Deutsche Bahn is introducing a few innovations in April.
Millions of travelers are affected by the changeover.
Frankfurt - Many people who frequently travel by train know it only too well: When you have questions about tickets, timetables and offers from DB, you often only have to pick up the phone to contact the Deutsche Bahn customer hotline.
But a call to the 0180 number costs a lot of money.
20 cents per call from the German landline network, even 59 cents from the mobile network.
But thanks to some new products, this should end in April.
After Deutsche Bahn recently announced changes in ticket sales *, this time the innovations deal with the service area.
Apparently the DB plans to become more customer-friendly in the telephone service.
At least that is promised by the announced innovations that will come into force at DB from April 2021.
The announced changes relate precisely to the availability of customer service.
For everyday customer inquiries such as timetables, buying tickets, reserving seats and other service topics.
The DB lost property office is also affected by the changes at Deutsche Bahn.
Deutsche Bahn: important innovations at DB
To this end, Deutsche Bahn is changing its telephone hotline from April 1, 2021.
From then on, DB customer service will be available on a Berlin landline number.
The costs for a call are then just as high as for other calls.
Since most tariffs now already include a flat rate for the German landline network, most people do not incur any additional fees.
With other tariffs, however, the price depends on the duration of the call.
It can of course be expensive.
Especially if the caller stays in touch with the Deutsche Bahn service hotline for a longer period of time.
Deutsche Bahn with changes for millions of users: How are travelers affected?
The accessibility of the central lost property office of Deutsche Bahn is also affected by the changes.
Previously, this could be reached under a 0900 number.
However, this was anything but customer-friendly.
On the one hand, numbers with the area code 0900 are blocked for many connections.
On the other hand, calls to such telephone numbers are usually associated with high fees.
Calling the DB lost property office from a German landline network sometimes cost 59 cents per minute.
But that will change now.
If rail travelers lose valuable or personal items in the future, for example at Frankfurt Central Station *, they can also contact a Berlin landline number on which the lost and found office can be reached from April.
issue |
New DB service numbers from April 1, 2021 |
|---|---|
Information on fares and timetables, service |
030 - 297 0 |
Lost property service |
030 - 586020909 |
Service passenger rights |
030 - 586020920 |
Mobility service (also for barrier-free travel) |
030 - 65212888 |
Source: deutschebahn.com |
DB: Is the Deutsche Bahn reacting to criticism of the chargeable service hotline with the new features?
With the new, cheaper service numbers, Deutsche Bahn is also responding to the criticism that some customers have expressed in recent years on social media and in various forums.
In a DB service community, for example, an anonymous user rumbled: "Why is it not possible for a large company like DB to set up a free service hotline so that customers do not incur additional costs due to problems they are not responsible for?"
Bahn employees promptly stated the reason for the fee of 20 cents per call in an answer: "To avoid joking calls," it says.
But this answer did not seem to satisfy the user: "Most of the fun callers will often be put off by the 45-minute queue."
It is of course not known whether the criticism has led Deutsche Bahn to try to make customer service more efficient.
But Deutsche Bahn has announced that it will from now on combine the most frequently requested information in a hotline in order to save time.
The service number 030 - 297 0, which is manned around the clock, provides information on timetables and operations, prices, offers and services.
In this way, DB wants to ensure that customers get their questions to the right contact person more quickly and that any problems can be solved more quickly.
Anyone who dials the previous Deutsche Bahn service numbers after April 1 will automatically be referred to the new hotline contact details.
According to DB, this should not cause "any additional costs" for the callers.
(Yannick Wenig)
* hna.de and fnp.de are offered by IPPEN.MEDIA.
