SNCF website torture

[Fumanzoku]

This is quite possibly the Worst website in the Western World, and after using it for 5 years it doesn't get any better. It must have been designed by a team of sadists. A few examples:

You input your query (date, time, etc). Message comes up "you must book within two months" the booking is for next week !

Or "no fares are available, please modify" how can you modify where you want to go LOL.

Or "no fares exist for this route" though you've done the journey biannually for 5 years. This means they exist but not online or you have to change three times so it can't cope - go to the station.

So you get around this by either just going down to the station (what's the point of the website) or by trial and error discovering you can either go through one of the special offer options or change the parameters of your journey (split it up into stages !) - and sure enough it is possible to book on that day/time.

So you go ahead and select your ticket, and the message comes up "a technical error, sorry",

So you try again and this time when you select your ticket, both this one and previous erroneous selection appear, somehow it remembered. Obviously you don't want to buy two on the same day (my card was once charged for duplicate bookings,) so you delete one of them. And the message comes up "error in deleting one of your journeys", try again and you end up with three !

To add to all this they have a pop up ad. EVERY time you open a new window so in between errors you have to swat these things down. I've got to hand it to them, that was a nice touch, that probably sends all but the hard core over the edge.

So you headbutt the keyboard, give up, have a cup of coffee and try again later - this time you don't log on (as a member) and are able to book without errors, at once, seems they saved todays' fun for members only.

[Alcazar]

Personally, I don't find the French paricularly "up" on the internet yet. Many of their sites are poor compared with UK, American, and other sites, with frequent bugs and breakdowns.

However, for real hair pulling screaming fury, try to find insurance on the net for an 18 year old

BTW: do you get many replies to e-mails to French sites, French businesses, or even French people? I reckon on one in ten..............if it's at all important, phone 'em

Alcazar

[Will]

I do agree about French websites in general, and think that the 1 in 10 response to e-mails is rather optimistic. In fact I can't recall ever having a response to an e-mail sent to a company in France (except as acknowledgement of an order, then things revert to normal once the ordered item never arrives...).

However, I do use the SNCF site quite frequently. Most of the time it works for me, though I have had several instances of the sort of bugs outlined above. The big advantage is that you can book trains, flights, hotels etc on the same site, and it's about the only travel website I have found that will allow me to use a British Visa card (which is necessary as the journeys are work-related) for journeys starting and finishing in France.

I don't have the pop-up ads, but then I use the popup blockers in Norton, Google and Tiscali toolbars and Windows XP (anything give you the impression I hate popups?).

If the SNCF site doesn't work then the best thing to do is phone 3635.

Duplicate tickets happen and are, in my experience, best cancelled at the station when you turn up to get the train. You can try it on line but when I've done that you still need to hand in the unwanted tickets to get a refund. Just make sure you have the right card with you so that it can be credited.

[Baz]

An excellent site that has been recommend by members in the past for railway journeys  is the German Railways. I use it in the UK for its speed, detailed information and accuracy, the only thing it does not give are fares outside Germany. The clever thing is all you need put in are station names and it recognises the Country.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Baz

[AlanW]

I too have suffered from DPS (Duplicate Ticket Syndrome).  I found that e-mailing SNCF was infinitely more effective than contacting my own credit card company.  SNCF refunded the money to my card before my credit card company had even bothered to talk to me about the problem.  Surprisingly I don't have that card any more, but I do still use the SNCF website!!

 

Persevere

[Miki]

I gave up in the end the other week in trying to buy a ticket on the website and simply went to our local station and bought the ticket there at exactly the same rate as on the net.

[Alcazar]

<<I gave up in the end the other week in trying to buy a ticket on the website and simply went to our local station and bought the ticket there at exactly the same rate as on the net.>>

Ah, yes, this is, of course, probably the best bet, EXCEPT:

Whenever I go, I ALWAYS get behind FRENCH PEOPLE in the queue who just need to know absolutely EVERYTHING, even the last time their train driver changed his undies, before they will buy the ticket.

Often, that person is only in, asking, anyway, and will "drop back later to actually purchase"

Then, when it IS your turn, (25 minutes later), there'll be the person whose train is about to leave, who asks permission to push in front of you to get their ticket before it does so.

Oh yes, I've been there, and done all that, many times, often just for the TGV upgrade on a Eurodomino ticket, which you CAN'T get out of a machine. 

And yes, I STILL love the SNCF.

Alcazar

BTW: does anyone else find the French AWFUL queuers, impatient with people in front who hold them up, but ABSOLUTELY UNABLE to pass a checkout without stopping the whole system by chatting to the checkout girl, having the wrong item, having the only item in the store without a ticket, having an item no-one recognises, not having the right money, wanting to know the supermarket policy on Iraq before they'll buy, needing to use a chequebook for 4 Euros, losing the chequebook, etc etc.

Alcazar, (A Francophile)

[Fumanzoku]

I avoid going to the station if I can, in my case the reason being the two women who work there. One is absolutely superb at her job, she can't do enough to help you, is knowledgable about all the options and cheap offers and chats, smiles and laughs - even told me a little local history once. But the otherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr is a monster, when she's not skiving in the backroom where she must plaster her awful makeup on her face, she's dealing with nervous customers whom she seems to find universally irritating. You have the feeling she's waiting to be discovered by some movie director walking through the door and the rest of us are just getting in the way. Come to think of it Hitchcock could probably use her.