From TDR Reject to TDR Refund #Indian Railways #IRCTC

I had booked a rail ticket for journey from Lucknow to Bhopal on 21st April with  ticket PNR (Passenger Name Record) 2746347552.
However due to some reason, I was unable to take the trip to Bhopal and instead traveled to Kolkata from Lucknow on the same date around same time in another train with ticket PNR 2204688065,

I could not cancel my train ticket to Bhopal in time and I instead filed TDR (Ticket Deposit Receipt) online according to the rules of Indian Railways and IRCTC. According to these rules, if a passenger is unable to commence his journey and wants to cancel e-ticket (ticket booked online) after the reservation chart for the train has been prepared, then TDR has to be filed online before the scheduled departure of the train from that station. The Railway norms stipulate that once the train reaches its destination, the TDR claim will be sent to respective Zonal Railway (under which the train operates), who will then communicate to IRCTC about the veracity of the claim. Based on that IRCTC proceeds to either refund the amount (50% of ticket fare) or reject the TDR claim.

Since I had filled the TDR as per rules, I was fairly confident that my TDR would be processed at the earliest and that I will get the refund soon. However to my utter surprise and shock, on 29th April I found that my TDR claim has been rejected by Central Railways (the Zonal Railway for my train to Bhopal) with the reason given as "As per chart, passenger has traveled".

My first reaction was that this wrong rejection could be due to a) lack of proper verification of my claim by Central Railway, or b) error on the part of IRCTC, or c) oversight by the TTE (Travelling Ticket Examiner) who would have allotted my seat to someone else without taking money but omitted to make the changes in passenger chart, or d) inappropriate conduct of the TTE by allotting my seat to someone else in exchange of money and deliberately not marking it in the passenger chart.

My next reaction was to draft a mail to be sent to Central Railways and IRCTC. I checked the website of Central Railways and noted down the email IDs of three key officials, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Officer on Special Duty (OSD), and Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (SRDCM). I sent the mail on April 29th. Shortly after that I got the Gmail error mails that two of the three email IDs were not-functional and therefore my message could not be delivered.

I waited for a few days and then forwarded the mail, with minor revisions to another set of email IDs. This time before sending the mails, I tried to submit my feedback on the Feedback link provided on the website of Central Railways. On clicking the link, we get the following message:

"It all began one fine summer day on 16 April 1853. It was a single step of 34 kilometers from is not in the proper format."

I then tried calling some of the numbers given on the website and luckily for me, some of my calls were answered and I came in touch with two key persons, one from the Central Railways and the other from the IRCTC. What followed over the next 4 weeks was a sequence of telephone calls, reminder telephone calls, unanswered telephone calls, being asked by X to contact Y and on contacting Y being asked to contact X, e-mails and reminder e-mails. Frustration was slowly beginning to build inside me but against all odds,

I remained hopeful that my endeavour will result in refund. I mention 'against all odds' since in a similar incident like this, one of my relatives found his IRCTC account deactivated by IRCTC on the pretext of "false TDR claim"!

I got a mail from IRCTC on June 6th that my TDR refund has been processed and Rs 0 will be credited to my account in the next 2-3 days. On seeing the figure of Rs 0, I wondered if this too was caused due to some error. I decided that I will wait for 3 days and after that I will prepare my case to take it further (either to Senior Railway Officials or Consumer Court).

Finally after all this, on 8th June, I got my refund in my account !

Lessons from this experience:
1) As a consumer, we must be aware of the rules of our right.
2) If needed, we must fight for our right and for what is right.
3) If we don't fight for our right, no one else will.
4) Always remain optimistic and hopeful. If nothing else, it will keep one cool and in good spirits.