Tickets Mailed but Not Received

[chandj]

I am taking the Pennsylvanian to Harrisburg on Sunday but have not received my tickets. I called Amtrak and got into the weirdest conversation with the customer service rep. She said the tickets had been mailed over a week ago, so maybe the post office lost them or maybe delivered them to my neighbors by mistake--had I checked? Do other people maybe have access to my mailbox? She kept insisting that the tickets HAD been mailed (which I have no reason to doubt)and that they had in fact been mailed twice (???). Fortunately our call got cut off at that point, and when I called back I got a different rep who told me to pay for my tickets to Harrisburg on the train (there is no ticket service at Greensburg PA where we will board)and then once in Harrisburg I can get the return trip tickets printed and be reimbursed for the double fare from Greensburg. I will just take copies of my confirmations and hope for the best, but does this sound right?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

From my understanding you may get reimbursed for the original tickets at their lower rate but will not be reimbursed for the more expensive tickets you're being forced to buy on-board.

 

[daveyb99]

With the weather up north, mail might be slow. But you still have Friday and Saturday --- so hope for the best.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

Were your tickets mailed simply "first class"? Or were they sent some other way like the $12 "express mail"?

 

[chandj]

Were your tickets mailed simply "first class"? Or were they sent some other way like the $12 "express mail"?

It was not express mail--just regular.

 

[caravanman]

Sounds like another quality customer experience from Amtrak!

Ed

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Sounds like another quality customer experience from Amtrak!

It might be the American postal system that screwed this up, but leave it to Amtrak to hold the customer responsible for events completely out of their control. Looking at the opening post it sounds as though there may have been something wrong with the tickets being returned to Amtrak. Apparently they just sent them out again without bothering to check with the customer to see if anything was wrong. E-tickets were a fairly new concept back in 1995, but they were quickly adopted among the airlines due to their inherent efficiencies and benefits for both the carriers and their passengers. Fifteen years later Amtrak still hasn't figured out how to implement them and still has no ETA for when they might finally get around to it.

 

[Crescent ATN & TCL]

Sounds like another quality customer experience from Amtrak!

It might be the American postal system that screwed this up, but leave it to Amtrak to hold the customer responsible for events completely out of their control. Looking at the opening post it sounds as though there may have been something wrong with the tickets being returned to Amtrak. Apparently they just sent them out again without bothering to check with the customer to see if anything was wrong. E-tickets were a fairly new concept back in 1995, but they were quickly adopted among the airlines due to their inherent efficiencies and benefits for both the carriers and their passengers. Fifteen years later Amtrak still hasn't figured out how to implement them and still has no ETA for when they might finally get around to it.

For the time being I don't understand why Amtrak can't have tickets printed for all passengers that board at unstaffed stations. It would be rather simple to have the tickets printed at a staffed station just before the unstaffed station and have the passenger board with the reservation number and picture ID. The ID and res # would prove identity and the conductor could then give the passenger the ticket stub and any other tickets that are part of the reservation.