Betty1

I was all set to buy my 10 tickets from Avignon to Paris for June 6. Got on the website and put in my info for 6 tickets, hit "rechercher." Was happy to see that I could get them for 25€ each, but when I hit "valider," I got a message that the website was unavailable until 2h00 (8:00 pm EST) for maintenance. Tried to call both numbers 8 36 35 35 39 and 8 92 35 35 35 (putting the 011 33 in front, of course) and got caught in a merry-go-round of say this, say that. (none of which suited me!)

Any ideas? Or do I just wait until 8:00 pm and hope they still have the Prem's available?(I'm afraid French customers may have another way of getting through.)

Thanks for letting me vent!

yk

Oh my, Betty1. I'll say it again, you deserve commision for doing this!

Anyway, Since the website is down, no one can buy the tickets online. I doubt that many French are willing to stay up until 2am their time to buy their PREM'S tickets, so my guess is you should just relax and be ready in 45 minutes!

Good luck!

Betty1

Thanks for the sympathy, yk! Yeah, I think I'm earning my big fat "commission" tonight. Trying to be patient.

Betty1

So..... I finally got it to work about 8:45. Put in my info for 6 tickets and my Capitol One cc info. Refused. (I had alerted CO I would be purchasing these tickets.) Tried my Bof A Visa - went through - yes!

Went back to buy the other 4 - still had the same good price - both credit cards refused.

I've called CO twice and BofA once - both insist that my cards should work. Tell that to SNCF!

I've cleared cookies, history, temporary files, rebooted - nothing seems to help.

Will try calling again but the last message I got was that those numbers only work during business hours, 7 am to 10 pm, I think. It's gonna be a long night!

If anyone has another idea, I'd love to hear it!

yk

YIKES! Do you have another Credit Card?

When you call BoA, did you actually speak with the <u>fraud</u> department, as those are the people who actually block your card. If you just talk to JoeShmo at BoA, he may have no jurisdiction or info regarding the fraud dept.

Betty1

Yep! Fraud number in both cases. I actually got an email alert from BofA with the number to call. Although they let the first purchase go through, they were verifying the "irregular activity." I think the problem must be with SNCF since both cards are being refused. I don't have another one except a debit card - don't think that would work, would it?

yk

How about trying to book your tix via www.tgv-europe.com? Same platform as SNCF, make sure you choose GREAT BRITAIN as the home country and proceed.

Sarastro

I have had the same problem of having my purchase on the SNCF website denied by the credit card fraud department of my bank (USAA). It seems the SNCF websites are regular sources of fraudulent purchases. The bank would OK the charge but wanted to know the exact dollar amount of the transaction. Not knowing the exchange rate that would be used in the purchase, I explained that I only knew the exact amount in Euros.

Eventually, I was able to buy the tickets but if the SNCF website itself is not a huge source of frustration (the "waiting for reply" can really take the joy out of vacation) the purchase problems definitely are.

Betty1

You remember the old saw about the definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? Well, it ain't necessarily so!

I finally have my tickets!

Actually, I did do one thing different - I remembered that I needed to get a ticket for another member of my group who was going from Avignon to Saint Raphael, so I put that info in. When it brought up my order the 4 tickets to Paris were still there along with the one to S-R. So, I thought, what the heck, I'll see if this works (with no expectation of success). And, voilà! went through as pretty as you please with all 5 tickets paid on my CO card. I've already printed them.

Amen, Sarastro! (But my problem was not coming from the fraud dept at CO or BofA. At least that's what I was told.)

Moral of the story - keep trying. In the end I got 11 tickets for 25€ each. Not sure it was worth all the aggravation, though.

So, good night, folks. I'm off to bed. Thanks for the moral support.

Christina

I have used my Capitol One credit card to buy tickets on SNCF with no problems at all. In fact, I've never had a problem with any credit card buying tickets on SNCF.

JayG

I am sitting here in rural Australia, I havn't traveled for years but somehow SNCF Internet Isiles De mer have got hold of my credit card and billed me the equivalent of AUD $152. I wish someone could tell me somehow how this has happened. i have not been to france since the interent was invented and they sure don't have their trains here

Christina

It sounds like someone else used your number to charge SNCF tickets, that's all, SNCF doesn't make up charges that I know. So dispute it with your CC company. In fact, I sort of remember some problem that SNCF refused Australian CCs in particular due to so much fraud from that country, although I might be remembering wrong. I just sort of remember someone posting on here from Australia that couldn't get SNCF to accept their card, and I believe SNCF finally told them they reject all Australian cards. Which would be very ironic.

Maybe there is some big CC fraud ring in Australia that likes to charge things to SNCF for some odd reason. I don't recall what you need to charge things to a CC on SNCF, if you need that special CCW code or just your name. Maybe there is some big CC fraud scheme in Australia that sold your info to someone in France, who knows. I got a bogus charge on my AMEX card last month (and they are pretty secure) which totally surprised me, an online purchase for a place I have never heard of in a location I have never been (so I know it was online) and I have never had my Amex card out of my possession except when buying things, of course. It's being investigated, I wondered what info someone needed to charge something to my card, I presume more than just the card number, but I never got a clear answer from Amex on that point.

jamikins

Similar thing just happened to me - someone made an online purchase for T-Mobile with my Mastercard. I have disputed it and its being investigated as well, but its a pain because I had them reissue my cards. Both my hubby and I had our cards on us so I know they werent stolen.