[Resolved]  SOTC India — Horrible services

Dr Uttam Kothari.
Recently 31/05/ to 14/06/2014, had Kuoni SOTC tour for Russia, Scandinavia countries.We were 47 people, most o[censored]s are not using unfriendly services of SOTC again.Any thing else you would like to mention I had booked this tour 6.5 months back, including East Europe countries.10 days prior to departure you cancelled east europe ie Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Austria etc.there must be central monitoring system so we can change our date.
We are senior citizen, travelled USA Canada, west europe, newzeland, Asian countries, deposited all documents for visa, 2.5 months back, but got our visa &passport at DEL airport3 hours prior to flight departure.it created lots of apprehension.
In most of the hotel basic facilities like tea maker &in half no airconditioning.
In Oslo, Sudden change of hotel, worst, rooms were stinking, 40 minutes from city, lost precious time, got only 3 hours for oslo Sight seeing.(I personally feel if you are honest, will refund 150 euro per tourist.)
I opted for JAIN food, got only one vegetable, not even DAL(lentil)in all restourents.
I hope I will get the Justice.

I will not recommend this tour for any NRIS. Time they gave at each location for sight seeing was very intolerable for us. We hardly had 4 hrs of
sight seeing but with 6-8 hrs of bus travel and 4 hrs of shopping. We were told we would be on our own for 1/2 day but we were given every other day 1/2 day shopping during our 12 days of Spain Portugal trip. They never delivered, what they promised. They are big cheater. Our bus had 57 passenger and we were told 35 to 40 people. It was our 1st time by SOTC tour and it was Horrible Experience.

Thanks.

GPS

SOTC really sucks. I choose SOTC during my honeymoon trip to Turkey. The travel agent doesnt have any knowledge about turkey tourism and so I ended up paying extra EUROs over there. Also they committed 4* hotels during my stay (for that they took 40EURO extra) but I got not even 1* hotel in Istanbul. There are few places that need adv booking, however, I was not told my SOTC and I missed them apparently. My overall trip experience with SOTC was pathetic. I will not recommend it. It would have been better if I could do travel plan by myself. Also could have saved lot of money.

I was not fortunate enough to read this blog before booking the tour. I have booked the tour and after reading this I am nearly sure that I am going to waste my time in europe. God save me.
----
Thinking of SOTC!! close all the SOTC tour windows and go for another tour operator. I am sure you are looking for a vacation and not a prolonged nightmare.
SOTC (at least Pune office) is being operated by a bunch of novices. SOTC makes all false promises and commitments to get customer to book the trip and once you book the trip you are screwed. If you are adventurous enough to book through SOTC then get prepared for a shelling out much more money and time than planned.
Here is the detail of what SOTC is doing with my booking.
I booked a SOTC 19 day magnificent Europe tour which had a 4 day add-on spain package as an offer. The person who confirmed my booking quoted a price - which was cheaper than any other tour operator. This is the modus operandi. Hook the customer so that they stop considering any other tour operator...and once hooked..take them for a ride.
Branch staff has very poor communication standards and are very unresponsive and un-responsible. I had to find it myself that my tour dates have changed. No one even bothered to inform me.
ALL the 3 parameters - Date, Itinerary, Price - offered to me during booking the trip changed and I was really worried and irritated on SOTC's style of working.
1. Trip dates changed from 21/04 to 28/04 without any communication. I had to find it out myself.
2. Trip Itinerary changed. The Spain package offered to me was no longer available. I had chosen Sotc over other tour operators because of this offering and price.
3. Tour price changed. I was given inconsistent figures in different mails and calls.
The best thing was that for early booking I was given a discount of Rs 50K per head. Sp for 23 days trip, for 2 people, I received 1Lkh discount. Later when the add on got cancelled SOTC said that the discount was only for the last 4 days of the trip and hence there is no discount on the remaining 19 tour days. Super awesome to take customers on ride isn't it?
I am really worried how the real tour would be. I simple hope they are mediators and taking services from another vendor. I don't trust single word said by SOTC anymore.

About SOTC. I travelled with SOTC on three successive years to Europe, South Africa and US. There is hardly anything over which I could point a finger; to the contrary, there were many areas where thy far exceeded my expectations. I feel so disappointed to see so many people getting discouraged about SOTC. They give excellent value for money, better than any company I know of. Please look into some other feedback portal before getting disastrously misguided.

I must add a few more points to my previous comment. First, in Travel & Tourism industry, there are a) Booking agents, b) Mediators and c) Tour operators (and, to complete the list, additional service providers). In our case, our Booking agent was Al Tayer group in UAE and they are the hallmark in professionalism in every area of their diverse business activities; all my trips were operated by Kuoni group, which is an extremely strong and internationally reputed Tour operator whereas SOTC was the mediator. I don't know whether the mismanagement were because of SOTC's collaboration with some other Tour operator. Second, I (and my family) haven't toured with them for last one year. It is unlikely but possible that their arrangements have developed snags. Third, my trips were all NRI tours; having said that, in all three tours we were merged with the groups coming from India (and from other countries). There was no reason for me to think that service to clients coming from India would be different. There is a fourth point too. Even the best of the Tour operators don't have the same strength in every segment of the world they function. They do get let down by their local partners at times.
I hope my comment has been of some help rather than making the matter more confusing.

hi i am planning with sotc USA . can any one suggest how is there trip with sotc for USA.

We have booked Magical Europe tour with London with SOTC starting 26/04/2016.
Till date the experience has been absolutely horrible.
I would advise one and all not to book any tour with them.
B B Sharma
Rohini
Delhi

Has anyone taken sotc package to thialand.

We had booked this tour Mysterious China with Yangtze River cruise  in the end of the month of May 2016. One day prior to our departure i.e 21st july 2016  we receive a phone call from your office that the visa has been rejected due to clarification regarding accommodation at China which is the responsibility of SOTC . 

Any travel agency/tour operator would have the courtesy to provide the traveler with the travel documents atleast one day prior to date of travel. But the previous day to the travel, our passports were still at the Chinese consulate at Mumbai, and the Bangalore office was enquiringly about the status of visa, and told us the previous night that our visas have been rejected . 
SOTC is hopeless.
We had to repeatedly following up with their office from the time of booking regarding the visa constantly.
Despite all this the visa was at the Chinese consulate unstamped on the day of our departure.we had to cancel the trip because they rescheduled the dates which was inconvenient for us. They have not refunded even one rupee of the payment we made. It is one month since we canceled. Neither customer care nor the branch office people gave any support.
They have no sense of responsibility towards the customer. I have lost a lot of money to SOTC.
Never ever book a trip with SOTC

SOTC is a real cheat. They Harass People. People should stay away from them.
I had booked Holidays to Australia and New Zealand with SOTC in 2016 .The Visa arrived the Night before the departure. SOTC lied all throughout. It was their fault that they did no send the application in proper time. It was a group tour.In The last part in NewZealand it was Northern Island? ., there was nobody left in the tour, it was only me and my wife. All other people had left before. There was no SOTC manager with us.

SOTC chooses cheap hotels far away from City Centre as some people reported and make the clients travel 100 kms in early morning to catch departure Flights.

Everyone should be aware of these Cheats.

Amitav. Kolkata

Sotc is definitely not serving its customer the way it says” it’s a chor company” ! We had very bad experiences for continuous three years and in spite of that we had not learnt our lesson and the fourth and the last trip with these fraud people was last year 2017.
They hired such expert drivers for a customized tour from Austria to Budapest for us ( that is what they say), the expert driver slept while driving on a highway to Vienna in the morning it was a 4 hr drive and after completing two hr of drive SOTC expert driver slept and the car met with an accident.It got dashed with two more cars and then hit the railing, thankfully the railing was existing or else we wld have toppled and got thrown into the lake.
We were traveling with our two daughters 14 and 17 yrs, we all got badly injured with bruises and fractures and my husband was the worst in all o[censored]s, he was unconscious for few seconds and his Back his ribs got fractured, he was not able to walk or sit.It was the most scariest thing I had witnessed.
SOTC team instead of helping us out, laid their hands of the entire mishap.. we were asked to pay all the bills in the hospital in spite of insurance been taken.The mental trauma my whole family faced just because their driver slept while driving. My children couldn’t sleep for nights and were in shock for several days.
Instead SOTC asked us to rebook our tkts on our own expenses and to fly back.
The best part is yet to come My husband was on a complete bed rest for 3 months. We requested to give us back our refund, of the incomplete trip which we did not finish due to the negligence of SOTC.we had not yet asked for the compensation and the insurance amount also from SOTC, it was just our refund amount. Inhumanity of the team and the Audacity of SOTC they had not even apologized once for taking us into this trauma .. but refused to refund our amount also as they said we had already prepaid so we cannot refund it back to you.This is what they promise us before taking us for a trip that “you are in safe hands”
I am thankful to GoD we are safe and under the-roof of our house but it still haunts us, especially my children..and our lives are not the same as it use to be.. my husband after a year still has problem with his back.
This I have written not to get back any amount from this FRAUD company SOTC but to warn people who put their hard earn money to make their dreams come true as what they say.. please check Re check before you plan a trip with them. Don’t risk your life, It’s precious than anything in this world.
Our tour operator were Praveen Reddy and Nadeem who is the head operator.They are in Banjara Hills hyderabad and Secunderabad. The accident was in border of Czech and Austria.

Our Issue: This is with reference to our Package booked with SOTC for Singapore-Phuket-Bangkok starting from 6th Feb to 16th Feb 2019.
We are specifically mentioning about the incident that happened with us at Phuket airport when we were supposed to travel from Phuket to Bangkok from Thai Lion Mentari-753 on 14th Feb 2019 at 7:53 am. Pls note here- We have received the ticket print on the start of our travel i, e, 6th Feb 2019 at 7 p.m. wherein our flight was at 11 P.m.
The Tickets did not had Baggage inclusion and airline demanded us for 37 Kgs 11100 Thai Baht. Pls Note from BOM-Singapore-Phuket, bangkok-Delhi had baggage inclusion.
We were there at the airport at 4:a.m. and when we got to know the same we contacted the emergency No's that was mentioned . Ms Priyanka No was switched off, however Mithil was not picking up the call, Ms Wah did picked up but said she had no say in this matter . After a while Mr Mithil from SOTC picked up and assured us to get back with detail. However in a span of 10 Minutes he said us to pay for the baggage and then they will see to it. We responded them that we do not have enough money and it was their loop and mistake . When we have made all payments in advance why we would extra 11100 thai baht here, he said he will get back to us. Please Note Their phone went switched off after this. There was no concrete reply and Help and after trying their phone continuously, we informed them that we will book another flight but we want that to be reimbursed for which they gave us the assurance that they will certainly do their best and will escalate the issue as well. This was infact communicated to us that the team has made a mistake here.
Pls Note: we booked bangkok airways flight for 2 people in 4050 thai baht per person.(attached tickets)
This is not the first time we faced this with the team, the Hotel that was booked was communicated to us as 4 Star Hotel with Superior room. On the day of arrival at Phuket, when we were shown the room, it was pathetic . There was no proper lighting, No AC working, NO TV Working, Mosquitoes all around. We immediately escalated the issue for which we were shown another room of same category but the issue remained the same. Our whole day got wasted due to that incident. In the event of such situation, we demanded of a room which is better, for that as well we had to pay 3000 Thai Baht for upgrade. Although some of the amount was adjusted in our booking of flight from Bangkok to Delhi. But the kind of mental Trauma, tension has not only spoiled our day but also our mood. Can you Pay us back for the mental tension, awkward situation which we dealt with it at Phuket?
Another episode: we started off with Australia tour and we paid the initial amount of 120000. whatever document was demanded we gave it to the team. SOTC Team did check our documents verified it and sent it to VISA Department. Our Visa got rejected due to Migration reason. The whole assurance of having 99 % of ViSA acceptance, got failed, due to a reason which we did not understand. Over the Call, we were told" You guys are very Young, this must be the reason they must have rejected your VISA". We have been reimbursed with 35k only and rest amount was forfeited. We still moved ahead with SOTC on trust only, but our trust was tarnished every time.
Now, after all this we feel humiliated, sidelined, embarrassed, fooled, duped, ashamed of the fact that we started off our association with SOTC.
It was a sheer humiliation at the airport where there was a wastage of energy, time, Money, efforts, Mental harassment.
People leaving their country, going for a good time has Money only as their asset, we have told them that we do not have enough money that we can spend here still they did not hear us in this difficult situation.
Me and my husband have gone through a bad travel ordeal with SOTC and we want our hard earned money back in cash with no deduction here. The Team cannot pay back what we have gone through as Mental Torture.
SOTC cannot bring back our memories and have made us gone through this mental harassment.
We have been so patient with SOTC but till now there has not been a Concrete reply. After this almost 15 days, they were back with same reply of taking credit Note. With due respect, we are sorry that the staff is immature and did a blunder in booking tickets and we paid the price for their Blunder. Being a service industry, what is the need of emergency No's if they cannot help us in such situation. Pathetic Service.
There are now fooling us with Credit Note of 10 k.For which we denied of.

Please do not get attracted by their 70 years of experience and package iternary.. they treat customers like animals after payment.. no respect and no response to our problems/concerns..

We totally ruined our Europe tour just because of bad guide who showed no respect to woman travellers..Though he covered iternary nobody was happy till end. instead of sotc pls go for other new travel operators.. These people have got too much of headweight just because of the name ( it was good 6 years back) .. Now its time for them to close.. please don't opt for it. WORST WORST WORST operators..

Sotc is completely fraud travel company as after taking the money they don’t bother about customers money.

I booked Australian package through them and their visa handling person Ramesh Roy who sits in Delhi CP branch told me that my docs are in correct order.

He took my docs well before my departure date and when I enquired about my visa application he told me that they submit in one day, they keep on giving excuses about that they will submit.

But in the end when I again enquired about my application he hurriedly submitted my application even without reviewing from me.

So Guys don’t ever travel with Sotc and they are only making Money, also the hotels they provide are of sub-standard and far away from city centre.

Thanks,
Swapan