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Hi all,
I’m sorry if this has been covered before. I just bought an 8-Day Swiss Travel Pass on SBB’s website. I was quite sure I put in April 6th as the starting date but for some reasons — and it could be me making a mistake — the online ticket (PDF file) came out stating April 8th as the date on the online ticket.
I emailed [email protected] right away after I spotted the wrong date but I’m not sure if they will reply. I looked for a phone number also but found none.
Has anyone ever experienced the same problem or made the same mistake I just did? Do you know if the starting date can still be changed since the ticket is not validated yet? In retrospect, I should have waited to buy the ticket at the airport but just got too excited — and then screwed up.
Thank you very much.
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Hi warangkana, welcome to MySwissAlps!
I’m sorry to hear about this issue. I haven’t heard of this before. Even though this is unfortunate, buying online (normally) is much easier than at the airport. Waiting times can be substantial there. The pass you purchased online and printed at home allows you to board the train right away, so no time lost and missing the first available train. In this case however you will need to change the starting date, and you will need to do so through the company you purchased from. It looks like you bought from the domestic SBB site. I don’t have details about their order process, nor do I have more contact details than the mail address you shared and a 0900 phone number that only works within Switzerland. We normally recommend the SBB tourist webshop at http://www.swissrailways.com/ en (contact details here). I am pretty sure they would have changed the starting date for free as there is a manual step in their order processing. I’d recommend to wait for SBB to reply to your e-mail (might be Monday). Perhaps they can change it for free too as the start date is still in the future. Worst case they charge a 15% cancellation fee and then issue a new pass.
I hope this helps somewhat. Enjoy your stay nevertheless!
Hi Arno,
Thank you so much for your response. It’s really unfortunate. This is the first time in my life to have a travel date mixed up! I think at this point there’s nothing I can do other than to wait for SBB to contact me back. I hope they can change it but if not, we’ll see.
I actually didn’t know there’s a SBB local and SBB tourist webshop (or that they are different). Thanks so much for letting me know. I’ll keep that in mind next time.
Best,
Hye.
Tickets that are bought online are unexchangeable and unrefundable.
My parents used their passports to buy the swiss travel pass ticket online, but later they have to renew their passports because of certain reasons (not because of expiring), Swiss Travel team said the online tickets cannot be changed when it is issued. They advise my parents to bring both new and old passports to Switzerland, use the old passport numbers to verify their ticket.
I think it applies the same to your situation. Tickets that are bought manually can be exchanged, but not online.
Hi Khairin,
Thank you for sharing your experience. It’s really too bad that it’s unexchangeable even before it’s being used. What a bummer. I guess my family and I will have to deal and buy individual ticket for commute during those two days that we missed.
Thanks,
They work 8am to 6pm monday to friday. Below are their number and email address if you want to give them a phone call:
Switzerland Travel Centre
Binzstrasse 38, 8045 Zürich
+41 (0)43 210 55 71
Thank you very much again.
I experienced a similar situation. I’m in Switzerland now on a 4 day pass. About a month ago, I purchased the 4 day passes online from Swiss Travel System, and they used TNT (like UPS) to send them to me. When they arrived, the wrong dates were on the tickets. I emailed them at [email protected], sent a photo of the tickets, and they immediately apologized and arranged for new tickets to be sent to me. They also arranged for the old tickets to be returned. I received the new tickets about 10 days later. It all went pretty smoothly. Stephen Williams
Thanks, Stephen. I hope they can change mine too but I’m not sure. I’ll have to wait for Monday to hear from them. I was pretty certain I put April 6th but who knows. I’ll contact them on Monday for sure and hope for the best. Thanks and enjoy Switzerland!
Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences! Note that the contact details shared above are for the tourist webshop of the SBB (http://www.swissrailways.com/ en), which is the one we link to from our website. In this case the purchase was done on the domestic site, which is a separate company and different back office. So waiting for the e-mail reply is best here I guess. I’m sure it will be solved somehow, hopefully it’s going to be free.
I got a very positive response from backoffice@stc.ch so please write to them or email.
I am trying to change my STP tickets from 8 day to 15 day. They really work with you and are very good. You get response within 24 hrs.
Good luck
Rika
Hi everyone,
Thank you all for your help. I heard back from [email protected] on Sunday (within 24 hours) and the contact center person told me this:
Please book your trip with the correct details again under http://www.sbb.ch/en/ticketshop and forward us the new order number by e-mail.
On receipt, we will cancel the order 97441980 and refund the amount of CHF 1494.00 to the payment card used for the purchase. This includes a fee of CHF 10.00.I just went ahead and purchased a new set of 4 passes and forwarded them the emailed order confirmation. I hope it works. Will let you all know.
Thanks!
Great to hear that, enjoy Switzerland and the train system!
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