HELP. SNCF voyages -need to contact Urgent
 

SNCF system refused to let me print on line- despite following instructions from Morgan, and no insurance selected, so I ordered the tickets to be sent to my daughter (who is part of our travel group)currently living in the UK. The address was fine until I hit the final button and on some sort of whim it dropped out a critical line!!!!! I printed the page before I hit the final button and the address is complete. I desperately need to contact SNCF voyages to see if I can rectify the address. I've tried the english speaking number and got someone whose english wasnt so great. They tried to give me another number to call, but it doesn't work.
Number I called 33 8 92 35 35 39. the number I was given to call 36 35 and possibly #77. I've tried a few variants but no luck. I cannot find an email address for SNCF voyages on their web page- FAQ's , there must be something I can do?? HELP

Call the original number again, surely you will get a different person to speak with. Try it again.

Given the number of posts with problems printing tickets, I wonder if the SNCF changed its system and somehow identifies new U.S. users, but accepts those who already are in the system. I had no problems printing my tickets, and get regularly special offers from the SNCF.

I kind of doubt it, that this is punishment for being an American. I would hope SNCF wouldn't be playing mind games like that -- if they don't want to allow you to book, they should tell you, not drop a critical part of your address (which was in the UK, anyway) or arbitrarily refuse to allow you to print something when they would allow a different nationality. I don't think there is any way SNCF can tell your citizenship. They might recognize a US-based credit card number, but I don't think you have to be a fulltime US citizen/resident to have one of those.

Well, these kind of things have happened to me on various websites, when things I've put in online forms didn't quite end up getting sent the way I thought. I think it's just technology.

The SNCF website has entire sections on problems and what to do, and it covers mailing situations, not getting tickets, etc. They tell you the first thing you should do is go on the website in your orders section, have you tried that? Maybe you can change addresses in there or something, I don't know. They also say you can get tickets on site if you have your order number, credit card you used, and if you have the printout that should be fine. You will get tickets, but have to wait for the refund of the missing ones.


I think you need to call rather than email (even if you can find an address, and they have information on the website for all problems, including mailing/address problems, and how to email them). The phone numbers you have look right to me, though. The 8-92-35-35-39 is the Eurostar number, but that means they have English speaking personnel. Although I know that is a special France pay number (prefix 08) so I wonder if maybe that doesn't work outside France? I don't know. I'd keep trying. The other number is what they say for locals, but I don't know how that works with only four digits, but it is what they say (36-35, then tap 77 when it answers, I think, you don't put 77 as part of the dialing code). Sounds weird to me, but can't hurt to try.

JoMark, I can understand your distress as I am currently trying to get a double billing by SNCF removed from my credit card.

If you don't receive the tickets can't you dispute the charge through your credit card company?

I hope you are able to get this resolved without having to go through too many hoops ;;) Good luck, Deborah

Thanks all for suggestions. I am Australian- maybe that's the bug. Given I copied this entire thread and took note of every possible explanation of why not offered self print tickets I was quite peeved that I couldn't self print. Using firefox as a different browser I considered to be the equivalent of trying to complete the whole process in French, so I opted for what I thought was the safe option and had them sent to England.
I think perhaps it was the route I chose that was the problem. We are headed to Lauterbrunnen, would have preferred to go via Geneva but at the release time (midnight France 91 days in advance)Paris to Geneva was E250 and Paris to Basel was E100 for 5 of us. I took the longer (time wise) trip as E150 is quite a saving for the sake of 1 hour. We have 4 day Swiss passes so I only needed to cross the border.

I have to wonder just how many tickets are sold to English speaking buyers on the French system and why international phone access is quite so difficult. Also, I found that once I got away from the regular pages on the SNCF- voyages web site, that I was frequently confronted with a reversion to French. So I'm crossing my fingers, and regularly ringing the English delivery centre that corresponds with the postcode on my tickets.

Travelnut- I've tried about 5 times to ring that number again, but spend minutes++++++++ listening to an electronic voice tell me that they "are transferring my call". As this is a premium service (no prepaid cheap international card system will allow access to the number) I figure it won't take me long to run up the equivalent cost in phone calls.
Christina- can you guess what happens when you hit that 'contact us' button in the orders section- you are told it's now defunct and go to the website.
I battled with the relevant page in French, the previous page was in English but I could not find an 'English' button- possibly because I was getting panicky by then.
What does this mean? <They also say you can get tickets on site if you have your order number, credit card you used, and if you have the printout that should be fine.> By onsite, do you mean when we get to Paris?

I am with you DeborahAnn, will have to brave the French site if the tickets don't turn up. I've got a week before I'll know so will focus on the rest of my trip.
I do appreciate all the input from everyone on this forum, in particular Morgan who spent considerable time giving the 'what to do & what to expect' so I knew when I should panic. I actually opened another window and repeated the booking process (ended up in the next coach)triple checking if there was something I screwed up- extra careful to deselect insurance first go so no rogan cookies and still no self-print option. If it weren't for that last little electronic glitch the whole process would have gone fairly smoothly with my back up plan to have the tickets sent to the UK- arhh "the best laid plans of mice and men....." -that quote is so apt for this computer era where the click of the mouse can see the best of plans go awry.

That's too bad about the contact us email form not working. I didn't try it because I was afraid it would send them some blank email with my email address.

What I meant about picking up on-site was in France at a French train station or SNCF boutique.

To all those who offered advice, just thought I'd let you know that the English postcode system has a lot going for it(each code covers only a very small area) & fortunately for me my tickets have arrived safely. I was ringing my daughter's local postoffice daily and they've come through so I now owe them a big thankyou.