[Resolved]  Goibibo.com — Harassment by Online Travel Site - Goibibo

Address:

Mumbai City, Maharashtra

I booked an international flight ticket on Bangkok Airways via the travel site Goibibo.com. Unfortunately, due to family reasons I had to cancel this ticket. While I understood the downside of this cancellation because the ticket I had booked was non-refundable, I was hopeful that considering the fact that I was cancelling the ticket almost 3 months in advance, I would at least get some refund. I was even willing to obtain a credit value for that amount which could be utilized in the future which I thought was a fair proposition. However, the nightmare that followed was one the most annoying experiences anyone can go through. I experienced the absolute worst of services from GoIbibo. You name it; I experienced it – whether it blatant lies such as denial of past events, horrendous customer service agents who simply refuse to help, two parties pinning blame on each other, providing conflicting updates etc. Bottom-line is - Everything that a company can do to harass their customers, they did to me. Below is the detailed timeline chronology of the terrible service that I was subject to: • Jul 9th - Booked a return ticket from Mumbai to Phuket on Bangkok Airways via online travel site GoIbibo • Aug 17th - Cancelled the ticket online on GoIbibo's travel site • Aug 24th - Received phone call from GoIbio's customer care center that ticket will be cancelled • Aug 27th - Called GoIbibo's Customer Care center to charge a penalty amount and give back atleast some part of the refund. In case refund request cannot be processed, made a personal request to customer executive to give me a credit note which I can use at a future time since calcellation was made almost 3 months before flight date. Customer Case exec informed me that this was "not in their hands and that only Bangkok Airways can take call on this" • Aug 28th - Called the Mumbai office of Bangkok Airways. Was informed that they cannot do anything and it was the travel agent, i.e. GoIbibo in this case who can provide a refund for cancellation of ticket • Aug 29th to Sept 10th - Called Bangkok Airways Mumbai office and GoIbibo office numerous times during this time period to get this issue sorted out. Both kept putting the responsibility on the other party • Sep 14th - Finally, sent an email to both GoIbibo Customer care and Bangkok Airways Customer Care center to please help me out as both were simply putting responsibility on each other • Sep 15th – Received email from Bangkok Airways Revenue dept - Phumsiri Supornrat that Bangkok Airways Customer Servce dept needs to look into this • Sep 15th – Received an email from Bangkok Airways Customer executive - Ruthaiwan Pochanapimol that only the travel agent can cancel / refund my ticket • Sep 18th – Called GoIbibo again to please help resolve this problem and was again informed that as per company policy and their arrangement with Bangkok Airways, this discretion was in the hands of the airline • Oct 5th – Called GoIbibo yet again to please close. (Was diligently following up because I am aware that as the travel date gets closer, it is that much for difficult for me to receive any refund money. Didn’t want this to drag on post the date of journey has passed because then it would be impossible to get any refund / credit. Wanted to ensure that they could consider my request due to the advance notice.) However, this time I received a shock from GoIbibo’s customer exec Rahul Rajan that ticket has yet to be cancelled. (Very bizarre thing to say, considering the timeline chronology above. It’s very apparent that ticket was cancelled way earlier on Aug 17th itself). The exec kept repeating the same line over and over again that “the ticket had not been cancelled earlier and that at this point he cannot do anything”. Requested to talk to his superviser / manager so I could explain my predicament to someone who could help me. Surprisingly, he said that his manager, Anish (whose last name he refused to reveal) cannot attend my call right now. He asked me to call again during the next shift if I wanted to talk to the manager • Oct 8th – Received email from GiIbibo stating the following, “CHARGES A/P 2041(INCLUDING ALL TAXES) + GOIBIBO 500 = CC 290 =2831” • Oct 8th – Received another follow up email in the next half hour that, “KINDLY IGNORE THE PREVIOUS MAIL, IT WAS SENT BY MISTAKE BY US. BELOW MENTION INFORMATION PROVIDED REGARDING YOUR BOOKING.” • Oct 13th - Message received from GoIbibo with the subject line: "Relax! Your refund is under process" I hope this incident serves as a reminder to all to be careful of this so called cheap travel websites. I warn you all to be aware of this nexus between these online travel sites and the respective airlines with whom they are affiliated with.