BEWARE: Amtrak overcharged me by $658.80 (resolved)

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Jenelle P

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This summer I took my 7 year old twins from Truckee, CA to Milwaukee, WI, for a 10 day vacation and traveled Amtrak. We took Train Number 6, departed Truckee on Friday, August 2. The room was tiny, and I asked the conductor that night how much it would cost to upgrade. It was over $600, but he said as the weekend progressed, the cost would go down if there were still rooms available. I asked about 3 more times, until we got close to Denver, and the conductor said the cost had now gone down to $135 for the last night, to move from our little sleeper to a one bedroom. I accepted the upgrade charge, and it was heavenly. When I arrived at my final destination, I checked my email and discovered that Amtrak had accidentally charged me a $658.80 "cancellation fee" IN ADDITION to the $135.00 upgrade fee. I immediately called customer service, and the agent determined the error and assured me that she would issue me a credit.

A month past, and I still never received a credit, so I disputed the $658.80 with my credit card company. They issued me a temporary refund, but Amtrak responded that I had agreed to pay $793.80 to upgrade.

I have spent HOURS on the phone with the credit card company AND Amtrak, and no one is cooperating.

So, although we had a fantastic train trip, this has just broken my faith in the rail system. I have never experienced such horrendous customer service in my life. As a single mother of twins, it was a huge stretch for me to take my kids on this vacation, and to now have to pay $658.80 MORE than my already very expensive train tickets and it has just crushed me.

If anyone has any ideas on how I could possibly rectify this, I would be very happy to hear them.
 
Call Amtrak back and when you get the recording, ask for Agent, then when a human answers ask for CUSTOMER RELATIONS. Do not say anything to the agent in customer service. Then explain your issue with the Customer Relations department. They should be able to help you.
 
Yes, speak with Customer Relations, and have your travel dates and train numbers handy. Do you remember the conductor's name? That might help too.

If you can't get anywhere with the rep, ask to speak with a supervisor.
 
You were correct, thank you! Everything has been resolved, how do I delete my old post? :)
 
Wow. That was fast! I'm glad everything worked out. :)
 
SarahZ said:
Wow. That was fast! I'm glad everything worked out. :)
Click to expand...
Confirming what most of us know here: Customer Relations has some of Amtrak's best employees when it comes to customer service.

It's just a shame that most of the people that are calling them have already had a bad experience with Amtrak or it's customer service employees.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
So, when you say "resolved" is it just that you got a satisfactory answer, or has the money actually been refunded to you? If the former, I'd wait until

I actually saw the money before I got too excited.
 
Well done! Its great to hear when issues are resolved to the customer's satisfaction.
 
There ought to be a rule that when someone starts such an interesting thread that they come back with the punch line.

Was there a back office data processing error? Was there a misunderstanding when the conductor quoted the price? Did you have to sign for an on-board charge to the CC?

$658.80 for Truckee to MKE in a roomette and $135 for the upgrade to BR from DEN to CHI seems about right. My bet is that the OP was tripped up by Amtrak's weird cancel the whole reservation policy when you make a change, and just didn't notice the counter-balancing credit of 658.00 to her card. If this is correct, what is surprising is that customer relations didn't catch this right away.

I can see how this kind of thing can trip up someone in the heat of battle. Recently I was trying to apply a $39 eVoucher to a $500 paid ticket at the station in Chicago. When I finally pursuaded the agent that it could be done, she several times asked me if I was sure I wanted to since it was only for $39. About this time I wasn't trusting my ability to do simple arithmetic; I mean 39 is 39. Finally it dawned on me that the agent couldn't believe I would want a $461 hit on my CC since the credit takes several days to go through, whereas the charge is immediate. I know I look like I live on spare change; but .....
 
rickycourtney said:
SarahZ said:
Wow. That was fast! I'm glad everything worked out. :)
Click to expand...
Confirming what most of us know here: Customer Relations has some of Amtrak's best employees when it comes to customer service.

It's just a shame that most of the people that are calling them have already had a bad experience with Amtrak or it's customer service employees.
Click to expand...
Ditto to that.
 
They had credited me back the 658.80 on a different credit card than was used, and were able to pinpoint where they issued the refund, and I confirmed with that bank. I wasn't looking at that card at all, since the charge hadn't been to that card. I'm very relieved, as my kids absolutely loved the train and now we will definitely travel by train again.
 
Jenelle P said:
They had credited me back the 658.80 on a different credit card than was used, and were able to pinpoint where they issued the refund, and I confirmed with that bank. I wasn't looking at that card at all, since the charge hadn't been to that card. I'm very relieved, as my kids absolutely loved the train and now we will definitely travel by train again.
Click to expand...
With Amtrak, it's standard stuff to cancel and refund the whole reservation to the credit card which was used to make the reservation originally, and then start over. I suspect the one to which the refund was applied was the one you used originally.

All this weirdness is due to Amtrak's ancient data processing system. It's just too bad humans didn't pick up on the confusion earlier. But it looks like this is a case of all's well that ends well.
 
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