Well this comes from personal experience, and is for those who still think they should book from irctc...
I set up an alarm to wake up at 7:55 to get the tatkal booking done, at 8 I was almost ready with my laptop all geared up.
Till 8:30 I wasn't able to see even the login page, and when it opened up, it took 15 minutes till I signed in. (that was definitely faster than my expectations!)
Then I had a hard time to get the autocomplete fill in the 2 stations in another 5 minutes, I mean whats so hard about an autocomplete engine? Even a novice programmer can write an autocomplete engine that can horizontally scale and can respond in acceptable time.
Well then by the time I saw the list of trais, the clock was ticking 9. And the first bump came in when the train I was looking for (Taj Express) was left with only 4 seats! Were others really able to open up such site and book tickets? It immediately clicked that my net connection could be at fault at that point of time, a quick ping to a few servers, there was no packet loss at my end. Then how in this world 4 seats left? (I was supposed to be booking 7, meaning 2 transactions).
Quickly changed plan to another train, it had 17 left, clock was ticking and I was supposed to make 2 transactions. Filled in the form by 9:10, but wait! while I was filling the form, the lazy javascript from irctc removed last 2 passenger textboxes... (ting!) That means I can only book 4 tickets for tatkal at a time. (Although fair enough, because it would have taken 2 turns anyways)
Then checked in the payment mode (that was fast because I have by-hearted my card details), and viola! After about 2 minutes of processing of only god knows what, I got the tickets.
But wait, only 4 passengers are travelling by now..
So I repeated the process, and by 9:30 I again checked in the payment, but this time even after 3-4 minutes of processing of only god knows what, it failed to book the tickets. Account was debited for the transaction, and no tickets!
Thats fine, I'll get the refund in some 7 days or so (without interest anyways), so I retried, because half the passengers were travelling already, and rest of them has to!
So by next 10 minutes, I was again at payment gateway, this time it took 1 minute of processing of only god knows what, and it replied.. "I am done with my 2 transcations for the day for tatkal, and my tickets cannot be booked" (although the last transcation failed)
(And irctc is so kind that they debited the account first and then lately came to remember that "oh! this guy has done his transcations") (either valid or invalid transaction)
Thats sounds good, because now I cannot book tickets, my account was debited twice, half the passengers are travelling. And irctc doesn't know how to count a transaction!
Now what? Let me cancel the first ticket as well and the entire trip... Wait shit! You won't get a penny to cancel a tatkal ticket... (lol)
So now I was at a stage where, half the passengers are travelling, I was denied ticket because I have done a failed transcation, my account was debited twice without any ticket, and if I cancel a ticket I won't get a penny..
Then I thought, cancelling is better than trying one last time (I will get the refund most likely).. So I called up my friend, asked his irctc username and password, and re-tried the transaction (luck was with my side or not, but the tickets were still available in this train).
So there I was again at payment gateway page, and I used a secod card to do this transaction, and guess what, it took 2 minutes of processing of only god knows what and when it came back, it said "You have crossed your limit of 2 transactions"
What? irctc is doing its math on IP address! (I was smart enought to clear the cookies, but couldn't have changed static IP of mine)
That sounds even better, because now I cannot book tickets from this computer all together, my account was debited thrice without any ticket, half the passengers are travelling and irctc has applied all its engineering (whatever they know) on blocking IP addresses. (I mean people cound be on NAT, whats the point in blocking by IP address)
Finally, I called up another friend (Asheesh Varshneya), who booked the tickets from his computer, using a third card and I've got all the passengers travelling.
Now please, let all of us stand up in ovation for the engineering and design of irctc, I would like to give special thanks to the chief architect of irctc and would request a special round of applause.
(Btw did I mentioned, the return tickets for the same date were no more available by then) :) So here I am, bashing irctc and thinking how would I come back! And the final situation ends like:
I have tickets to go, with my account debited thrice for invalid transactions, but the seats are in different coaches all together.. And yes! I yet don't know how to come back, and if I cancel the trip, I won't get a penny back on the tickets!
Happy time irctc!
I set up an alarm to wake up at 7:55 to get the tatkal booking done, at 8 I was almost ready with my laptop all geared up.
Till 8:30 I wasn't able to see even the login page, and when it opened up, it took 15 minutes till I signed in. (that was definitely faster than my expectations!)
Then I had a hard time to get the autocomplete fill in the 2 stations in another 5 minutes, I mean whats so hard about an autocomplete engine? Even a novice programmer can write an autocomplete engine that can horizontally scale and can respond in acceptable time.
Well then by the time I saw the list of trais, the clock was ticking 9. And the first bump came in when the train I was looking for (Taj Express) was left with only 4 seats! Were others really able to open up such site and book tickets? It immediately clicked that my net connection could be at fault at that point of time, a quick ping to a few servers, there was no packet loss at my end. Then how in this world 4 seats left? (I was supposed to be booking 7, meaning 2 transactions).
Quickly changed plan to another train, it had 17 left, clock was ticking and I was supposed to make 2 transactions. Filled in the form by 9:10, but wait! while I was filling the form, the lazy javascript from irctc removed last 2 passenger textboxes... (ting!) That means I can only book 4 tickets for tatkal at a time. (Although fair enough, because it would have taken 2 turns anyways)
Then checked in the payment mode (that was fast because I have by-hearted my card details), and viola! After about 2 minutes of processing of only god knows what, I got the tickets.
But wait, only 4 passengers are travelling by now..
So I repeated the process, and by 9:30 I again checked in the payment, but this time even after 3-4 minutes of processing of only god knows what, it failed to book the tickets. Account was debited for the transaction, and no tickets!
Thats fine, I'll get the refund in some 7 days or so (without interest anyways), so I retried, because half the passengers were travelling already, and rest of them has to!
So by next 10 minutes, I was again at payment gateway, this time it took 1 minute of processing of only god knows what, and it replied.. "I am done with my 2 transcations for the day for tatkal, and my tickets cannot be booked" (although the last transcation failed)
(And irctc is so kind that they debited the account first and then lately came to remember that "oh! this guy has done his transcations") (either valid or invalid transaction)
Thats sounds good, because now I cannot book tickets, my account was debited twice, half the passengers are travelling. And irctc doesn't know how to count a transaction!
Now what? Let me cancel the first ticket as well and the entire trip... Wait shit! You won't get a penny to cancel a tatkal ticket... (lol)
So now I was at a stage where, half the passengers are travelling, I was denied ticket because I have done a failed transcation, my account was debited twice without any ticket, and if I cancel a ticket I won't get a penny..
Then I thought, cancelling is better than trying one last time (I will get the refund most likely).. So I called up my friend, asked his irctc username and password, and re-tried the transaction (luck was with my side or not, but the tickets were still available in this train).
So there I was again at payment gateway page, and I used a secod card to do this transaction, and guess what, it took 2 minutes of processing of only god knows what and when it came back, it said "You have crossed your limit of 2 transactions"
What? irctc is doing its math on IP address! (I was smart enought to clear the cookies, but couldn't have changed static IP of mine)
That sounds even better, because now I cannot book tickets from this computer all together, my account was debited thrice without any ticket, half the passengers are travelling and irctc has applied all its engineering (whatever they know) on blocking IP addresses. (I mean people cound be on NAT, whats the point in blocking by IP address)
Finally, I called up another friend (Asheesh Varshneya), who booked the tickets from his computer, using a third card and I've got all the passengers travelling.
Now please, let all of us stand up in ovation for the engineering and design of irctc, I would like to give special thanks to the chief architect of irctc and would request a special round of applause.
(Btw did I mentioned, the return tickets for the same date were no more available by then) :) So here I am, bashing irctc and thinking how would I come back! And the final situation ends like:
I have tickets to go, with my account debited thrice for invalid transactions, but the seats are in different coaches all together.. And yes! I yet don't know how to come back, and if I cancel the trip, I won't get a penny back on the tickets!
Happy time irctc!
