Friday, April 22, 2011

Learn angles by playing game


Do we Need Ombudsman in Railways

Here is the present model for the person in case online Claim is rejected for TDR
This the Proposed  model for the person in case online Claim is rejected for TDR ? Ombudsman in railways is the option 







Thursday, April 21, 2011

IRCTC Complaints


I have complied  few of complaints against IRCTC account deactivation. List is not exhaustive but indicative of the menace. websites  where complaints are filed  are listed at the  end.


              1.  Complaint

PNR : 2635004079
Passenger name: Mukta Agarwal
Date 13/5/2010

I want to bring to your attention that IRCTC deactivated my login id, accusing me of making a wrong TDR claim for PNR No. 2635004079 for the reason "Passenger did not travel". The concerned travel is from Jhansi to Allahabad on 13/5/2010 for my Mother (Passenger: Mukta Agarwal).

I would like to bring to your notice that I had booked 2 tickets from Jhansi to Allahabad on 13/5/2010 and 14/5/2010. When my mother was unable to travel on 13th, She traveled on 14th and I filed TDR for 13th ticket.

The PNR No. for 14/5/2010 ticket was: 2535150800, you can check both tickets are for the same passenger and that this ticket was not cancelled.

So how on earth can my Mom (Passenger: Mukta Agarwal) have travelled from JHS to ALD on both 13/5/2010 and 14/5/2010. If she traveled on 13th, why will I file TDR on it can leave 14th ticket as it is.

This is another one of the government agencies being absolutely irresponsible, opaque and autocratic, with no sense of service or regard towards the common man.

Tell me what is more likely a passenger cheating IRCTC or IRCTC fudging, cheating or simply being wrong. Is it not more likely that the concerned TTE having sold the seat off the books.

I want to take some action against IRCTC and the concerned negligent authorities. More than anything I want my userid restored.

Regards,
Ankur Agarwal
ankurmec@gmail.com

PS: I wonder how could I have claimed my authenticity if I did not have the 2nd ticket. What a huge, undisciplined and inefficient government we have with its presence all around our lives working to make it worse each passing day. Not to mention the pathetic food in pantry cars charging 40/60 INR for each meal, the pathetic record on cleanliness and hygiene. Also these days it is impossible to book a tatkal ticket online. God help India
2.     Complaint
De-activated my IRCTC login after refiling TDR against a false enquiry
Sir/madam,

I have my login id in IRCTC and used it for the last 4.5 years.I had sent a mail for further investigation against the TDR.Inspite of investigation,IRCTC deactivated my account.Till date,i am having problem to book a single e-ticket.

I need a quick Justice on IRCTC services & kindly requested to activate my login ID..Again,i want to say that "Services are made for the Publics and Public isn't made for Services.

My Login Id is: suryasrose


From
Warm regards

Suryakanta Senapati.
mail id:suryasrose@yahoo.com
3   3.  Complaint


Yes Same thing also happened with me.
Main thing is that they blocked my account now I am not able to access my account.
For tomorrow & for next month also I already booked 5 tickets.If I am not able to manage my travel.2 of 5 tickets are wait listed including tomorrows tickets.I am not able to cancel that tickets.
Please any body suggest me what I have to do now?

How to complaint about this ?
Is there any help desk for IRCTC ?

          4.  Complaint

False TDR Claim
I booked a ticket from IRTCT site for journey date 14-Nov-2010 (PNR No 6347317566). I filed the TDR because I didn’t travel and even train was delayed for more than 10 hours. They claimed: "it repudiated by Railways stating that the passenger has already travelled and has still claimed refund." As a consequence they have deactivated my account without prior informing to me. There are tickets which I have to take printout/cancel/find travel detail, etc. which blocking me to do so.

Now I would like to get my money back and to activate my IRCTC account as well. Please find below the mail conversation for detail: (IRCTC ticket ID# 2026692). I am still expecting its reply from the IRCTC.


fromChandan Singh
totktadmin@irctc.co.in,
care@irctc.co.in

dateTue, Apr 19, 2011 at 7:09 PM
subjectRe: False TDR Claim
mailed-bygmail.com
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.

Hi,

I would like to challenge the decision which you have taken. I would like to again claim the TDR for the below details:

Transaction ID: 0256319707
PNR No: 6347317566
Train No. & Name: 4649/SARYUYAMUNA EXP
Date of Journey: 14-Nov-2010
Reason: Due to the train was more than 10 hours delayed, I had not travelled and instead travelled through Bus from darbhanga to patna.

For the clarification we can use the CCTV footage or any other media which could be available.

Therefore, I would request you to kindely activate my account as sooner as possible, because there are planned tickets in my account which I have to travel very shortly.

Please let me know if you needed any more information.

Thanks,
Chandan Kumar
M 9823756510
Pune
- Hide quoted text -

On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 12:01 AM, wrote:

- Hide quoted text -
Dear Customer,

You had requested for refund of e-ticket with PNR No.6347317566 , which was booked using user-id "chandanNis ". It is informed that the refund claim has been repudiated by Railways stating that the passenger has already travelled and has still claimed refund.

In view of the wrong claim of refund, the above user ID has been temporarily deactivated.

For further assistance, you may contact care@irctc.co.in.

Regards,
IRCTC


                  5Complaint

Indian Railways - implicating the innocent (ID # 4704)
Respected Sir,
I want to pour out my heart before you. I am alarmed at the way some things have gone against all my expectation, surprising me to the core.
I am George A K, hailing from Trichur Kerala and working as a lecturer in Anna University for the past about 8 years. I also am a Roman Catholic Priest and a very good Basket ball player at this age of 49 of mine. Earlier I had written some suggestion to Railways to improve its design of rail coaches. I have also written some of my good experiences with Indian Railway, especially with some of its officials. I am a civil engineer plus a computer engineer teaching computer science now.
I was having an IRCTC account for the past few years, and I had been booking tickets with that. It was a convenient method. I thank you for the same.
By about 15th of august 2010, my colleague sitting next to me in staff room in Anna University got a mail from IRCTC, saying that, his IRCTC account is deactivated, because there was a fraudulent activity detected, in the form of filing wrong TDR claim. He requested IRCTC to send him the details of the ticket on which he is alleged to have claimed a wrong TDR. But he was never informed of the details of the ticket, but his account remained deactivated. Meantime he was to take a lot of round about ways to contact Delhi (in Hindi) and get copies of the tickets he was to travel shortly. We in the room, assisted him in all this difficult tasks.
A few days later, by about 25th august onwards to my great surprise, I found my account was not responding. I wrote to IRCTC and got a bolt from the blue, saying, due to wrong filing of TDR, my account is deactivated. I asked for the details of the ticket on which I am alleged to have filed a wrong TDR. Luckily for me they sent an e-copy of the ticket. The ticket was for travel on 29th December 2009. (8 months before) I should have filed the TDR for the same, in the month of January 2010.
Now fortunately for me I could recollect all the relevant details and reasons due to which I had to postpone my travel from 29th to 31st of December 2009. I am a very good basket ball player too. Attached to our church in Trichur we have a prestigious school. They decided to conduct an All Kerala Inter School basket ball tournament the first of its kind in that school. On the final day of it they decided to conduct a friendly match with Rev. Fathers and v/s the Veterans of Trichur. As I was a player, they requested me to stay back for the same on 31st. I had a mass in Chennai on 1st in St. Lazarus Church at Four Shore Estate, on Friday the new year day, at 6.00 am. Because of their compulsion, I contacted the church in Chennai to make alternate arrangements. Fr. Principal booked a ticket for me on 31st night. It should be either a Tatkal or an EQ ticket. Thus I stayed back in Trichur to play the match.
On 30th I watched the semifinals of the teams and even took some practice for the following day’s match. On 31st I played with the fathers’ team and unfortunately lost it. In fact I had played against my coach in my younger days. With a paining injured knee of mine by about 9. 30 – 10.00 I started from Trichur to Railway station and as I remember the train was somewhere around 10.30 or 11.00 pm.
It is because of that basket ball game in which I injured my knee so much, I remember those details so much. Now the IRCTC has found out that I had travelled on 29th itself and that I filed a wrong TDR. They have deactivated my account, without giving me a chance to explain my side. In order to cancel 2 tickets which I had booked for Vijayawada and back on 4 and 5th of September respectively, I had to send numerous emails. Then they were asking me to make the same request from an old mail id of mine, which was no more functional. In spite of explaining the non-functionality of the old mail, they continued the same stand, “send from the old email id”. What a torture is this?
I have a few questions to you.
1. What scientific proof does IRCTC expect me to produce to prove that I have not travelled? An E-ticket can be printed any number of times and so I can easily say, I have not travelled, stating that the TTE’s sign is not there. Surely you won’t expect a proof like this for non-travel from my side.
2. The circumstantial evidences (the notices and photos) of having a match there, my playing it on 31st can be proved. But will that be of any value to you!
3. The fact that I travelled by a reserved ticket from Trichur to Chennai on 31st may be of some significance to you. But do you expect me to keep a travelled ticket (not an e ticket but a card type usual ticket) for 8 months? But Railway’s computers should definitely keep that data (for me). The data should be George A K (Fr. George)
4. As I am a lecturer in Anna University and those days 30th and 31st being working days, could you please accept that record for my absence in Anna University chennai, my work place, as a sort of proof for my not travelling on 29th of December? I have verified and seen that,I have not signed on those slots. ( a day’s salary is at least Rs. 750. So 2 days it is Rs. 1500) if I file a TDR, what I am to get will be around Rs. 150 at the most I hope.) Do you expect one to leave those two days unsigned to get a TDR claim?
5. Most importantly, how do you expect us to verify what the TTE has marked against our name in the list, when we have not travelled at all? Do you expect us to sift through the records made by the TTE, before filing a TDR? Do you make those records available in the net or anywhere so that we can verify them before filing a TDR?
6. There are two way of looking at the actions of the TTE. The most neutral way of looking at it is, ‘the TTE has forgotten to mark, that the person has not travelled, or by mistake he just ticked my name too’. In this case am I to be punished, my account to be deactivated without hearing me, and my name to be tarnished among my coworkers, superiors and students? The worst way of looking at is, ‘the TTE, knowingly refuses to mark the absence of a traveler and ‘sells’ the ticket to another one and pockets the money’. In this case, am I to be punished for that crime of his?
7. Where is the transparency behind all these issues? Will you find out the TTE of the concerned day and sort out things? Leave alone all the issues of money. Can IRCTC, restore the image and reputation of me and my next table friend in the Anna University community?
8. Is there any higher authority where I can appeal or what is the procedure for any appeal in this matter? Can any step be taken, if TTEs are selling the tickets in the above possible way I reasonably suspect?
9. I would like to have a personal interview with you or anybody you suggest in Chennai office. If possible let my next table colleague also be invited.
10. Advise me as to what is to be done in this. Can we trust the Indian Railway anymore? Do you want us to revert to manual booking regime (at the railway station)? What will happen to my IRCTC account? Will it be re-activated at all?
                     6.    Complaint

IRCTC Complaints - Callous customer service, false accusation of Fraud, Disabling user-ID without notice by IRCTC
Callous customer service, false accusation of Fraud, Disabling user-ID without notice by IRCTC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(16th August 2010)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear IRCTC,

I did not receive any reply regarding my explanation to your accusation of Fraudulent TDR/your one-sided action of disabling my ID, even after 4 days. I called up IRCTC helpline and they said the ID related issues will not be replied before 1 month.

Such callous disregard for customers/customer service cannot be tolerated in this day and age where many companies are fighting for valuable customers.

I am going to take up this matter in every online forum, Under Right to Information Act and in Consumer Courts:
a) Against IRCTC (for disabling my ID in a one-sided without notice/without calling me up for clarification, for not responding within time)
b) Against Indian Railways (For rejecting my valid TDR claim).

I am an angry customer, and I will channel my anger with the aim of improving customer service.

Warm regards,
Kiran

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(12th August 2010)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear IRCTC,

Please see my response below:

1) Regarding TDR: Actually I should ask the reverse question - Why was my TDR rejected ?

I saw my TDR was rejected some 4-5 months ago, I did not have patience/energy to reply & follow up with additional information, for sake of Rs.180. So I left the matter.

Now that you have poked the issue, please listen to me.

I wanted to travel on 24th October 2009 night from Chandigarh to Delhi by Kalka mail. In my hurry, I did not see that the departure time of the train is 01:10 am, which means I have to book the ticket on 25th October 2009. I first booked my ticket on 24th October 2009 by mistake (PNR: xxxxxxxxxx). Please see ticket attached. The date of booking is: 06 October 2009.

I realized my mistake on 24th October 2009 afternoon (Train had already left previous midnight), and immediately booked another ticket for same train on 25th October 2009 (PNR: yyyyyyyyyy). Please see 2nd ticket attached. The date of booking is: 24 October 2009.Please verify with Indian Railways, whether passenger travelled on 25th October 2009/PNR yyyyyyyyyy).

I had a connecting flight booking on 25th October 2009 in the morning at Delhi Airport to Hyderabad. Please see flight ticket attached. Please verify with airlines whether passenger travelled on this flight or not.

I had another connecting train ticket on 25th October 2009 from Hyderabad to Bangalore. Please see train ticket attached. Please ask Railways to check whether passenger has travelled on this train or not.


2) The one-sided/arrogant manner in which you have decided I am a fraud user and disabled my ID makes me furious.

Have you bothered to check my ID/ticket booking/TDR history, before deciding I am a fraud user ?

My ID is active since 2006.

I booked at least 70-80 tickets so far.

I currently hold 4 (future date) tickets on my ID. The manner in which you blocked my ID, makes it difficult for me to take ticket print out/cancellation.

I filed 4 TDRs earlier, all of which were accepted and money refunded.

Even the TDR in question (PNR: xxxxxxxxxx) is valid - You can see from my tickets that I travelled on the next day.

Either Railways hasn't checked records / TTE made an error / TTE allowed another person to travel and marked my ticket as 'Passenger Travelled'.

Since you decided to block my ID one-sided, will Railways suspend the TTE first, without giving any notice/memo/asking for explanation ?

I want to pursue this with Consumer Court.

3) Who do you think loses by disabling the ID ?

Is it me ? Probably not - I have other means of travel, other means of booking railway tickets (Railway counters/Agents)

Probably IRCTC is going to lose revenue - Have the policy-maker who made this policy thought about it ?

Warm regards,
Kiran

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(12th August 2010)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Customer,


Sub: False TDR Claim

It is noted that the following user-id xxxxxxx PNR No:-xxxxxxxxxx has been filed by
you for TDR through online mechanism. It is informed by the railways to IRCTC that in all these cases
person have travelled and still claims for refund are filed. Please inform the reasons for this fraudulent
activity on your part. You user id has been temporarily deactivated now.

If any further clarification please mail to care@irctc.co.in.


Regds
IRCTC
Dear All,

Exactly same thing happened to me as well..
I have been told that I wrongfully filed TDR.
They blocked my IRCTC id, so bound to loose money as by this week I had to cancel tickets.

There has to be some solid mechanism to avoid such inconvenience and injustice from Govt.
we all know what indian railways TTE are like. They are just behind money everyday. No big deal if they sell your seat and mark as you present..

I think Indian Railway should come with some serious solution to it, where frauds get penalised, but no truthful TDR should be rejected.

Regards,
Dear all,

I'm also got into the same situation. My irctc account got disabled today, ( noted when i tried to login for printing my e-ticket ). I am un-able to login to my account now. There was just one mail communication about the false TDR request and IRCTC just blocked my account!!!

There should be some mechanism to avoid this kind of inconveniece to the customers. Something like TTR should only be able to cancel the booking from customer if he's not shown even after 3rd station ( or may be after 100 km ) from the boarding point. He should be only be able to cancel the ticket if the customer is not able to board the train. It seems like TTR is allotted my ticket on that date to some body else and marked as I've travelled on that day !!!

This action of just de-activating the account without clarifying the reason of the incident, is not good one as it causes inconvenience to the people of India. There has to be some strict vigilence and control over the TTR's actions, rather putting unwanted actions on the customers.

Please take this as serious and put some process to avoid this.

Thanks,
Arun.
I have also faced the same problem. I am a respectable Oil PSU employee and the ticket in question is of worth Rs. 100 only. How can IRCTC block my ID without assigning any reason ? I am ready to take up the matter to the Court if required. Please find my fruitless communication with these people:

______________________________________________________________________

>> No reply on the subject till now. Pl look in the matter urgently. I am facing a lot of trouble because of the issue.

Akash.

>>> Akash Deep Tewari 8/16/2010 11:10 AM >>>
Dear Sir,

Thanks for your reply. As you are aware of the general practice followed in Indian Railways, the TT allots the seat of the passenger not traveling to some other traveler. Hence, it goes on record that the person had traveled though physically it is not true. In this case, the same thing might hold good. Please note again that the undersigned is a respectable Oil PSU employee and will not resort to such means.

It would be very helpful if you may take up the matter with the concerned authorities and re-activate my ID as I am facing gross inconvenience because of this step.

Pl do the needful.

Thanks and Regards.

AKASH DEEP TEWARI
SALES OFFICER - HPCL

_____________________________

>>> tdr 8/15/2010 11:52 PM >>>
Dear customer,

Sorry for the inconvenience. Kindly note that your refund case of PNR
No.4515042735 has been regretted by Southern Railway on dt. 16-Jun-2009
stating that “360-SR/5 As per records Passen
ger(s) travelled on the ticket”. Against their letter
no.MAS/8-9&9-10/E&I/Dlr5/15.5.9SR for further assistance please mail us.


Regards,


Shiraj Ahmad
tdrprocess@irctc.co.in
Ph: 011- 23345900



care@irctc.co.in wrote:
>
> Dear Concern,
>
> Plz look into the matter.
>
> Mail id: akashdtewari@hpcl.co.in
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Thanks & Regards
> Pratima.
> care@irctc.co.in
> www.irctc.co.in
> 011-39340000
>
>
>
>
> ----- Forwarded message from akashdtewari@hpcl.co.in -----
> Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:53:04 +0530
> From: Akash Deep Tewari
> Subject: Fwd: Your USER-id deactivated
> To: care@irctc.co.in
> Cc: tktadmin@irctc.co.in
>
> Dear Sir,
>
> Pl refer the subject. My login ID is akash885. Please note that I have
> not filed any false TDR vide PNR No:-4515042735. The cost of the
> refund will not be more than Rs. 250.00. There is no reason for me to
> cheat for this meager amount. Using words like "fraud" will not serve
> any purpose. You have deactivated my account without sending any
> intimation. This is very wrong on your part. I have been booking thru
> IRCTC for last 3 years and have booked tickets worth thousands and
> have never resorted to any such means.
>
> Even if the passenger has traveled on the above ticket, Railways
> should not have processed the TDR instead of taking this extreme step.
> As per my knowledge, railways process the TDR after looking in their
> records. The payment is reversed only after confirmation from the
> Deptt. How is this possible that they have first reversed the amount
> in my account and then now they are sending intimation to IRCTC.
>
> It is very bad for the image of your Organization. Pl look into the
> issue and re-activate my account. I have many important tickets booked
> from my account for which the journey is due. I am facing acute
> problem because of this step. Pl do the needful.
>
> Thanks and Regards.
>
> AKASH DEEP TEWARI
> SALES OFFICER - HPCL

I am also facing the same problem. My user id is alok_dipti. IRCTC deactivated my account.I have already 3 outgoing future tickets, out of them I have to cancel one.
They wrote that I filed false tdr but this was never the case.
I already send them mail several times but they didn't replied neither take any action.
my email to irctc is [IRCTC #1380433].
Regards
Alok Trivedi

I faced the same problem.
I filed a RTI in pune Division
And I will be filing a Suit in consumer court as soon as i get the reply from RTI
The RTI officer has already told me what reply i would get.
I would file a class action case against IRCTC and Indian Railway if you people support me.
You can contact me at neilsatyam at gmail dot com
My IRCTC account is also disabled without any prior notice its so rude, if account is in thier hands, they are behaving like anything(IRCTC).They should ask for reason for filling the TDR and if not satisfied should disable account with proper evidence. Govt is also encouraging them instead of stopping so.
Now the customer care number don't work and if it works its always busy.
II am trying to contact but I am always failed, any body know's the any other point of contact either PH No or mail ID,
Callous IRCTC officials deactivated my user ID also without following principle of natural justice. My email dated Aug 30, 2010 to IRCTC officials are reproduced below. Not yet received any response from them. If some one is ready to take any legal action, i would support them.
Regards
R Anand__________________________________________

Dear Sir/madam,

This has reference to your reply pertaining to deactivation of my user Id - *****. In your reply, you have stated that my id has been deactivated due to false filing of TDR.

In this regard, i wish to state that with respect to PNR no: ******** and Transaction ID No: *********, i filed a TDR. Though, i could not travel on the ticket, while filing for TDR on April 08, 2009 I wrongly mentioned the reason as “Wrongly charged by TTE” instead of “Passenger not traveled”. Immediately, on the same day, i informed care@irctc.co.in (through my email dated same date) regarding the said inadvertent error.

With regard to all other TDRs filed me, i, hereby, confirm that the passengers for whom it is booked, never travelled in those tickets. It is strange that IRCTC has not analysed the possibility of the concerned TTE of the train not marking "Not Joined" (NJ) in his chart against the name of the passenger, who actually not travelled, (for whatever reason).

It is not fair that you have not given me any opportunity for being heard (not followed the principle of natural justice) before blocking my user ID. Thus, you denied me the privilege of booking and cancelling tickets, without a valid reason.

Further, after deactivation, i created a new ID anandsracs to book tickets. The new ID was also been deactivated. Thus, you are denying me my right to book tickets through online for no reason.

As mentioned in my previous mail, while touts are allowed to exploit the online reservation, genuine travelers are being harassed by IRCTC.

Considering the above, i would request you to bring the matter to the notice of concerned officials to reactivate my user id and allow me to book tickets. Else, i would be forced to take a legal action.

I would further request you to provide me the name and details of concerned officials, who could help me in this regard.

Regards

R Anand
Finally, my account is activated..
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
tktadmin@irctc.co.in
Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 8:54 PM
subjectYour USER-id activated


Dear Customer,

On your email request, we are activating your user-id xxxxxx Further for any clarification please write to care@irctc.co.in

I think there is no mechanism for sudden deactivation of irctc online account. Today(April 20, 2011) my account 'hmr1967' has been deactivated under the reason of false TDR worth Rs 100/- (Sept 12, 2010) without any intimation. When I contacted the customer care I was treated like a criminal as I had (supposedly) filed a false TDR. In spite of repeated requests to send me the process for payment of Rs 100 or Plus penalty or atleast sending of printout of future tickets no reponse. It is shocking that no customer complaint settlement mechanism is in place at IRCTC. Who is responsible for the loss of ticket charges and penalty to be paid . I am travelling tomorrow(April 20, 2011) and next week with my family and very difficult to get tickets even in Tatkal. Will some one from irctc reply to my mail id hitesh.ramani@hotmail.com and help. Thanks.