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Day 10 Nanjing
Nov. 25th, 2013 06:45 pmBeaucracy has been catching up with anarchy growth these years, it appears. Now, you need ID to buy train tickets too.
So we trundled out this morning with our passports to buy early the train tickets for next Monday. The first ticket place we hit - empty counter and the store it shares space with tells us that sometimes the ticket person just won't bother to show up if there isn't likely to be much business. The second place we hit - empty counter with just a sign on the window saying there's computer issues and they're not open. So we took the metro to the station itself - where the counter person tells us they only take bookings up to four days in advance; any earlier and you need to book via internet or phone.
W. T. F.
The hell is this service?! -_-
So tired and fed up, we went back home for lunch (and a nap for my mom). Called the number on the cyclotron at the train station, and managed to book our tickets with the electronic answering machine. In the end it told us to make payment and pickup at any train ticket outlet (which brings us back to square one -_-).
My aunt made a call to my cousin (the younger one), and we asked her to do an online search for other ticket outlets in the region. Eventually, we came up with another location, called ahead to make sure there's someone there, and finally succeeded in picking up the tickets this afternoon.
I don't know if we were just extra-ordinarily unlucky this morning, or if that kind of shoddy service is common for public services, where counter people can just not bother to show up whenever. It certainly leaves much to be desired.
Also, the extra hassle of having to have ID for placing the ticket order and picking up the tickets is certainly new. The explanation for these new measures is that they are for anti-conterfiet and anti-scamming reasons. I can somewhat see the reason for it, and it probably isn't too much of a hassle to many locals. But to visitors like us who are paranoid about ID and who don't have easy access to the internet, it's a nightmare.
(I keep saying they should get internet installed at this place regardless if my grandparents use it or not - how much could they charge per month if not based on usage? - but no one listens to me. Feh.)
So we trundled out this morning with our passports to buy early the train tickets for next Monday. The first ticket place we hit - empty counter and the store it shares space with tells us that sometimes the ticket person just won't bother to show up if there isn't likely to be much business. The second place we hit - empty counter with just a sign on the window saying there's computer issues and they're not open. So we took the metro to the station itself - where the counter person tells us they only take bookings up to four days in advance; any earlier and you need to book via internet or phone.
W. T. F.
The hell is this service?! -_-
So tired and fed up, we went back home for lunch (and a nap for my mom). Called the number on the cyclotron at the train station, and managed to book our tickets with the electronic answering machine. In the end it told us to make payment and pickup at any train ticket outlet (which brings us back to square one -_-).
My aunt made a call to my cousin (the younger one), and we asked her to do an online search for other ticket outlets in the region. Eventually, we came up with another location, called ahead to make sure there's someone there, and finally succeeded in picking up the tickets this afternoon.
I don't know if we were just extra-ordinarily unlucky this morning, or if that kind of shoddy service is common for public services, where counter people can just not bother to show up whenever. It certainly leaves much to be desired.
Also, the extra hassle of having to have ID for placing the ticket order and picking up the tickets is certainly new. The explanation for these new measures is that they are for anti-conterfiet and anti-scamming reasons. I can somewhat see the reason for it, and it probably isn't too much of a hassle to many locals. But to visitors like us who are paranoid about ID and who don't have easy access to the internet, it's a nightmare.
(I keep saying they should get internet installed at this place regardless if my grandparents use it or not - how much could they charge per month if not based on usage? - but no one listens to me. Feh.)
