1st class r/t ticket Vancouver, BC to Los Angeles. One of the perks to having a 1st class ticket is that the Red Cap will load your luggage on and off the train for you. There is no need to check baggage. It travels with you in the 1st class car. Everything's fine until the return trip and the porter gives my wife's bag to a traveler who gets off in San Jose. SJ traveler doesn't notice right away but eventually returns bag to SJ station. SJ station puts bag on next train going north (24 hours later). My wife is told Amtrak policy says they can't forward her bag across the border to Vancouver for security reasons. Passengers must accompany their bags. My wife had to spend an additional night in Seattle waiting for her bag. Not only was there an additional hotel stay, but nearly $100 in phone charges trying to find her bag ($2/min outside Canada on her cell phone). To add insult to injury, her jewelry was missing when she got the bag back.
As if this wasn't enough, Amtrak Customer Service will do NOTHING. She was told there is no recourse. No manager/supervisor to speak to. No address/fax/phone number/email they will give out. You're on the train for 36 hours between LA and Seattle and you are entirely responsible if anything happens to your luggage, including Amtrak's mishandling of it.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
A similar incident happened to me over Christmas. Amtrak lost my bag somewhere between Fayetteville NC and Wilmington DE. Twice I was told that my bag had been found only to discover that the found bag was not mine. It seems that nobody bothered to check my claim number or the description of my lost bag.
Was a terribly rough trip, Aug, 13 2012 – 8 hrs late going from St Paul, MN to Everett, WA, Aug 22, 2012 – 4 hrs Late returning.
On my return trip I plugged my laptop in to electrical outlet to charge battery, My hard drive and monitor severely damaged because of electrical power surge. There were no warnings posted regarding possible electrical damage, I would like compensation for being late for appt. with surgery and laptop damage.
It was a very disgusting trip!
I bought a round trip ticket from BWI to Fayetteville and back again a week later. My trip there was horrible and several people, as well as myself called Amtrak to complain. Everyone was told to call back at the end of our trip. On my way back the train was 2 hours late and I was so exhausted I left my bag on the train. I went into the station and I was handed a slip with a phone number for a station which was closed, I found out after I had called at least 12 times, I called the helpline and was put on hold for forty minutes only for the agent to give me a number of another station that was closed. I called the helpline again and was on hold for another forty minutes and finally a Lost and Found claim was put through. I called back two days later and the agent attempted to call New York Penn, where my bag would be, and she did not get an answer. I was told to call back in a couple days. I called back two days later and yet again the agent checked my claim and tried to call the station, both Lost and Found and baggage, and yet again no answer. I called back the next day and still there was no answer. I was transferred to customer relations. The man was very rude to me and had no interest in helping. He stated "our job is to get you from point A to point B and we did that." I decided to call one last time hoping my back would have surfaced after a week. The assistant called Penn again and there was no answer. This has been the worst experience ever and I will never rely on Amtrak again!
I also lost my luggage. The driver of the bus we transferred to from Oakland to San Francisco, handed my luggage to another passenger without checking the name of the ticket to the luggage tag. I am having emotional distress knowing that it could have been prevented if the driver was diligent about checking names with the ticket. DO YOUR JOB AMTRAK! Greyhound has a better security system handling luggage.