I planned to visit my native place on Holi (1st March, 2010) and asked Shankar Rao(a travel agent) on phone to book couple of 3rd AC train tickets in tatkal from Hyderabad to Delhi. He promised that he’d arrange the tickets either from Hyderabad or Mahabubnagar. Then he asked me to transfer 1500/- in advance. I transferred the amount (1500/-) in his account as I really need those tickets.
Next day around 8:30 AM, I called him and asked about the tickets. He said that the tickets were booked and he’d call me around 2:00 PM to tell me from where I have to collect the tickets. But I didn’t get any call from him. So I called him around 4:00 PM then he told that he’d come near to my office around 5PM to hand over the tickets (It seems he use to book the train tickets from Dilshuk Nagar, Railway Station.). But again no calls from his side, so I tried his number again and again but his mobile was switched off till 9:00 PM. Then later he switched on his mobile but he was not receiving my calls till late night. I sent him lot of messages also but he didn’t reply. Then next day early morning when I tried his number from other numbers, he received the call but as I asked about my tickets, he cut the call. I was unable to do anything because I don't know his address or his office.
So in this way, I lost my 1500/- as well as missed the chance of celebrating Holi with my family which is more important then 1500/-
So, I would like to lodge a complaint against Shankar Rao so that he will not be able to cheat anybody in future.
His details:-
Name: Shankar Rao
Mobile Number: 9848380138
ICICI A/c Number: 024301515925; Branch: Dilshuk Nagar, Hyderabad.

Big Fraud
I booked a package tour trip offered by Jyothi Tours & Travels for visiting Northeast States( Assam, Meghalaya, Kolkata). Initially, the tour operator said that all the necessary arrangements would be done and you will enjoy your vacation. I made the full payments for the package and started off. Initially he had given me the program guide for the entire trip (5days/6nights).

We were given the air tickets along with the program guide and we set sail. the moments I landed in Assam (Guwahati) there was change in the program. According to the plan we were said that we will be staying 2 days in Meghalaya and 1 day in Assam but the local travel agent who was coordinating with us told us upon enquiring that he had communicated this change (reduction in itinerary, actually) with my travel agent but was not communicated to us. This was just the beginning of our perils. It just kept going from bad to worse from there on. I made a conference call to the Hyderabad office of Jyothi Travels with the local coordinator in tow. I asked only the local guy to speak and kept silent on the call. To my sheer surprise he (they Hyderabad based agent) told the local agent that since we (me and my family) didn’t know the places, you show them the places as per your plan and tell them that you have shown everything. I was shocked to listen to his conversation and then I spoke up. The moment he heard my voice he hung up and didn't respond to any of my calls from that point on, leaving us high and dry.

I had to shell out extra amount from my pocket and see the places and the rooms given were single room with 2 beds. We were actually 3 and I had to sleep on the floor, ordering an extra bed (Only mattress and pillow)in all the hotels. And for this, the extra bed and pillow, I had to call up the agent in Hyderabad. The food was the next killer. The food was a part of the package and very limited. Each time we asked for something as simple as a Dal, we were told it was not a part of the package. It was worst experience ever faced by me. I am planning to take the legal route against this tour operator. My only suggestion to all you folks planning to take Jyothi tours and travels is, instead of taking this package, better stay back as against using them will be a futile effort and equivalent to not seeing anything anyway.

Also, if anyone knows the process for proceeding further legally please advice.

Dear Sir/Madam,

The online tatkal ticket booking seems like a scam now a days. Everytime I logged in my irctc account to book a tatkal ticket, exactly at 8 A.M it will display service not available. But throught local brokers I can get tatkal tickets of the same train but at a very higher rate. If the website is developed to provide hassle free service for the travellers then why such things will happen? Even if you can not provide solution please inform me where to go to solve this issue.
Regards

Lotus Travel organises many tours for taking families with adopted children back to their home countries. I used Lotus Travel to book my tour from Guilin to Yangshuo, I used them as they came across as being child friendly as they take many families from the US to China.

They charged us US$380 per adult and US$330 per child and that includes hotel, tours and the boat ride and transport to and fro Guilin to Yangshuo. The hotel promised is a 4 star hotel.

After estimating the tour cost, the remaining amount for a hotel room that was charged to us would be US$200 per night, we are fine with that if it’s a 4 star, child friendly hotel. Instead what we got was a roach infested hotel, with no pool, no hot water and old beds that is 2 star and is only US$30 on the internet.

When we spoke to Louie Yi the owner of the company, he started yelling at us and hanging up and upgrade to another 4 star hotel would cost another US$ 50 per night.

The reason we used an agent is because we were traveling with our young children and would like a safe and comfortable and enjoyable trip. His treatment and advice was unprofessional. He books a lot of US tours through that filthy hotel and pockets large margins.

This is to report him and other potential consumers. Repeated emails and correspondence to them has not been replied.

Sincerely,

Carolyn Wong

Dear Sir /Maam,


I have got only part of the amount of Rs 13500 , and still awaiting to hear from them...

I had booked my ticket to Vancouver through Yatra Kolkata City office.I had paid a booking amount of Rs 13500 /- vide my debit card and recieved a reciept for the same vide reciept no-36214.

As I wanted to change the dates of my trip I requested the same and was told that I will be charged a cancellation fee of Rs.5000 (approx) would be levied and then they could refund the balance amount or rebook a new ticket.(whic is as per the communication through email attached)

I have made several phone calls to number - at the yatra city office ,for the refund but till date there has been no resolution to my query and therefore I am yet to recieve the refund of the balalce amount .
Infact the experience with Yatra has been so bitter becasue there is no way that any authority in their city booking office can single handedly address my request.

Yatra had promised to refund me in 15days and today its over 40 days !!

I would request the authorities to look into the matter and give me a solution.


Trail of emails with my cancelled ticket.


From: lalitasinha@hotmail.com
To: susmita.goswami@yatraonline.com
Subject: RE: cancelation ticket
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:42:29 +0530


RE: Your Yatra Documents‏
From: Lalita Sinha (lalitasinha@hotmail.com)
Sent: 26 June 2010 14:01PM
To: bookings@yatra.com






Dear Susmita,

As per dicussion , please cancel my ticket for the 30th of June to vancouver .

Further, I understand from you that it would take 15days to get the refund as per your policy.

Thankyou for your time.

Best...

Lalita Sinha(9830091239)

From: susmita.goswami@yatraonline.com
To: lalitasinha@hotmail.com
CC: smita.roy@yatraonline.com
Subject: RE: cancelation ticket
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:18:03 +0530


Dear Madam



Kindly acknowledge and give us a GO AHEAD, as we need to cancel the ticket.



1.SINHA/LALITA MS(ADT)

2 CA 948 Q 01JUL 4 DELPEK HK1 0315 1225 01JUL E CA/EZZTX

3 CA 991 Q 01JUL 4 PEKYVR HK1 1550 1150 01JUL E CA/EZZTX

4 CA 992 S 13JUL 2 YVRPEK HK1 1350 1615 14JUL E CA/EZZTX

5 CA 947 S 14JUL 3 PEKDEL HK1 2050 0140 15JUL E CA/EZZTX

6 APE SUSMITA.GOSWAMI@YATRAONLINE.COM



Thanks

Susmita Goswami - Executive I Ticketing - Sales I Yatra.com I Landline No. 033-40633283 I 21 Park Street, Kolkata 700 016

P Please do not print this email unless it is absolutely necessary.

BookingID: 121114773
City: Delhi
Date: 12/11/2010

Cab Driver did not handled the luggage properly and lost the bag carelessly, may be intentionally. nobody from call centre taking the resposibility and even reverting. no crisis handling .... Pathetic Cust Service... Going to lodge FIR against company and necessary regulatory authorities.

Name: Sonal Gupta
Phone: 9873412317
Email: rupak2305@gmail.com

i travelled by Indigo airline through yatra.com on dated of 30th nov 2010. And i have been asked for the amount of 3,904/- rupees for two tickets(adult-1, infant-1) but i got charged again for infant charges of 800 rupees at Bhubaneswar airport .
So herby i request you to find out the extra amount taken by yatra.com against infant since indigo people informed about yatra.com.

Kindly help me out .

Anticipating a reply .
Charulata.
Yatra referrence number-28101012594(bhubaneswar to mumbai).

i had tried to book an air ticket through makemytrip.com, but the transaction was not successful. But the company made the transaction fail after getting the amount debited to the account through the debit card. The Booking Id: NF251323304442. Subsequently it was informed that they have refunded the amount as mentioned below.
>
> Refund date: 28/Feb/2011
>
> Refund amount: 16,038.00
>
> Refund reference number: 75425311059150005000826

However till date (more than a month) the amount has not credited to the account. Every time the customer care executives give lame excuses.


I feel makemytrip is making money by cheating the people like this. Please take action.

Satish Shetty,
Mob-7567369017

I booked a round trip air tickets through an online travel agency called CheapOair on 05/01/2011.

Reservation ID: GIAYEN
Booking Number: 7287343

I got the successful payment online notification right away. Later I got an email booking confirmation and an e-ticket confirmation. In order to make sure I paid it successfully I also checked my credit card balance in a few hours and everything shows I bought the ticket for sure.

My flight is at 11:45am, May 27th, Friday, Virgin America flight 409. I checked my itinerary online just in case if anything changes in May 26th and everything was confirmed as it was.

However, in May 27th, I arrived in Virgin America to prepared to check in, the people from the airline told me they couldn't find my name in the passenger data list. I asked them why, they said it shows that the payment was canceled. But I was sure I didn't cancel the payment and my credit card balance statement shows I paid it successfully. Then the person said the reason why I don't have my name on the list is probably because the travel agency didn't pay the airline in time. At that moment, there is only 1.5 hours from the boarding time. I was trying to reach CheapOair customer services there for almost 1 hours and they never answered my phone, then I called their booking number, it got through right away. I told them what happened and the guys said he will transfer my call to the customer service. Then I waited forever, they never got through! The airline person told me there is only half hours from the door closing, however, the phone was never get through. My trip was for attending an very important wedding in May 27th. I have to get on the plane that day at that time, otherwise I would miss it and my whole trip would be meaningless. Then the person from Virgin America told me that flights to Los Angeles that day was completely full and there was only one seat left on one flight, which was the one I paid successfully a month ago and supposedly took at 11:45am. Because of the fault of CheapOair, I wasted my time in the airport desperately calling the customer service who never answered the phone. Originally to attend my beloved one's wedding was an exciting thing, but because of their mistake, my mood was totally messed up. In the end I couldn't get through the phone and there was only 30 mins left for the door close; I had to pay $764.71 for the same flight I booked long time ago. At that point, it's not only something if they couldn't refund me then everything will be solved. I had to take that plane at that time at that day! Before knowing everything happened in the airport, except the confirmation email about the purchase, I never got an email, a phone call from them regarding as the cancellation of the tickets. And my credit card balance did show I paid it successfully.I checked my trip online one day before going to the airport, everything was perfect.

The reason I booked the tickets that early (05/01/2011) is because my travel date is certainty. It has to stay in May 27th, otherwise, I will miss my business. It's not a flexible date travel, my travel purpose is super important and I can't afford if I miss it, it's not something only about refund or change flight can solve. I have to take that flight at that time that day! If they inform me before May 27th about the problem of the ticket, I can accept their refund since I still have time to book another one, however, they didn't even try to reach me and maybe they didn't even know that they didn't pay the airline in time, but that's out of my responsibility. I got know the whole mess from an airline person instead of the travel agency I booked with in the moment I supposedly to leave, was it too late?

As a merchant, it's VERY IRRESPONSIBLE AND DISHONEST. After all these happened and I already traveled back, they told me they could refund me. I don't care their late refund under the whole situation, my loss is not about the refund only, when I was suffering in the airport, I didn't hear any explanation from the travel agency at all. I tried to reach them to express my unsatisfactory about their process of stressing this issue, but their online customer chat never got through. If they never answer a phone call, never chat online, why they need to have the phone number and the online chat button? It's not the right attitude to serve people, especially their way makes me feel like only they can speak, I have to stay and wait passively. I'm really disappointed with their service. I require them to compensate my loss, which should be $764.71, that is the price of the single way trip in May 27th for the same flight (I have the receipt kept if needed)! And as a customer I think it's just reasonable they should be responsible for paying the customer's loss made by the travel agency themselves and without notifying customer.

dear sir/madam.
we had booked our leh ladakh package wit holiday weavers.paid 96000 rs for 5 days for 4star hotels . got a comfirmation voucher frm them.booked and paid 5 mths in advance . just 2days before travel we were informed dat bookins were not done for same hotels as in the voucher and they would give us 3 star accomodation instead of 4star.we relied on their word n when we reached there we found a dingy guest house wit no amenities like wardrobe ,mirror ,heaters ,geysers in the room.except us there was no other occupancy wen leh was supposed to be full up.we all fell ill due to the chill climates and no heater plus stone flooring.our permits for nubra were not arranged.we had to return back without our overnight stay in nubra .we asked alifya and her collegue tasneem merchant to reimburse our difference of package as we had paid for a 4star accomodation . they refused and asked us to even go to the police if we wished.highly unprofessional n cheats . please beware.

I would like to communicate on behalf of all the 18 people who were part of the group to tour Malaysia, Singapore and Colombo that our experience has been very bad to say the least.

Things were un-organized, there was plenty of miscommunication, agents went missing, there was tremendous delay in the airline, luggage was misplaced and hence the entire tour could be summarized as a complete disaster.

We paid you our hard earned money and expected a well organized and co-ordinated trip from your side. But from the moment we boarded the Sri Lankan airlines from Delhi to Colombo it was the beginning of a horrid tour that none of us expected.

Just to summarize the unfortunate events that took place during the tour:

1. Sri Lankan flight from Delhi to Colombo was delayed big time, because of which our connecting flight was missed. The next available flight was scheduled next morning and the entire night had to be spent on the airport. No arrangements were made by the airline to accommodate us during the period. The flight next morning was also delayed due to which we missed one entire day of our trip to Kuala Lumpur.

2. The city tour was pushed back by a day and was clubbed with the day we were supposed to leave for Genting, without our consent, making the schedule very hectic

3. The guide on our tour to Genting (Mr Komelin) was very very rude and disrespectful to our entire group making the experience very unpleasant

4. On reaching Genting, we were left in the hotel lobby alone by Mr Komelin. We were informed by the hotel that the bookings are made in the name of Mr Sajid and unless he comes personally we cannot check-in. Mahmood was not reachable for the entire day. When we finally managed to reach him he said we would come personally and sort out the issue. It took him around 5 hours to reach the place during which we were made to wait at the reception. While we were supposed to be given deluxe rooms as per the itinerary, we were allotted standard rooms, thereby causing further inconvenience. Entire day got wiped out due to this miscommunication and mis-cordination of your local agent

5. We were told by your team that we would be checked into 4-5 star beach resorts during our stay in Colombo. However, the accommodation given to us in Colombo did not even have the basic facilities making our stay and the entire trip more unpleasant and unbearable.

We need an answer for all we have gone through during this horrendous trip!!!!

We plan to launch a compliant in the consumer court if our grievances are not addressed by you.

On behalf of entire 18 people to tour on Oct 28 package,

Sandeep Garg

we have booked a tour package for 2 person to bangkok, pattaya worth rs 58000 which includes flight tickets , hotel charges and transfers.. from 4 dec to 9 dec 2011,this booking was done 3 months back (with flightshop, city square mall,raja garden with annulata as our agent) and the agent said to get our visa done on arrival as others document are ok

on day of boarding, at airport, my husband was not allowed to board as it was told that his passport will expire on 26 may 2012 and one needs atleast a validity of 6 months for international flights..so passport becomes invalid for him and our trip was cancelled

on asking how did they book tickets without any valid passport, the attendant at airport said that it was in hands of your travel agent and they should have informed you about it

we called our agent and she said that they are sorry for negligence and they will try to help us out

however, she said that only return tickets will be refunded after deducting the cancellation charges which amounts to approx 10,000 to 15000 rs

it has left us so much of harassment and loss of money


can we do anything via consumer right because they took our passport original and copies before booking tickets , but because of their negligence, our whole trip was cancelled and our hard earn money is wasted


kindly help us
Dr jyoti gupta

Cheating by COX AND KIN
i had BOOKED BANGKOK TOUR through COX AND KING, but this holiday was not successful bacause every arragment was very bad behalf of cox and king. Subsequently it was informed that you wil refunded my money.NAME-VIJAY KUMAR SINHA
TOUR DATE-04/10/2011 TO 08/10/2011



I feel COX AND KING is cheating the people like this. Please take action.

VIJAY KUMAR SINHA
MOB-09431049232

Dear Sir,

We would like to request your help in the below matter.

We are a travel company in Bhutan, Tashi Tours & Travels and we had operated two groups for the travel company listed below on credit since the company had promised us that they would settle the dues immediately after the two groups tours were completed in Bhutan. Please find below the details of the guest:

1. Travel dates: 17 February, 2011 - 22nd February 2011 ( Total Tour Cost: USD 2660/- )
GROUP NAME: Guest:
Newman - Mr. Arnold S Newman, United States, Passport Number: 462804062
Mrs. Irene Newman, United States, Passport Number: 462802480

2. Travel Dates: 17th April, 2011 - 23rd April, 2011 ( Total Tour cost: USD 2340/-)
GROUP NAME: GUEST:
Mr.Collin Post - Mr.Collin Francis Mcgregor Post, New Zealand, Passport Number: EA862098
Ms.Brenda Joy Young, New Zealand, Passport Number: EA938244

The total tour cost for operating both the groups: $5,000/-

We have tried many times to get in touch with the employees of the company to settle the dues but they have refused to acknowledge our request and we are left with no option but to report the case to a higher authority. We are hoping that you can help us resolve this issue. Tourism in Bhutan is strictly monitored by the Government agencies and we are currently facing severe problems in operating other tours because of this outstanding with the Tourism Council of Bhutan.

As per the instructions, we searched on the ASTA website to verify if the company was an ASTA member. Please note he is a member and is listed as :Raju Ahmed Exotic Journeys, Chicago, IL 60601

We would also like to inform you that we tried many times to contact Mr.Raju Ahmed via mail and telephone. He refuses to acknowledge our existence. We managed to get his contact details from his former employees who have very nicely found jobs in India. This practice should not be encouraged as its the local travel companies that have to face the blunt of it.

If you visit his company's website, you will notice that he is still operating tours to Bhutan. We have even approached our own Tourism Authorities ( Tourism Council of Bhutan) they have tried to get in touch with him but he has refused to acknowledge our country's authority as well. Hence the reason we are approaching ASTA as a member ourselves we hope that you will be able to resolve this issue.

A month ago, we sent a mail to the company's mailbox and a Mr.Bill Williams responded. He asked us to submit the details and we did but now its been over a month and we have heard nothing from him as well.

His contact details are:
Mr.Bill Williams
VP Finance
Exotic Journeys Group
333 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1026
Chicago, IL 60601 USA
Phones: 1-312-332-4722 / 800-554-6342
Fax: 312-332-4732

I hope that you will be able to help us, move this case forward.

Kindly let us know if you require more information regarding the case.

I look forward to hear from you
Thank you