Troubles with Amtrak

I received our 2 North American Rail Passes around the 14th of July and, since I was away, opened them up on the 16th of July, and lo and behold, they were for the wrong dates, saying they were valid for travel not before 17 August 2006 and not after 19 September 2006. Unfortunately, the 17th of August is when we start travel on Amtrak, but not when we start travel on the train trip, and therefore need to use our passes. After making numerous phonecalls to both Amtrak and VIA on Sunday and Monday, it was determined that I could exchange them at Halifax for correct passes before we began. About 2 minutes before we were out the door on Monday to go to Ireland via Boston, someone from Amtrak called and said that exchanging at Halifax was actually not okay, and that I needed to exchange them with Amtrak. Unfortunately the closest Amtrak station is in Portland, and so I would have to FedEx the passes back to them so they could issue new ones. I wrote them a letter explaining the problem, enclosed all the passes and tickets as instructed, and Pa took care of FedExing them.

I arrived back from Ireland yesterday to discover my package from Amtrak with my new, correct passes! ... or so I thought. I opened Matt's and the pass was correct, and the tickets were correct, though for some reason there was an extra ticket from NYC to Trenton, NJ on 31 July. Then I looked at my pass, and my freaking last name is misspelled, printed twice on every ticket and three times in the pass. It also says twice on every ticket and three times on the pass that valid photo ID is required... too bad the name on my ID and tickets/pass won't match up!

So I have called them this morning to find out what to do... and a supervisor is supposed to call me back today. I think Amtrak can probably make some note in my reservations that this is wrong, but I think the problem might be with VIA accepting it. And I am due to travel in 6 days! Egad...

More Amtrak troubles: All Aboard? and Behind the Scenes:
The Making of 'Amtrak: All Aboard?', Repairing the Rails (or not) , CNN transcript from a train delay ... oh the horror! And some jokes at Amtrak's expense, inlcuding:

Due to recent cutbacks,the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

Ouch.

Update: Amtrak has called backed and said it is okay! They have also contacted VIA and said it should work out with them as well. Phew!