First of all, I used them for the Russian visa service, which I was told takes about 3-4 weeks total. I submitted my passport to them. Several weeks later I asked about the status of my visa and they said that my passport would be submitted to the embassy tomorrow!!!! Note that I had a flight leaving from the US in several weeks from that point. I barely got my passport back in time, and almost missed my flight because of it.

Secondly, the communication was pretty bad. They even contacted me saying that they could not find one of my orders, even though I had paid for it months before. I logged onto their own website and found my order and I sent it to them, as well as my paypal receipt. That problem was easily solved, but I was a bit concerned as my confidence level in the company had already dropped so much.

The worst part is that about 3 weeks before the start of my train trip, I sent an e-mail asking where my paper tickets were, because they promised they would have been sent out a few weeks before that. They ignored my mail for several days so I decided to send another one. The woman whom I had been mailing with before, replied said that they had sent the tickets to the wrong address!! This is after I had checked several times previously with her that they had the right mailing address. The woman told me that in order to re-route the tickets to me, I would have to pay $60 which goes to the shipping company!!!!! I then told her that it’s unfair that I have to pay that and I forward her a mail that she sent me just several weeks before confirming that she had the right address on file.

She didn’t deny writing the mail, but said that she has assistants and maybe that’s why there was a mistake and that unfortunately they cannot pay the $60 for re-routing. And I was supposed to pay for their mistake. But I later contacted the manager and they told me that I wouldn’t have to pay since it was their mistake, and I got an apology from the woman later on. They promised me that the ticket would get to me on a certain day, which it didn’t. So I had to go back to the city it was sent to, because I had already left to get the ticket. Not only an expensive detour, but also a huge crimp on my plans. Not to mention VERY stressful. I hardly got the ticket on time and would have otherwise missed my train.

As for the other ticket, which was an e-ticket, I was supposed to print out the paper and go to pick it up myself at the Helsinki Railway station. I went there and waited in line for a long time, but they told me at the station that it didn’t have the reservation number on it, so they couldn’t give me the ticket yet. Good thing I went in advance, because I had to call later that night and ask for the reservation number, which they then sent me by email. I got the ticket in the end, but it was a real hassle that I had to go back to the railway station again.

My point of using them was to make my trip easier. Instead they have caused me an incredible amount of stress on so many levels on so many different occasions over the months from the time I booked my trip until leaving. I was even worried that I wouldn’t be able to go because I wouldn’t get the visa on time, and then that I wouldn’t get the train ticket on time! I understand that they take a huge cut from the price of the train tickets, and that was ok with me because I knew that from the beginning. But I expect AT LEAST some level of service in return, unlike the incompetence that I experienced from some of them. I myself have been in customer service for years, and would never treat anyone this way.

Worrying about whether I will get my passport and tickets on time actually ruined a good part of my trip.

Of course I waited until the trip was completely over before posting this, out of fear they would actually do something to sabotage my trip. Save yourself from the stress and frustration that I have experienced with this company. Better yet, make your own travel arrangements!