New Delhi tourist office on train station scam

duby

We were warned before from several sources that is ongoing scam on train station in New Delhi if you want to reach tourist office for tickets. In front of stairs that go up to TO always standing one tout that said you that office is closed and opened accross the street and he will show you way, one that lead us was flashing some kind of ID card that said that he works for railways and ensure us that this is not scam. We reach street becouse he was so persuasive. Hotel owner warned us of this scam, but they are professionals.
We didn't buy story at end and went back to train station where was already another one which said to us that office is closed and yel after us when we pass him and go upstairs. Office of course is working (and it is sunday) and we get tickets.
So check working time of office and don't get distracted, just go up.
There are a lot of lost like tourists that follow touts happy that they will get tickets even if office is closed.

mdchachi

Is this the same place you have to go to pick up tickets purchased on the Internet, or is that a totally different building?

picklepak

Hey duby, I experienced the same scam while traveling with my brother more than three years ago. The guy with the railway ID badge standing on the stairs is rather effective, isn't it?

polaris

A related scam is when your taxi driver says that he needs to check up on the route to your hotel and heads to a nearby tourist office. The tourist office operator offers to confirm your booking with the hotel - He calls them and hands over the phone to you.. You try to confirm the booking and get told that all rooms are booked and that you need to find another hotel. The tourist office dude offers to book you into another hotel.

The whole thing is a (rather convincing at 4 am) scam.. The call isn't made to your hotel at all, but to a phone next door, where an accomplice answers it in the guise of a hotel receptionist. Taxi driver gets commission from tourist office and hotel.. Tourist office gets commission from the hotel in which they book you into.. and the hotel gets your valuable custom..

:D

__________________
Quillem

Shannon

We were taken in on this scam. And we really should have known better.

A colleague and I had been in India since Sept and decided to return to our families for Christmas. We were returning in January, and of course our flight arrived at 1am. Neither of us was exceptionally pleased to be going back for another 5 months, and by the time we landed we were emotionally drained. We slept in the arrivals hall with our luggage until about 4am, and were going to TRY to hire a taxi to take us to Dehra Dun.

As we were negotiated a price with a random taxi driving stranger, an older man informed us that we were taking quite the risk by leaving with him, and instead we should go to the train station and gets tickets on the Shatabdi. We realized he was right and took a pre-paid.

Once at the train station, we were again overwhelmed. It was still dark, we had WAY too much luggage, and a coolie grabbed it to lead is to the tourist information stand, which was of course closed at 4am.

Of course, there was an ever helpful young man on a cell phone there who led our coolie acorss the street to a tourist office, without even telling us where he was taking us. There a "helpful" man called and checked the Shatabhi and said there were only exec seats left - more than we wanted to pay. We then asked him about taxi costs and he quoted 3500 rs which is about twice what we had typically paid to get to and from delhi. Then we said we wanted those exec seats on the train, but of course 5mins later they were sold out.

So we ended up paying a ridiculous amount of a ridiculous trip to Dehra Dun.

The moral of the story is to never have so much luggage you can't carry it yourself, and GET A DAMNED HOTEL instead of sleeping in arrivals.

It was a silly mistake, and I wont make it again.

monkgonemad

i almost fell for this scam in nd station... i went to the main area to get a 2nd cl sleeper but they said it was not there -down the road. when i came out all sorts of touts with somewhat offical creds. i never really believed them but when i scouted round i could see nowhere to buy the ticket. finally there were too many touts swarming and they were directing me to different offices. i went down the road further and tucked into the little building was the 2nd cl booking.

one thing that is kinda cool about when you triumph over touts is they just shrug... 'hey...took my best shot'. funny thing is that if one guy said -buddy for ten roops ill take you direct to the bokking area asap - i would have gladly forked it.

sorry to hear shannon - but live and learn. trouble is it makes you jaded fast. ive shunned and even slightly insulted touts who were in retropect giving me a somewhat straight up deal because ive just become so jaded to them.

as for hotel scams. i dont make resv. and another tip -dont give the taxi or rickshaw or whatever the name of the hotel -or even hotel. pick a coffee shop or landmark. have them dump you and see you later. you can also say up front.

if you are newbie - act tired and avoid chitchat. the more you talk the more they know the less you know.

fuzmiq

i had a cab scam in new delhi. we were trying to go to the railway station in a rickshaw to buy tickets to mumbai. but the driver lets us off at a travel agency and at first i was reluctant,but we ended up going inside and the idiots that we were, we ended up going on this horrible bus trip to agra that cost about 13 dollars...which for this trip was WAY too much! GO only to the railway station, don't let ANYONE stop you.

guerik

A friend and I were told it was being re-built so it had moved down the street a bit - we'd read the guidebooks etc so we pushed on and found it was where it had always been.

Would make it a lot harder for them to get away with the scam if it didn't look like the place really was being re-built, though There were building materials strewn all over the place.

lobo

Yeah in delhi we had the guy on the stairs telling us the tourist ticket office was "closed".
Cheeky little chap that he was.

steve_richmond

We had to push the guy standing on the stairs out of the way after he tried to block us from going up.

stormysky

Hi guys,
You can book ticlkets for Indian railways on the net. www.irctc.co.in

Also read in the newspapers about two more developments on the ticket booking front:

1. You can book on the net, pay by card and a receipt will be displayued. You can carry a printout of it and claim you tickets at the station.

2. IR is tying up with some banks in India, where you can book a ticket from the ATM, and the ATM will give you a printed slip, which can use while travelling.

kiamcai

we were there just 3 weeks back (Mar 2005) and these people are still actively there, preventing any foreigners going up to the Foreign Ticket Bureau. This was the only time a tout actually grabbed my elbow. Gave him a stare and he backed off, but they're quite persistant. Once you charge through them, you'll be fine.

Enjoy!