I want to thank IRCTC and the people working here to make me feel that what we think about services in India ( specially government offices) is not all that true.
This review is my tribute to the exceptionally efficient and helping people working at IRCTC. This might sound surprising to a lot of Indians like me, as the general perception about any government office and officials is not very good amongst us. But there are exceptional guys, take my word for that.
To highlight what I am trying to say, I will share my experiences in two categories. One, my experience of booking tickets at IRCTC, second, an incident where in somebody booked a ticket using my credit card information.
Category I ? The IRCTC services
I joined this website around 6 months back (registering oneself is free and very simple on this website.) and have been booking tickets since than. They offer you two choices to book ticket. You can either pay using your credit card or you can choose to book ticket by online paying from your bank account. IRCTC charge INR 40 to deliver a ticket at your doorstep ( they deliver it in 24 hours however their announced time is 48 Hours, I never had to wait for more than 24 hours). The benefits of booking tickets from IRCTC are many.
You can book ticket till 10 PM.
You don?t have to be in any queue.
It will give you all the options available for the journey date along with the availability, schedule of the train and fare etc. ( Any reservation counter clerk will not entertain more than 3 forms from you, here you can check unlimited options before actually booking the ticket)
To sum it all, I have got all my tickets booked using IRCTC only, since the day I have joined this website. It is easy to navigate, efficient and actually saves you money. If I go to railway stations to book the ticket, it costs me at least Rs. 100 for petrol of my car and require 2 to 4 hours. If I book thru an agent, they charge much much more than what I pay here. Also, this site is very secure as they don?t keep any record of your credit card or bank account once the transaction is over.
Category ? II the IRCTC People
On 13th of Sep. somebody fraudulently booked ticket worth INR 14099.30 using my Standard Chartered Bank credit card. After knowing about the same, I called up both IRCTC and SCB. I do not want to talk about Standard Charted here as this review is on IRCTC and also because my experience with SCB puts me off.
This was the first time I was calling IRCTC, and was not very hopeful about the treatment I was about to get. But, the guy on phone took the issue very seriously and promised all the help to me. He was not able to give the details about transaction as they don?t keep the record of Credit card etc. for security reasons. However, I was asked to send a dispute deceleration letter to SCB and an email about the issue to IRCTC.
I called up IRCTC after 24 hours and I was immediately made to talk to the supervisor on floor. After listening to my problem, he called up a gentleman from IRCTC who was looking after the ?Charge Backs?. He assured me that they are following the issue and I don?t need to worry about the same. He also gave the direct number of Mr. J. Vinayan, who is Jt. General Manager (Operations) IRCTC.
I had my own apprehensions of calling Mr. Vinayan but after talking to him I was a much relieved person. He was aware of the issue and as soon as I said, ?I am Alok and want to talk to you regarding a ticket?, he started off with the proceeding going on this issue. He gave me his email ID and phone number and assured that for any issue I can call him up directly.
In the mean while I got a call from IRCTC that they have found out the transaction, and the ticket was booked from Trivandruom to Lucknow.
Today, I got a call from Mr. Vanayn who was calling from Lucknow. They were there to arrest this person and wanted to know if somehow I know that person.
My heart is filled with joy and a lot of gratitude today, not because of I do not have to pay these Rs. 14000, or they arrested that person. I am happy because one government department and officials working in that department makes me feel India is still a good place to live and we are not all that bad as a society as we think we are.
I wish if all of us reading this article can learn something from this story and imbibe some good practices as shown by IRCTC people, we will be a much better society.
Kudos to IRCTC and all those whom I have interacted with regarding this issue. Keep up the good job.