Third-party platform to grab train tickets, easy to pay but difficult to cash out

When traveling during holidays, many passengers will choose third-party ticket purchasing platforms to purchase train tickets. These platforms promote "accelerated packages", "dual-channel ticket grabbing" and "specialists to grab tickets", claiming that they can significantly increase the success rate of ticket purchases. However, most of these so-called ticket-grabbing functions are marketing routines, which not only charge additional service fees, but also involve risks such as order delays and information leakage.

A few days ago, Ms. Sun from Yichun, Jiangxi Province, encountered trouble through a third-party ticket purchasing platform.

Ms. Sun: Originally, I planned to buy a train ticket from Yichun to Yunmeng, because there were no direct tickets on 12306. Later, I chose to place an order on a third-party ticket purchasing platform. The platform split the entire trip into three-part connecting tickets: "Yichun to Nanchang", "Nanchang to Wuchang" and "Wuchang to Yunmeng".

Following the guidance of the platform, Ms. Sun successfully paid the fee from her account, totaling 126.5 yuan. It also includes the so-called "convenient ticket purchase" service fee of 27 yuan. After the fee payment was completed, the third-party platform kept showing "full effort to issue tickets", but the purchase has not been successful.

Ms. Sun: I was very anxious at the time. The platform collected the money but did not reply to me for a long time. It always said that it was issuing tickets. Later, I really had no choice but to go to the station window to see if I could try my luck before asking. The station also recommended me a connecting ticket.

Chen Jialing, Passenger Transport Attendant at Yichun Station: There are many combinations of connecting tickets available. Based on the remaining tickets at the time, we found that it is possible to travel from Nanchang to Yunmeng without an additional transfer in Wuchang to match the arrival time.

After the station staff verified the situation, they bought a two-segment ticket for Ms. Sun at the station ticket window on the spot, with a total fare of 96 yuan. Subsequently, the station staff assisted Ms. Sun in applying through a third-party platform, contacting online customer service, calling manual customer service, etc., but they were unable to cancel the order. It was not until 10 minutes before the departure of the train that Ms. Sun wanted to take that the platform reported that the order failed to issue tickets, and the ticket money was returned to Ms. Sun's account.

Ms. Sun finally left Yichun Station by bus with the ticket purchased at the window.

Chen Jialing, Passenger Transport Attendant at Yichun Station: When purchasing tickets, passengers should look for official channels such as the railway 12306 website, mobile clients, station windows, self-service ticket vending machines, etc. Do not provide 12306 account passwords to third-party platforms to protect the security of personal information and funds. When you can't buy a direct ticket, you can consider the transfer plan.

(CCTV reporter Zheng Liankai)