Happily Surprised!!. Review on Irctc

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 mailedeticket@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.