I had booked a ticket online using the Indian Railways website irtctc.co.in from mumbai to my home town some days back. Today I wanted to cancel the ticket. Since it was an E-Ticktet that I had booked I could only cancel it Online.
Now my supposed train was to leave tomorrow in the evening and according to to the Irctc websites instructions("**For cancellation of your ticket, please log in to your account, select
the PNR of the ticket you wish to cancel and cancel your ticket on
line. Cancellation of your e-Ticket is possible only on the website https://irctc.co.in,
and is NOT possible on PRS Counters. Cancellation can be done till the
time of chart preparation for the train which is normally 4 to 6 hours
before the scheduled departure of the train from the train originating
station.(For trains starting up to 12 noon the chart preparation is
usually done on the previous night)**.") I was supposed to cancel the ticket today otherswise I would be charged more than the otherwise normal deductions charges of 40 Rs.
So when I tried to cancel it after logging to my account in th website I was puzzled to find that I was not able to cancel the ticket inspite of multiple attempts.(While cancelling the e-ticket the webiste asks for the Id-Card Number using which you had booked the ticket earlier. And it was giving me error saying the given Id number is invalid although what I was entering was 100% correct!)
Now what to do?(i thought) looked like my money would go down the drain.
It is then that I realised that Irctc has mentioned something in the Booking Confirmation mail that they usually sent after successfully booking a ticket. The instructions goes like this-
*If by any reason you are unable to cancel your ticket on the website
till the time of charting and also unable to perform the journey,
please send a mail to us at the earliest giving the details of your
claim .We will represent your case with the Railways Claims Wing. Similarly these and any other claims/contingencies on this e-ticket may be conveyed to us at eticket@irctc.co.in
for processing. For any further assistance, please contact us at us at
011 - 23345500 / 23344787 / 23344773 / 23345800 / 23340000 Fax
No.23345900 or mail us at care@irctc.co.in.
So I decided to give it a try. Although I was apprehensive whether it would be of any use considering the usual government apathy towards customer services. Anyways, I mailed eticket@irctc.co.in requesting them to cancel my ticket mentioning my PNR no. **I dint expect that I would get a response and had started believing that I had lost my refund money.
And then I was happily surprised . I got a reply from irctc that goes like this-
Dear Customer,
*Thank you for
using IRCTC’s online rail ticket booking services**.
*Please note that
as per your request your Ticket has been cancelled from IRCTC and the refund
amount will be credited to your respective
account.*
I couldnt believe what I was looking at. They had received my mail and responded to it promptly within an HOUR and that too on SUNDAY.:)
Irctc people truly deserves an appreciation fro their timeliness and customer service.
And happily I got my refund back.