Ueno Station JR Information — Attraction in Tokyo

WARNING The JR staff use the language barrier against Westeners to enforce very strict obscure rules that are not explained before payment in order to take more money from tourists!!!!!

Absolutely terrible service. Beware foreigners.

We booked a 7 day JR pass from our local Australian agent and activated it on arrival at JR Ueno based on the staff’s direction when we advised them of our pre purchase and travel plans. There was no advice from JR that the final day of the pass was in fact the “day it expired”. (As an aside they technically short change you for the morning of the day you activate the pass!!!)

The main reason we got the JR pass was to travel the Shinkansen to Nagano from Tokyo. On our first day in Tokyo went to Ueno to confirm the trip and the JR staff activate passes - 4 days later when we return to check the times we were advised we needed to pay another 29000Y PER PERSON as the day of our travel was the day of the pass expiry! WHAT?! Why did JR let us activate the card when our itinerary was based around getting to Nagano from Tokyo?!

We had not used a SINGLE JR line in the 4 days prior except for one trip which was not actually used; there was evidence of this because the passes were not used at any terminals. We requested the cards be put on hold for one day considering the circumstances and there was no attempt to do this or any real sort of understanding or compassion from JR despite their staff prematurely activating the passes.

Clearly we would NEVER have activated the passes had we known that the final day on them was a day we could NOT TRAVEL. We literally did not use them on the first day anyway (or any other day!).

Just absolutely terrible customer service - no attempt to be understanding and show humanity when there was an issue JR could completely resolve. It honestly feels like we were taken advantage of because of the language barrier. This would never be acceptable...

The Staff (Lady) of UENO JR Information is so rude. We are very disappointed that we checked in at the Miya gate mistakenly whereas we had to get into Hibiya Line. We asked her to assist us for checking out. (P. S. We never ask her to get free of charge.)

She asked us which station you checked, my friend said UENO, after that she repeatly asked which station we in, then my friend answered UENO.

She said that I knew and said too many times he said. She asked if we could speak English as well.

She asked us which gate we in. My friend said UENO and I typed the Gate name in words and show to her. She asked my friend to learn English.

Then she said that we had to pay 140 dollar.

Or course, we never won't to pay. We just wanna checked out the JR station and get into the Hibiya Line.

In our communication, she is so rude and we are unconfort and won't ask the Information anymore.

This is our worst...

Wow ! So many shops and stores New and clean Can be extremely busy Major rail hub Can get lost easliey but staff are super helpful Signs are in multiple lanuges but some older signage may not be translated. If you are picking up your JR pass do it ahead of time. The office doesn't open early. Fast and accurate train service very squeezy at peak rush times be ready and organized. Don't feel pressured to preform. Lighting fast service from staff. Great works of art displayed in...