[Resolved]  SOTC India — Horrible services

Thank you for your feedback, I was about to book trip to Europ from SOTC, but as there is no response from SOTC on any of my emails. I have chnaged my mind and going with THOMAS COOK.

I recently awailed SOTC services for Hong kong/Macau trip. It was a trip with family - my husband, my 8 year old daughter and my parents -= 70 and 61. Inspite of telling in advance that i am traveling with parents and kid, we were made to wait at the ferry terminal (with no proper seating arrangement) for 3 hours...there was no one to pick us up from hotel shuttle/Holiday tour (partner with SOTC) at macau...the hotels given were not up to date ... they booked us on smoking rooms. I awailed one of the disney 5 * hotel but they made me reach hotel only at 10 PM and thereby i paid for 5 star just to sleep on the bed...i wasnt able to enjoy yhr facility. The places that were incluided as part of trip were pathetic ...there was a lot of waiting time. I would recommend ppl not to awail SOTC - there call representatives gacve me all FALSE Information till the last day of departure. There Vashi, navi mumbai site office ppl never picked up the calls, the land line was doomed., ...highly unreliable and non co-operative tour services. They charged us moolah but gave in return nothing

My parents joined the SOTC USA tour in Sep 2011 and they were pleased with the arrangements.They had a good time visiting the major landmarks, had indian food for dinner and the tour manager Mr.Sanjeev Pethe was very helpful as well. Priya D

Thanks for sharing your "bad"experience with SOTC.Was planning a trip to Europe in summer of 2012 with them. But now i am changing my mind and explore other options.

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I was planning a Kashmir trip with SOTC. Thanks for your comment as it has saved me from the disaster. I request all the persons who have such bad experiances with any tour operators to come up & enlighten others.

I was planning a Europe tour with my family in coming July and express my thanks to all for their experience with SOTC and now I decide never to
choose SOTC.

An Open Letter To The Senior Management of SOTC / Kuoni India - Our Holiday Booking Experience.

Request every traveller to read this post and share it with your friends.

http://www.travopia.com/2012/05/open-letter-to-senior-management-of.html

I'm from Rajkot and we traveled this year with Sotc to South Africa form 27th April'12, to 7th May, it was not a good experience at all. The Local Branch in Rajkot is just doing bookings without any kind of proper information. They do not even have the knowledge of flight duration and the distances between the places in the trip they try to lure us. They were very warm and cordial before the payment and had promsied to give all the information abt my queries within 15 days. But as soon as we started asking they started giving dates and finally told me that they do not give such information including detailed itenary after we made the payment. They became cool and distant. Then we started inquiring abt the visas before a fortnight where the initial answer was that it is in the process. But then came the bomb in the last week that is 4 days prior to flying, we were required to go to Mumbai for signature verification, so we had to fly insatnly to b'bay giving the highest rates of the airfare since we bought at the last moment and above all my schedule with patients was shattered as i had to wind up for 12 day for the trip. Me, my wife and my son who is 14 yrs(minor) has to go to south african embassy for signature verification. When we reached there the embassy people did not allow my son to enter as they said that since he is minor he is not required here for verification. Now my question is didn't Sotc people know that minors are not required for signature verification, why didn't they confirm abt it with sa embassy for it before forwarding it to us.And another important thing is that when they were saying all the time that we will manage things abt ur visa and u'll not have to go personally, what happened to that?
Now the other part of the story is in south Africa itself, the person who came to recieve us at Cape Town Airport made us wait for a couple for Two and a half hours and we we travelling for more than 10 hours at a stretch, and the hotel was hardly 25 minutes away from the airport so wastage to time. Then the tour manager ( Kiran Shroff)met us straight at dinner time as she flew there in the evening, so the whole day was wasted. After this the new game started, she asked for the tip on the very first morning and collected the tip amt even for the days she wasn't with us, although it doesn't come to a big amt but it definately shows her greed for the money. She never guided us for the cheaper and better shopping options. the local guide and tour manger were all in for their commissions only as we were booking for a local tour in our free time, ultimatley we got a cheaper option and better one so their attitude had changed for a couple of days!
next was time schedule, we wasted time everywhere just for their convinience, and our dinner bookings were also changed without any information to us in the last lap of the tour. So the moral of the story is DO NOT TRAVEL WITH SOTC ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.

I agree partly with the complaints. I just completed 15 day Europe tour from 18th April to 2nd May 2012. Vadodara officer Ashmi Desai cheated us by charging more Rs 3000 from each person, of our 18 friends group. I also was charged Rs 1700 X 2 =3400 more for the service tax enhanced in the budget on Air fare, though, I bought my air tickets. on my own. I was promised to refund this Rs 3400/- within fifteen days, but have not received refund even after 45 days. Vaodara office even did not reply to my email (as i am in USA ) for refund. Vadodara office is worst for the service.

Even in tour, they did kanjusai, by not serving cold drink alongwith pasta, pizza and burger. Now how one can eat dry food without juice or cola.

Fortunately we had very good tour manager Mr. Nishikant, otherwise no complaints

Niranjan Buch

Hi All,

We went to Thailand, tour booked by SOTC. We had such a bad experience which we cant explain.

We booked this tour at extra cost and SOTC destroyed all fun of thsi tour.

Problem started from day one last till end of the tour.

Be careful and ideally dont go for SOTC. Except for their big name 1. they ask big money. 2. They insist on Forex from Duetsche Bank only-where its costliest, and to be paid in INR. 3.There is no pre-breifing at all. 4.No Travel kit except very ordinary unwheeled travel bag 5.There was never date wise itinerary 6.Even from same destination, you will travel in different airlines, routes and times.7.Their staff doesnt know fully about touring spots.8. Even when we were a couple we got two bed rooms.9.Possibilty that local tour manager is too docile and lacks or doesnt disclose informations 10. Lack of coordination between staff. 11.Local buses are very ordinary. 12.In case of emergency, e.g. loss of baggage, very limited assistance available 13. Lots of waste of time, misstatements.
Only hotels were good/satisfactory in most cases.

Parimal Vasavada

pawan k aggarwal an Ex- banker.
SOTC nay have turned out to be a small cheat.
Do experience with THOMAS COOK, the SUPER CHEAT.
Me and my family had the harrowing experince on our visit to Singapore & malaysia with my kids.

pawan k aggarwal

SOTC peoples are thieves. Me and my wife went to Istanbul arranged by SOTC. We found all the things that they promised were false. One of our trip was cancelled and when we cotacted SOTC they told they will refund us the money and asked us to arrange something on our own.

Coming back to India, when we asked for the refund, SOTC backtracked on their words. Even complaining to their customer care and senior managers yielded no results. They are thieves, frauds...I suggest to everyone, not even think of touring with SOTC.

SOTC is the worst holiday planner. In fact they are the holiday spoilers. I went for a Kashmir tour with SOTC and I found it complete waste of my money. Before booking the tour I had confirmed twice about the accommodation and I was told that accommodation is in 3 star hotels. Their 3 star hotels did not even have generators and were situated far away from the main city. We were given candles at night. The hotels were so popular that even the driver had to search for it. They had given the responsibility of managing the tour to some local travel agent and got to know from them that SOTC told them to book budget hotels.
They had told that it is a group tour but reality is that the group consisted of only 5 members. Their plan included free buffet breakfast and dinner. But we were fed like beggars. There was no choice in food and were served the same food everyday. There was not even a single sweet dish. We were treated like beggars who were fed only to be kept alive. We had to ask for each and everything and doing this we hurt our dignity. We were told that each person will be given a bottle of mineral water everyday. After asking for it we were given the water for only 6 days. Last day, we were not even given water. In Srinagar, prepaid phone does not work and we were not even able to contact these people. According to the plan there are 3 Shikara rides but we were given only one shikara ride. When we spoke with the local travelling agent they were not even ready to listen to us and cut the call. Last day, they did not have any plan and were just left free. I had my worst holiday experience with SOTC and I will not recommend this to anyone. Travelling with them is a complete waste of your money and time.

SOTC stands for SURE OF TOUR CHEATING.

They promise everything before booking and deliver nothing. response during and after the tour is pathetic. hotels are poor/smelly. Food third grade. Air travel arrangements are only to suit their budget totally not in sync with the itinerary. customer comes last after the booking. GUides are total waste. PLEASE AVOID USING THEM FOR ANY OF YOUR TOURS ELSE BE READY TO BE CHEATED.

I am a retired electrical engineer from Central Railway. I had been to Europe tour by end of June 2013. All the tour itineraries are not folly covered. At many places they pay a very small amount of cash in lieu of lunch which is not enough for any one to fill stumac whereas I had paid the all the amount demanded by them in INR in India itself well in advance. Also the tour guide does not wear uniform so it was difficult for tourists to serch him out at many places.
From K D GUHA / NASIK / mob. [protected]

I totally Agree with u. They are the worst tour operator and all their staff just do not care about customers

Hi Guys,

I too faced a similar fraud from SOTC, I am ready to take this up issue and goto newspapers and news channels .
Please respond, we can save future victims .

Contact : prakash
mobile : [protected]
e-mail : [protected]@gmail.com

We took tour to Turkey and Greece. I was totally without food for 36 hours. I took SOTC because they serve Indian food. We live in USA for past 45 years . I am total vegetarian and don't eat garlic and onion. Tour manager got me a coke and says everything is closed . One time I was near the step of tour bus and driver was closing the door thank god I survive. I have sent them the letter after coming home. It will be a year in 5 weeks since my tour I have not heard any thing yet.

R.M. and M.R. Trivedi