Deutsche Bahn
reviews and complaints

My DB ICE 12 train from Koln Hbf to Brussels on 30 October at 17.41 did not get to Brussels Midi in time to connect with the Eurostar train 9167 20.55 destined for London St Pancras because of a lack of driver at Lieges. So had to book the night into a hotel in Brussels Midi.

I would therefore like to claim back the cost of the hotel which was 95 Euros.

I have included photo copies of the train tickets and hotel receipt below.

I got fooled by the ticket which i asked for one month and it says two month from what they told me and saw on it, so i have to pay more, and the thing is that its a subscription and i have to cancel it, but they never answer! and when they do they dont speak german or send me away where no one answers!

Last lady i talked to she literally kept ranting in german when i said i dont understand could you please transfer me to someone who speak english and she just hang up on me! Terrible customer service!

Currently on the train that departed Berlin 9:11 am to Amsterdam 5pm 25/7/2023. Went to the catering car to order one wine. It's fine that they were sold out but it's the way he shooed me away with his hand and didn't seem the least bit interested in being nice to anyone that wasn't German-speaking. You will have lots of tourists and many of them will not speak German, kindness counts.

We purchased two sets of 1st class tickets for me and my spouse departing Hamburg for Copenhagen on 25 May 2023.

Booking Reference : 3UOG4Y

Fare Paid for 2 passengers Euro 271.80.

There were no seat assignments when we receive the e-tickets via email.

When we went to inquire at the Train Customer Services Office, we were told that there were no more seats and the train was full The officer then told us to travel by 2nd class and seek refund after the travel.

We travelled on same train on seat numbers 54 and 57 in wagen 7. Zug 396

Can you please advise how the refund can be made to my account as we had already left Europe and back in Singapore where we reside.

Kindly respond to my email as per your e-ticket at :

bsingh.[protected]@gmail.com

My name is Bajin Singh

Nationality :Singaporean

I bought a ticket (Order confirmation: 2KHE39, under name Li Bai) from Regensburg Hbf to Frankfurt (Main) Hbf, train ICE22, on date 26 April 2023.

The ticket was checked-in 5 min after I get on board from Regensburg Hbf, I show the digital code of the ticket of DB Navigator from my mobile.

When the train is approaching Frankfurt at 21:33PM, there is a female train ticket inspector come and ask if I have the ticket, and I told her my ticket was checked-in right after I got onboard from Regensburg, it is already done and why it needs to be checked again, I asked her to show the DB protocol concerning the ticket can be checked-in and inspected again, she answered in a bossy tone NO and demand me to show the ticket, I asked her name/employee number as I want to know if there is really official document/procedure to verify her demand, so she gave her name : J.Hubei. (due to print format issue, maybe slight incorrectness of the name), but please double check about the timing/date/location/order (2KHE39) to verify this lady name again in case need further investigation.

My request 1. if there is protocol/document to say the ticket should be checked more than 1 time? 2. this female ticket inspector should show the protocol as her job and she should do it in a professional way, not like a boss to demand, she should behave with professional and polite manner and I will suggested even give her training how to interact with customer in a professional way, NOT just showing her is a boss.

Appreciate your feedback.

Li

We were approch the customer service at Heidleberg main railway station at about 6pm on 20th april 2023. One senior lady வதோ served us very rude towards us not wanted help when asking to assist us on platform details to go to landau. She was very racist and told us no english you go out. We try to take photo of her she was went inside the office and hide herself and called security officers.

The security officers too support her action when we demand to make complaint against her and did not provide us any details about how to make complant.

We're travelling from australia did not expect to get these sort of racist remarks in Germany. We demand for the appology but secuirty officers were more keen to push us ஆவாய்.

We demand for your investigation and the officer involved needs to be educated.

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

Hiermit möchte ich mich über die Bestellung und Behandlung meiner BahnCard 50 beschwerden. Meine BahnCard 50 (Nr. [protected]) habe ich seit 09.2021 online bestellt. Im September 2023 bin ich von Baden-Württemberg nach München umgezogen und habe meine neue BahnCard immer nicht per Post bekommen. Ich habe mehrmals beim Deutsch Bahn Reisezentrum nachgefragt und habe keine klare Antwort bekommen. Wenn ich versuchte, meine neue elektronische BahnCard auf dem DB Navigator APP zu benutzen, ging es einfach nicht, weil da stand dass ich meine BahnCard nicht aktualisiert habe.

Zulezt habe ich einen Brief von Universum Inkassso GmbH bekommen, der auffordert, dass ich den Gesamtbetrag von 131,43 Euro auf das von ihnen gegebenen Konto zu überweisen. (Aktenzeichen: [protected]-0). Der Betrag 131,43 beinhaltet nicht nur die 66,69 Euro von meiner BahnCard 50, sondern auch sogar die Adresseanfrage von 8,50 Euro und Inkassovergütung in Höhe von fast 50 Euro! Also ich habe meine Bahnkarte weder per Post bekommen noch benutzt, aber jetzt muss ich Doppelt Für meine Bahnkarte Zahlen!

Ich habe von 09.2022 bis 01.2023, in den ganzen 5 Monate keine Benachrichtigungs Email von Deutsch Bahn oder BachCard Sevice bekommen, die mich benachrichtigte, dass die Zahlung von meiner BahnCard nicht erfolgreich war und mich forderte, den Betrag zu bezahlen. (Überprüfen Sie bitte selbst noch mal und stellen Sie sicher, dass es kein einzelne Erinnerungsemail gab.) Sie schicken nicht einmal eine einfache Erinnerungs-E-Mail, wenn die Zahlung eines Kunden fehlgeschlagen ist, und warten Sie, bis fünf Monate vergangen sind, bevor Sie den Kunden mit Zinsen an die Zahlung erinnern. Bitte überdenken Sie Ihre Einstellung und Ihre Fähigkeit, einen solchen Service zu bieten.

Ich muss sagen, dass ich von Ihrem Service so enttäuscht bin, dass ich mein Abonnement für die BahnCard 50 für das nächste Jahr gekündigt habe und hoffe, dass ich eine zufriedenstellende Antwort in dieser Angelegenheit bekomme. Bitte geben Sie mir hierzu bis zum 31.01.2023 Rückmeldung.

Wenjie jiang

Hello,

I called the Deutsche Bahn international customer service today to get help with a ticket. I booked the ticket via the internaltional booking service of Deutsche Bahn on November 21st as the last step to our visa application. We made sure to have all other paperwork ready by that time and just needed the exact travel dates.

I have travelled with Deutsche Bahn many times, but this is the first time we have a problem with our trip.

The booking referneces are:

MCP-O4TW4Z

MCP-NX26AG

I am a German citizen, but my husband needs a visa to enter the Shengen area. We have been told the visa is a formaility and he gets it free of charge, but found out later that we need to use a private company TLScontact to process our application. The company states on their website that the Visa form needs to be completed before getting an appoinment. For this, the travel need to be booked as we need to say exactly when we enter and leave the Shengen area.

After doing all of that we created an account to book an appointment and then saw that TLScontact currently does not offer any appointments until the end of February. This information was not available on their website before being at the booking stage for the appintment. If we would have known, we would have not booked the trip. No one cancelled their appointment in the meantime either and we checked several times daily.

As this is an exceptional situation I called the Deutsche Bahn international customer service (December 14th) to see if there is some option of getting a voucher or moving the tickets to another date as a form of "Kulanz" (= goodwill).

The customer service agent was aboslutely disinterested in the situation. She interrupted me several times and told me that is my personal background story and neither important nor relevant. She looked at my tickets and said they are not refundable, which I knew, but asked if it is possible as an exception due to the situation.

I was told it is my own fault that we booked it and we should have booked refundable tickets instead - which cost about 3 times as much. I do not have the money to spend 500 pound more than we already did on travel.

I explained that it is the first time my husband and I are travelling to Germany, so we were not aware about the situation with TLScontact.

Again the woman on the phone told me we should have known could happen and that I know how it is with Visa applications. Again, I explained I don't know as I don't need one for travelling to Europe and we were travelling together for the first time. The embassy website states that the time to process a visa takes about 2 weeks.

We have been told by TLScontact (when we called them in November after seeing there are no appintments) that they are still working through a backlog of application from the summer, so it would not have made a difference even if we tried to book an appointment in October.

The Deutsche Bahn service agent acted quite coldly and said there is nothing she can do, there is no Kulanz for these tickets. This statement in itself is weird. If I have a refundable ticket then I don't need Kulanz as it is refundable as per terms and conditions of the ticket. Kulanz is applied in exceptional circumstances to show goodwill. I felt her manner was very rude, she told me repeatedly that this is all my fault, I should have known better and there is nothing that can be done.

I know I don't have a claim to get my ticket refunded or exchanged, but the manner of conduct of the customer service agent was appalling.

Ideally, I would like to get a voucher for our tickets or the tickets moved to another date in spring - mid to end of March. If that is not possible, then that's how it is.

At least, I would like an apology and for the Deutsche Bahn to train their customer service agents in a way that they don't accuse the people of being responsible for circumstances they find themselves in that is out of their control. It is mean, heartless, absolutely unprofessional and can severely affect people with mental health issues.

Greetings,

On the 9th of November 2022 I booked a train ticket for the ICE 10 from Frankfurt (M) Flughafen Fernbahnhof to Bruxelles Zone. The ICE 10 was suppose to arrive at 18:42 at platform 7. Before going on the platform I asked at the information point if the platform is correct. They said yes, and assured me that the train runs correctly. The train never came, even though it was displayned on the panel. Without any information all the passengers were on platform 7 waiting for a train that was not arriving and nobody was there to guide us.

I have reached out again to the information point. With calm and respect I have asked if I can use the train ticket tomorrow morning. First she told me that it's not possible. After explaining that I think it's a matter of common sense to allow me to use a ticket that I bought with my own money and that the service was never delivered to me, not because of my mistake/fault, she asked one of her colleagues to help her with the system and to postpone my ticket for the next day. It was already around 19:00 and the next train was the next day in the morning, so I have searched for the nearest and affordable hotel. I have paied extra money for the hotel room and got on one of the morning trains on the 10th of November to Bruxelles.

Dear Sir / Madam

my name is Christos K. On Thursday 13th October, me and my pregnant girlfriend booked first class tickets from Berlin to Basel. ICE 371 RES Nr.[protected]

Our train was delayed twice till 10.55 instead of the dedicated time of 10.30. The on-station screens displayed that the 1st class was at AB areas.

When the train finally arrived, we saw that the wagons were on the exact opposite side than displayed. This meant that all the passengers had to switch sides on the platform before boarding. For us it meant they had a long way to the very other end of the train and pass through all the other passengers, all this had to be done while carrying full load of luggage. Let me here mark that my girlfriend is pregnant (thus the reason we used the train) and i suffer from this asthma and take medication, so you understand that the situation was far from comfortable for us. It was a small challenge.

Therefore, it was to our great surprise when one of the conductors after seeing us struggle (i even was in the middle of using my inhaler to be able to breath) orders us in a very rude way to board the train from the wagon we were closer at the moment. He thought it was appropriate to order us on the train 2 wagons before the one we had tickets for. The manner was very abrupt and rude especially to a pregnant woman. He followed up with threats that the train will leave without us (passengers were still boarding the other carriages) . Instead, pf offering an apology for the delay and a heling hand to people that obviously needed help he offered arrogant stance and threats. I confronted him and he doubled down with further threats that he wills ´take care of us later in the train´.

Here i need to emphasize that boarding the train 2 wagons before and moving toward our seats, especially after having to dodge all the passengers on our way from the other side of the train, is not ideal for a pregnant woman especially with all the commotion going in the train. This is the reason we bought first class tickets, to keep our baby safe and avoid exhausting situations.

I apologize for the long email but both of us are professionals who work in hospitality we have a very different ethics about serving the needs of our customers.

It was a very unprofessional and provoking behavior.

I hope that appropriate action will be taken to prevent further similar situations.

Kind regards

Christos & Nathalia

ps. The name of the conductor is available if requested . We are open to any discusion or question regarding the insident.

[protected]@hotmail.com

My first train in Berlin let us wait 50 minutes, but then miraculously managed to be on time for my transfer in Köln.

Then we’re on the second train from Köln to Bruxelles and it decides to stop because there are no functioning toilets. Now we’re all waiting at Aachen where we need to pay €1,00 for the toilet, have to wait 2 hours for the next train to come without any guarantee whether we can sit or have a nice travel with the upcoming train.

I love travelling by train but the quality of DB’s service has just been declining for some time now.

I’d like to be financially compensated for the time, appointments and work I’m missing out on now

Kind regards,

Kim

Dear Sir/Madam

Whilst travelling to the United Kingdom from Prague by rail on April 12th 2022I had to get out of the train because the 12.32am ICE 28 from Regensburg was over a hour late in arriving at Frankfurt Main Station. The situation demanded standing in a line at the DB information office (during which time the late train that I had just got off to ask for information in the station left again) and I was told that this was the only train and I could not get another one in time to make my connection at Brussels. I was the directed to another huge queue at the ticket office and I managed to get a free ticket the next day. I was directed to go to DBahn and ask for a hotel room for the night. I then went to DBahn information office right in the centre of the station. There were another couple Celens M and Charlotte M (I can send you the full names if necessary) there and a Vietnamese family. DBahn information wanted to send us to Dortmund for a hotel room for which we would have to leave very early in the morning and it was now about 9pm we objected but were told no other room was possible. During the conversation and unprovoked by myself, who used no foul or offensive language one of the DB information staff a Mr Christian Clekeierski moved forward to the DB window smahed his fist on the table and abruptly told me to "[censored] Off" in German. His manner was threatening and aggressive. This was translated for me by Mr Celens Marshall who speaks German. I notice that one other member of staff inside the booth tried to hold him back. He then very aggressively came out the side of the booth and both myself and Mr Celens Marshall and Charlotte Maconochie thought he was going to hit me. The mobile number of this couple is 069265XXX (I can provide thisin full) and they have agreed to be witnesses for me. I was very upset at that and went and got the police. I went to the police station in Frankfurt Main station about 100 meters away and made a complaint. Three police officers (one woman and two men) attended. They spoke good English and I have the number 063 for them I told them what had happened, and they went into the DB information booth and interviewed the two remaining DB information officers. Strangely then as if by magic hotel rooms were found for the night for all of us in Frankfurt when only moments before we were told it was impossible. the police at Frankfurt are aware of this matter and said that it was Ok if you want to contact them about it. It will be in their log that night.

I would thus like to claim a refund on my rail ticket, I feel that the behaviour of Mr Christian Clekeierski was absolutely inexcusable - if that kind of aggression is DBahn customer service god help German railways.

I await your response and instructions on this matter

Yours faithfully

Thomas Draper

I have had several bad encounters with Deutsche Bahn and their unfriendly, rude staff members. On top of this, the trains are often not on time and/or canceled due to worker's strikes. Good luck getting a refund. You are better off renting a car!

My husband and I booked 2 train tickets to travel from Münich to Brussels on 8 August. The destination of the train was Dortmund (changing at Frankfurt). The departure time was 14.45 (Ice 622) When we arrived at the train station, we could not find our train on the information board. We were in a panic. Having spoken with your staff, they told us the train left early. This was still at 14.30. Then the staff told me to take the train at 15.05 to Dortmund (ICE 620). Currently we are on this train. We will miss our connecting train from Frankfurt and will need to take a later train. We will now arrive in Brussels at 23.35 (we hope) instead of 21.35. This has upset the arrangements we made to get to our house. We think it is not okay to bring the train departure time forward without informing the customer. We received no email or travel update. Everyone can understand delays but this is the first time I have heard of a train departing from a station before the time given to the ticket holder at the time of purchase. The remainder of our journey will remain stressful as we are travelling on tickets for different train times and feel we may be asked to justify this. I have attached screenshots of my tickets

I had a monthly ticket (55.2 Euros) and was travelling every day to work and home with it. This is my first monthly ticket. Previously I had visited Munich as a tourist and I remember that it was split in "rings". So automatically I bought a ticket for 2 rings or zones. Apparently there are no more rings, but zones, and my zone "2" changed to "M". I had no idea. I was so recently moved in that I don`t even have received my first salary. I told to the inspector where I live and to where I travel for work (usually it is just 3 stations). He told me that I need the zone M, and then he gave me some paper and told me: "With this you need to go in DB Office and ONLY PAY THE DIFFERENCE"! He LIED! what he gave me was a fine of 60 EUROS. How unfair. I told him I was new and had mixed up the zones. It was an honest and unintentional mistake. The difference from zone 2 and zone M is ONLY 2 EUROS (from this it can be seen that I had honest intentions). So at the end I did pay my monthly ticket of 55+2 euros this month + 60 euros fine. Thanks a lot for the customer support DB I do feel welcomed and a "happy" customer at your services. And to the employee no: 099225/408/[protected] 192867 YOU WERE SO UNFAIR!

Two months ago I bought 2 euronight double sleeper train tickets from DB Bahn website www.bahn.com, departing from budapest to munich on 3 december 2015 cost me 158 euro. Oddly, the website didn't send e-tickets like any other online store, instead they'll send the tickets manually by post with only few days estimated delivery time. Until now, I haven't received the tickets while I'm gonna start my journey from amsterdam next week (27 Nov), so I suppose that those tickets will not arrive during these few days. I've emailed DB Bahn customer service several times asking that if it's okay if I just bring printed booking confirmation as tickets replacement? but unfortunately the last time the responded, they only told me to purchase a new tickets on the spot and post those new tickets to their office after the journey end (may be for a refund). Well, the reasons why I bought these tickets online because I was worry tickets would be sold out on the spot and it was also considerably good deal for early booking. I also bought sleeper class because the journey duration will take about 8 hours or so, I don't want to sit for such long hours. What if the tickets for same destination, time and class was sold out on the spot and I couldn't get to munich as I expected? And the biggest problem is, I have a flight from munich to venice the next day, I would miss my flight if DB bahn couldn't solve this matter for me :( I'm so disappointed right now, I didn't expect a huge germany company such DB Bahn is having such a lame service at all. Well, I wouldn't deal with them if I knew it at the first place.