Splendid as always

So I'd bought a couple of railway tickets to go up to Valencia for the Fallas.

Covid 19 meant first the Fallas were postponed and then there was a general restriction on movement. I wasn't going to be using my tickets.

RENFE, the train people, famed for their idiosyncratic website, emailed to say they were returning money or giving credit. They said I had to wait till today, Wednesday, for them to get their systems in place.

I tried the website first. It said my tickets had been "consumed" presumably because they were dated for yesterday.

I tried the special phone number. It offered a service in all the Spanish languages and in English. Splendid as my Castilian is, I went for the easy option. Lots of blurb and then the message - all our operators are busy. Press one if you would you like to be served in Castilian. I didn't press one.

I tried ringing back. All our operators are busy. Over the next thirty minutes I tried a few times more.

Eventually the synthesised voice didn't close me down straight away and went on to offer the language options. English was busy still, but would I like Castilian? This time I pressed option one.

The voice asked me about when my ticket was dated. I answered. The voice asked me about my ticket type. I answered. "All our operators are busy," said the voice.

I think I might wait a while. There are only 65€ worth of tickets and the pal I was going with has already paid his half. The way it's going I could spend more on phone calls than the ticket money I'll get back.
---------------------------------------------

I phoned several more times with similar sorts of result. On 25 March the web page message had changed and I was able to apply for a credit online. The credit came through today, 26th March

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