coolspot

Hi all,

Ordered tickets 15 business days ago, still have not received them. Tickets were supposed to be mailed to my house in ~7 business days according to the website.

What should I do?

The website says if I do not receive the tickets that I will need to purchase a second ticket and request a refund of the first ticket? Has anyone done this before, any details on the process? I read on a couple French forums that TGV-Europe/SNCF takes ages if not forever to issue a refund...

Or would it be better to request a credit card chargeback and just purchase a new set of tickets for local pick up?

Thanks.

spaarne

<b><i>What should I do?</i></b>

You could start by telling us who you ordered the tickets from, and where they are supposed to be delivered.

Was your credit card dinged yet? When?

coolspot

Yes, CC was charged the day of purchase (June 6, 2010).

I ordered the tickets from TGV-Europe as stated in the title of my post

Travel is from Paris -> London.

Delivery of tickets is to Canada (TGV-Europe had an option to delivery to Canada).

Thanks for any info!

coolspot

I should mention - I would have chosen a 'print at home option' but unfortunately it was not available. Also I did not have a chip card at the time, so I didn't choose the local pick up option

spaarne

<i>I ordered the tickets from TGV-Europe as stated in the title of my post </i>
Not intuitively obvious at all. You can also buy TGV tickets from agencies in the USA.

Canadian Customs is probably holding. If so it could take weeks. Try to get into their system. Ask TGV if they sent by registered mail and if they can put a tracer on the envelope. That probably won't work for an international post but you don't have many options. If they sent it by DHL or another expediter you should be able to trace the parcel.

BTW, I don't believe you need a chip card to pick up your tickets in France. You just need the credit card that you charged the tickets to. If Palenque catches on to this thread he can give you more on that.

Christina

I can't imagine why you had these mailed to you, but I think it's your own problem for that reason. YOu easily could have said you'd pick them up in France and not risk all these problems.

No, you do not have to have any chip credit card to pick up tickets in France, I have done it without one and I don't remember anywhere on the SNCF website that it claims you cannot buy tickets without one. YOu just can't use their automatic machines, that's all, you have to go to a live ticket clerk.

I thought the SNCF website stated that they are not responsible for lost tickets in the mail. So if you can apply for a refund, I think that is fortunate. YOu can't do a chargeback on your credit card for reasons like this, that you bought something and it hasn't arrived yet.

Christina

I just checked the website to see if it did say you couldn't pick up tickets without a chip card and it does not, it says this

<<You retrieve your ticket at train counters in France with your dossier number and the bank card that was used to make payment.
Warning: you will be asked to provide the bank card that was used to pay for the ticket as well as its secret code in order to retrieve your ticket.

Note: you can also retrieve your tickets from the Self-Service terminals, available in France or at the Luxembourg station, except for tickets paid for using cards that do not have chips, such as American Express and some foreign cards.>>

It does say you can request a refund, though, so that's good. They don't offer print yourself options except for tickets that are prepaid and nonrefundable.

coolspot

Hi all - really embarrassing... the tickets indeed arrived last week but due to my messy desk they were buried under a pile of papers.

So false alarm.

On a bright note, TGV-Europe replied to my query in about a day, but their standard response was "the tickets are printing" when in fact they have been printed AND mailed!

spaarne

<i>Hi all - really embarrassing... the tickets indeed arrived last week but due to my messy desk they were buried under a pile of papers.</i>

Coolspot, that is definitely not cool. Consider changing your screen name.

BTW, was it by post or express service?

tod

Last year I booked on DBhan, took a chance and had the tickets delivered to my home without a hitch, so went for it again this year. Same thing...tickets in my postbox within 10days. Bloody marvelous!

I am so relieved for you Coolspot.

coolspot

@spaarne - they mailed it via standard post, hence no tracking.

cathies

Just as a follow up to this post. We bought tickets online through TGV and as the delivery address put in the address of the gite we were going to be staying in before needing the tickets.

Anyway, the tickets didn't arrive so I emailed TGV who were extremly helpful. We did have to buy new tickets but we were only charged the same PREMS fare that I had originally paid. We produced the original receipt and the same credit card and a refund was easily arranged at the ticket office at the train station in Bordeaux. The refund appeared in our bank account a few weeks later at a slightly reduced amount due to a change in exchange rates.

It was easy and we were treated very nicely, as expected of the French.

Coolspot, I feel for you - how embarrassing!!!