I strongly feel deceived by IRCTC. Review on Irctc

A quote from Mahatma Gandhi states, "A customer is the most important visBrianbalakumaranr on our premises. he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so." But in India something else happens.

MY OBSERVATION:

If rail tickets reserved/booked from the IRCTC's website and the same needs to be cancelled within 6 hours before the journey time(i.e. just after the concerned chart has been prepared but before the journey time), the same can not be cancelled. Alternatively, if such tickets were purchased from a railway counter, they can easily be cancelled over many railway counters and the refund is given instantly to the buyer.

As per the terms of IRCTC, booked tickets can not be cancelled even just after the chart has been prepared but TDR needs to be filed and wait for many days for the mercy of a railway official to approve such TDR application. Unfortunately, the most possibility is that the TDR will not be approved hence refund is not granted and the money is forfeited by the concerned departments since the approving official concerned may not treat such TDR as a cancellation before journey time rather he might prefer to make a remark "Passenger Not Travelled" even if such tickets were tried to be cancelled anytime before 6 hours from the journey time.

THE FACT:

I have booked my rail ticket for two persons on dated 11 September 2010, online using IRCTC's website for a return journey on 21 September 2010 from JHARGRAM(JGM) to HOWRAH JN(HWH) and the ticket was confirmed with the PNR Number: 6246913521.

However, since few more family members were to return with us and also we have changed our return destination, I have bought another ticket from Jhargram that included all said family members and desired to cancel the other ticket online - which was booked by me earlier(the ticket with PNR Number: 6246913521), but repeatedly, I have failed to cancel same ticket online since about 6 hours before the journey time rather was made to file TDR online in IRCTC's website, before that I have also sent another email dated 21-09-2010 to ticketadmin@irctc.co.in informing IRCTC the message exactly as mentioned in the quotation mark here, "Sir, I wanted to cancel the ticket with PNR 6246913521 JGM to HWH 21-9-2010 Delivered 11-9-2010 transaction ID 0250716049 but failed to cancel it since chart has been prepared, So I wish to file TRD for the same, Please do the needful."

Meanwhile, a long time has passed by. Unfortunately, after more than 8(eight) months from the date of filling said TDR but today dated 27-May-2011 I have received an email from IRCTC that did not approved said TDR and obviously the ticket amount has been forfeited by them. Status of the TDR says'CCM Regreted', Refund Status: Refund Not Approved, Reason For TDR: Passenger Not Travelled. Another email states, " the reason being: 9775-SER/4 Delay not condoned."

I do not know what made IRCTC and Railways to take more than 8 months to reply a TDR application. Also I do not understand what made them to reject my application - which was more like a request for cancellation than a so called TDR that too when such request(Cancellation or TDR, whatever) was desired before concerned journey time? Had I purchased this ticket over a railway ticket counter then I would have got the refund instantly, that too even more than eights months ago positively. I strongly feel deceived by the said dealing.

_

CONNECTING FACTS:

I have information that the concerned TTE re-sold the seat - the seat that was reserved by me in aishwaryasingh23ing advance aishwaryasingh23ment - so the TTE earned some extra money out of that reserved ticket as well as the Railway of the actual ticket value. So reasonably railway charged double for the same reserved seat - once from my advance aishwaryasingh23ment for the seat reservation, again re-selling the unoccupied seat by the TTE to some other traveller that too even in a higher price.

But as far as the question of condoning is concerned, It is strange to find and probably applicable only in India that so called a Govt. Department prefers to treat a ticket buyer more like a criminal than a customer, accordingly they used the terms'not condoned'.

============== RESPONSE FROM IRCTC AFTER THIS POST ===

Dear customer,

Sorry for the inconvenience.Kindly note that the refund case of PNR No.6246913521 has been regretted by SER Railway on 01-Oct-2010.Now we have sent letter to SER Railway on 3-June-2011 stating that'Passenger Not Travelled.', so please reopen the case . As soon as refund, if any, received it will be Cred824ited to your card account. With regards, TDR PROCESS TEAM