I travelled from Germany to Croatia and had to book a 2 person sleeping cabin (100€ more expensive).
When we entered, the sleeping wagon was a seating wagon. We (2) were stuffed with 2 other people into a cabin.
No one told us what was going on.
Well we travelled for 13h without getting any sleep.
I created a support ticket on the same day from inside the train.
Only generic response.
2 weeks later I created another one.
Same deal.
About a week ago I contacted the arbitration board and the ÖBB refunded 100% of the ticket purchase price.
I didn't except that.
This is really exemplary.
I'm guessing they receive a high volume of support requests and are understaffed.
The reason why we there was no sleeping wagon was apparently that it went defective.
I'm guessing the wagons are old and the cabins are small and it's about time they got replaced.
Also this year the sheer volume of travelers was absurd.
All the seating cabins were fully booked for over a month in advance.
All that were was left were a few sleeping cabins every few days.
That's why we booked them.
But we couldn't book a 3 people cabin for 200€, (2 seats would've been 120€), because 1 male traveler booked 1 bed in it.
So we had to book a 300€ 2 bed cabin.
> I'm guessing they receive a high volume of support requests and are understaffed.
No, the reason is that there's no penalty for the behavior you just witnessed, so it's more profitable to stonewall victims in hopes they go away, and only refund when the authority actually forces them to, which only happens in a small percentage of cases where the fraud victim actually escalates their complaint to the relevant authority.
Imagine if shoplifting by the common man was treated the same way - you can shoplift all you want and the worst-case scenario is that you'll have to give the goods back if the police actually catches you.
It's organized by incompetence, so that they have plausible deniability. Just that none of that incompetence ever gets addressed like it would if it was around their profit center for example.
Airlines do the same when it comes to compensation claims.
I created a support ticket on the same day from inside the train. Only generic response. 2 weeks later I created another one. Same deal. About a week ago I contacted the arbitration board and the ÖBB refunded 100% of the ticket purchase price. I didn't except that.
This is really exemplary.
I'm guessing they receive a high volume of support requests and are understaffed.
The reason why we there was no sleeping wagon was apparently that it went defective.
I'm guessing the wagons are old and the cabins are small and it's about time they got replaced. Also this year the sheer volume of travelers was absurd. All the seating cabins were fully booked for over a month in advance. All that were was left were a few sleeping cabins every few days. That's why we booked them. But we couldn't book a 3 people cabin for 200€, (2 seats would've been 120€), because 1 male traveler booked 1 bed in it. So we had to book a 300€ 2 bed cabin.
Well I'm looking forward for the new wagons.