I used to live in Madurai. I got an internship at a company at Chennai few months back. Since then I became an active user of IRCTC booking tickets every alternative weeks to visit my home. I visited almost every day to either book tickets or to check the pnr status or the refund status of the cancelled tickets. At one point I almost thought of making it my home page! Then one day I had to book tickets in last minute planning to go home. I decided to book my tickets in takal quota. It usually opens at 10. Nearly 1/10th of the Indian population will fight for the few tickets left. That day I was one of them.
I logged in with my laptop by 9.55am waiting for the takal ticket booking to open. As the clock striked 10. I raced to enter the to and from destination and clicked search train. It got struck. I waited patiently as I expected it. The page dint move forward for more than 2 minutes. I cant afford to lose time, So I refreshed the page and it got logged out. Again I entered mu username and password to log in. It took time to log in but did. Again I entered the to and from and clicked search trains. It listed the available trains as I clicked on one of them to show available seats, Half of them was booked with less than 50 seats left. I clicked book and filled up my details as fast as I could and clicked proceed. I then entered my credentials and clicked pay and crossed my fingers.A wheel appeared on screen and it seem to rotate forever and ever. More than 5 minutes went and there was no sign of tickets booked. I checked my mail and phone for any sign of booked ticket. But nothing was there. Then the message appeared on the screen ' The requested page cannot be displayed'. But the money was taken from my account. I dint waste time, I again tried booking a ticket without worrying about my last failed effort or wasting time. This time only 15 seats were left. So again I repeated the process with double the speed and clicked pay. Again the familiar wheel appeared on screen. I was hoping it works this time. Just then the ticket displayed on my screen. Yay!!! I booked my ticket. But that joy was short lived when I discovered my ticket status was WL18!! When I checked 3 minutes back, there was 15 seats left and now all was gone and its just 10.20am! and there was no chance of people booking a day before the travel to cancel. So I had to cancel the one I booked. But I needed a ticket to get home. So I opened a tab and went to a bus ticket booking website. They are never crowded and you can find tickets for any given day. So with all the frustration that irctc gave me, I chose a random bus to my city and the payment process went smoothly with ticket in my phone within just 2 minutes. I should not have wasted time and money on booking train tickets. Instead I should have come straight to the bus booking that never gives you heart breaks.
And for the record - I wont accept technology has grown in leaps and bounds and IT field is escalating unless people can create a railway booking website that can handle any amount of traffic and successfully cross through payment gateway for every passenger's booking.
I logged in with my laptop by 9.55am waiting for the takal ticket booking to open. As the clock striked 10. I raced to enter the to and from destination and clicked search train. It got struck. I waited patiently as I expected it. The page dint move forward for more than 2 minutes. I cant afford to lose time, So I refreshed the page and it got logged out. Again I entered mu username and password to log in. It took time to log in but did. Again I entered the to and from and clicked search trains. It listed the available trains as I clicked on one of them to show available seats, Half of them was booked with less than 50 seats left. I clicked book and filled up my details as fast as I could and clicked proceed. I then entered my credentials and clicked pay and crossed my fingers.A wheel appeared on screen and it seem to rotate forever and ever. More than 5 minutes went and there was no sign of tickets booked. I checked my mail and phone for any sign of booked ticket. But nothing was there. Then the message appeared on the screen ' The requested page cannot be displayed'. But the money was taken from my account. I dint waste time, I again tried booking a ticket without worrying about my last failed effort or wasting time. This time only 15 seats were left. So again I repeated the process with double the speed and clicked pay. Again the familiar wheel appeared on screen. I was hoping it works this time. Just then the ticket displayed on my screen. Yay!!! I booked my ticket. But that joy was short lived when I discovered my ticket status was WL18!! When I checked 3 minutes back, there was 15 seats left and now all was gone and its just 10.20am! and there was no chance of people booking a day before the travel to cancel. So I had to cancel the one I booked. But I needed a ticket to get home. So I opened a tab and went to a bus ticket booking website. They are never crowded and you can find tickets for any given day. So with all the frustration that irctc gave me, I chose a random bus to my city and the payment process went smoothly with ticket in my phone within just 2 minutes. I should not have wasted time and money on booking train tickets. Instead I should have come straight to the bus booking that never gives you heart breaks.
And for the record - I wont accept technology has grown in leaps and bounds and IT field is escalating unless people can create a railway booking website that can handle any amount of traffic and successfully cross through payment gateway for every passenger's booking.
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