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Thanks Deutsche Bahn AG! Customer service, what is that?

Last month I wrote already about my adventures with Deutsche Bahn AG, the german railway company. They made my fiancée missing her flight, spending the day at the airport and spending a night in the hotel, it cost over 250 Euros.
The customer service from Deutsche Bahn at the airport told me I should send them all my receipts and they would give me the money back. Thats what I did almost 4 weeks ago and today I got a letter back saying they only pay 20% of the cost of the ticket we were delayed with, so I got a gift certificate worth ONLY 11 Euros. I don't need a gift certificate, I'm moving to Canada next month and with 11 Euros I can't even get a one way ticket to the next city.
I was really upset and called them right away, after discussing and complaining what a crappy service that is and how much I spent because of them, the lady at phone finally offered me another gift certificate worth 20 Euros. I wonder if I'll ever get it. But it still doesn't help me at all, I'm sitting now on gift certifcates worth 31 Euros for something I'll never use again.

I can only recommend to NEVER use the german railway (Deutsche Bahn AG) if you have a appointment or flight you have to be in time for. Go to one of the car rental companies get a cheap car, it's not more expensive, you can drive 200 km/h at the autoband and you'll be not much slower but you won't have to deal with that kind of what they call customer service.
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Allen MacCannell said…
I have a story to add: The DB always let me buy one year Bahn Cards and, when they expired, I would wait a few months before I entered Germany again before buying a new one year card.

The last time I did this, they did not tell me verbally that changes had been made and that, apparently in the Kleinschrift, I was now agreeing to automatic renewal every year in which they would invoice me for $400 for the next year's service (new Bahn Card).

Before the year was up, I got word that my new Bahn Card was in the mail and I immediately called to cancel, saying I was not in Germany and would not be for the entire year.

A rude "customer service" person told me that I must still pay $400 because I failed to cancel within 6 weeks from the end of the term of the first card. This nonsense would be against the law in the USA.

In the USA, this would count as a scam. I should have every right to cancel a service before the term begins. As it was, I never used the service and DB did, in fact, cancel the card as I requested. The outrageous invoice remains.

Any idea on how I can fight this? It has been more than a year that I refuse to pay this.
May 17, 2010 at 10:51 AM
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