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Going nowhere as French train tickets are a no-show

high-speed TGV train of the Rhone-Alpes line near Macon
French Railways tickets arrived three days after I had to travel. Photograph: Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images

French railways (SNCF) has let me down badly and I don’t believe it is an isolated case. There used to be an excellent and helpful bureau on Piccadilly in London, but now the offices are in Barcelona.

In August, I ordered – by phone – rail tickets for use in France in September and was instantly invoiced as I paid by credit card. It was within the recommended period for them to be posted before travel. No tickets arrived before I flew from London to Lyon, despite two phone calls before leaving, so I had to buy a new set on arrival in France. The original tickets arrived at my home three days after my first booked date of train travel.

On returning to the UK I followed SNCF instructions to return both sets of tickets with all details to qualify for a refund, and sent everything by recorded delivery. Since then I’ve made countless phone calls to Barcelona and sent several emails, and still no refund, no apology.

However, I have found out that just before Christmas it made a refund to my card for the £63.29 ticket cost but with no notification, no apology or any offer of recompense for all the costs involved – postage and the phone calls to Spain. It’s not the actual cost that upsets me but the aggravation caused. TR, East Twickenham, Surrey

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Sadly, the days of popping into friendly offices to book tickets are over. Welcome to the world of online and expensive international phone calls.

We got in touch with Voyages-SNCF – the travel arm of SNCF – which looked into your case. A spokeswoman said: “I can see that the refund request has been dealt with and the funds returned directly to his bank account.

“I apologise that TR did not receive confirmation of this at the time. Customer feedback is important to us and, as a result, processes are being reviewed to improve communications surrounding refunds.

“As a gesture of goodwill and apology, we will refund a further sum of £20 to TR to cover the cost of his postage and telephone calls.”

A Voyages-SNCF agent will be getting in touch with you to make the necessary arrangements.

We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number