix for four separate one-way trips in September. In snooping about I gather one pays more with the various agencies and going ticketless is only an option via Trenitalia. Going ticketless is quite appealing as it leaves one less thing to lose or have stolen.

I suppose we could wait until we are in Italy, but I had hoped to get everything squared away as I am with the kids--not as flexible as I was in backpack travel days carrying a Let's Go and a Eurail pass.


Anyone have any brilliant insight into this?
Grazie.

I have a citibank AA credit card and had a similar problem. The solution? I used Citi's 'virtual' credit card number (check their website). and the purchase went through no problems.

This may not be brilliant insight, but some have reported that the site works better during business hours in Italy. Don't know if this could be causing your problem or not.

Definitely go ticketless. It's easy to buy your tickets at the machines or at the counters (if necessary). Here is a link that will tell you about using the trains, buying tickets, using them etc while in Italy.

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/trains/index.htm

Enjoy your trip and no worries!

Ticketless is very convenient, but it doesn't mean one less thing to worry about losing. You must have a printout of the receipt that Trenitalia sends you. When the conductor comes through to check your ticket, you must show the printout with your reservation code.

Hi J,

Methods used by others that have worked, sometimes:

Open another account using a different email address (yahoo or hotmail)

Use a different credit card.

Try, try again.

Unless you are getting one of the rare discounted offers, you can buy all of your tickets at one time at any train station or TA when you get to Italy for the same price.

The last suggestion always works.

((I))

The last time I tried to purchase, I could not get Mastercard to work... any Mastercard. The first time I tried a Visa, it worked like a charm.

Different things appear to work for different folks.

Thanks, everyone...FWIW, I scrounged around various other forums and found that I am not unique in having this problem...and it seems random. Some have no trouble at all. I have used yahoo and gmail email addresses and two different credit cards...
I guess I will wait until we are in Italia. Parenthetically, does anyone know if Trenitalia has an office in the Malpensa airport, by any chance?

I had the same problem the second time I tried to purchase online from Trenitalia. The first time, buying tickets from Rome to Florence (on a scheduled strike day, no less) was no problem but a few weeks later, when I tried to buy for Florence to Venice, no matter what I did, Trenitalia would not accpet a credit card. I opened a new account, I used numerous different credit cards. No Go. We decided to buy he tickets in Italy.

Our first surprise and disappointment was that we went to the American Express travel agent in Rome (near the Spaniah steps) to buy the tickets for our Florence to Venice leg. They said they could only sell tickets leaving from Rome. We would have to do it ourselves directly from Trenitalia or wait until we go to Florence.

So, when we went to the train station in Rome to travel to Florence (with our online purchased ticktes) I decided to try to buy the Florence to Venice leg from the automated machine at Termini. No go. I'd fill in all the info, and when I entered my credit card info they wouldn't sell me the tickets.

Finally, when in Florence, we walked into a travel agency (they're all over in any major city) and they happily sold us the tickets with no extra charge (our credit card went through, no problem) and we were good to go. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes.