Passes blocked

How do you mean that the passes are blocked? Have you activated the passes? Are you travelling? What error message do you get?

You need to give some more details about your problem.

1. Has your phone been connected to internet in the past 72 hours?
2. What kind of pass do you have?
3. What does it show in My Pass?
4. What happens if you tap on your pass there?
5. What validity period does it show after tapping on your pass?

Please post a screenshots of any error messages and unexpected items (but wipe out any personal information).

I asked for a refund o my passes, that’s why they are blocked. But now I am in between 2 situations. Paypal says I have to close the conversation and eurail says that if I close the conversation, I will lose all the money. 

So, I am at a loss. 

@Camilo. Can you please look at this?

How did you ask for a refund? Did you follow this procedure? If not, then what did you do?

As the passes are blocked, the only thing it allows me to do from the app is to remove the pass. I cannot deactivate it. 

You must  let us know exactly what you have done, otherwise we can´t give you any advice.

How many passes have you bought?

Have you asked for an exchange of passes?

Have you asked for a refund of passes?

Have you been in contact with Customer Support? What have they said?

I have got 2 passes, one for me and one for my daughter. I activated the passes to book seats, but they are not available yet. I have asked for a refund because I want to plan my trip ahead, not all the trips I want are available so out of the 5 days. I would use 4. I cannot book the seats yet and I found out that there is a certain amount of tickets available for eurail, so maybe I have to buy a new ticket for some of the trips. Plus, I want to make sure that I travel next to my daughter and not in a different carriage, for instance. 

Anyway, I asked for a refund. Paypal says I have to close the case so that they release the money, and eurail says that if I close the case, I may lose all the money. I am like in a dead end street. 

Customer support says I have to deactivate the passes to ask for a refund, but I.cannot do that because Eurail has blocked them. 

1.Yes, I have been connected to internet in the past 72 hours. 

2.I have the electronic passes. 

3. Your pass has been blocked. 
4. the only option they give me is “delete pass”
5. There is no validity period, because as I said, the only option is delete pass. But when I activated them, the validity was from July 20 to august 19

You don't need to activate your pass to book seats.

How did you ask for a refund? Did you follow this procedure? If not, then what did you do?

Additionally, if you want to exchange your pass (as it seems), then the procedure is different, see the link above.

What train(s) are you trying to book? (route, date, departure time)

If you book 2 seats at the same time in one booking action, you will be placed together.

I want a refund of my passes. The link does not help me because my passes are blocked. I cannot therefore ask for a refund.

We can't provide any more assistance if you don't answer the questions asked.

I have answered all 5 questions. Here are the answers again:

1.Yes, I have been connected to internet in the past 72 hours. 

2.I have the electronic passes. 

3. Your pass has been blocked. 
4. the only option they give me is “delete pass”
5. There is no validity period, because as I said, the only option is delete pass. But when I activated them, the validity was from July 20 to august 19

You answered the first 5 questions, but not the follow-up question after you said you had asked for a refund, and which I repeat for the 3rd time now:

How did you ask for a refund? Did you follow this procedure? If not, then what did you do?

In particular, I'm wondering how PayPal comes into this. If you used them to pay, and then requested a refund through them, then that might be an explanation for the current situation.

I also answered that I had activated my passes to book seats. Then, as I couldn’t do this, I asked for a refund. I CANNOT DEACTIVATE my passes because they have been BLOCKED. 

Paypal asks me to CLOSE THE CASE to get a refund and Eurail says that if I close the case, I may get nothing. I am in a dead end street. 

Where did you ask for a refund? Eurail? PayPal?

I asked on both platforms.

That is the problem. You should only have asked Eurail for a refund. You can't get a refund from both Eurail and PayPal at the same time.

The Community has told you to ask Eurail for a refund. No one here has told you to ask PayPal for a refund. I have never used PayPal so I don’t know how that works but maybe someone else knows. 

As an onlooker it appears there is a conflict here in how you approached your refund and the circumstances of time and actions.

To fit the circumstances as you have described them so far it seems as if the following occured:

You purchased your pass using Paypal.

You activated your pass to make reservations.

You couldn’t get the reservations you wanted so decided to request a refund via Paypal.

Paypal checked with Interrail/Eurail and found you had started to use the pass (by activating it) so theoretically you had accepted the service and they could not get the money back until the pass was deactivated.

In the meantime, so you couldn’t use the pass in question, Interrail blocked use of the pass as they didn’t want you to inadvertently use it, since although activated you hadn’t made any journeys and would still be eligible for a standard 85% refund once removed from the device - as long as you hadn’t made any journeys according to the app - this includes the travel day created on activation.

It seems to me the first thing to do is remove the pass from your phone and then either pursue a standard refund from Interrail (85%) or via Paypal.

Personally I have found Customer Service very fair on the treatment of out of the ordinary situations as long as you are reasonable with them, and it is not an attempt to simply save the 15% refund processing charge.

In my experience Paypal can be even more difficult to deal with than most other banks/Credit Card companies in that their fundamental service is as an Escrow agent - i.e, they take your money and put it into trust then forward it to the seller once delivered. If not delivered they return your money.

Once your money has been forwarded they can only return your money if you return the item and the seller issues a refund to them, hence their instruction to deactivate the pass so Interrail could then return your payment in accordance with their policies. Interrail would then return your 85% to the original payment agent and it would be passed through to you. 

Credit cards are different in that in the event of a dispute on delivery of service they have a duty to return your payment (again after investigation) from their funds and then claim recompense (if possible). This however is only if your attempts to work with the seller have failed.

There is no question that if you haven’t taken a train journey using the pass you will get a refund but probably 85%, just follow the instructions.