So, I had an emergency back home and needed to travel as early as possible. It was 29 April 2022. I was in Canada at that time. I called the customer support and asked for their assistance to help with a ticket as early as possible. The customer support person told me that yeah I can get the ticket but I'll have to pay in INR only and I'll get a call back in some time for booking. I shared my brother's number who was in India so that the booking process will go smooth. We kept waiting for some time but when I didn't received any call, I called them again and then I got connected to some other person, he told me he'll help me booking it, if I'm ready for the payment right away. As I was prepared to book the ticket, he told me he'll share the payment link. My brother right away made the payment with PNR: HSVHB. The agent then told me that they are facing some technical issues and will mail me the itinerary within 15 minutes. I kept on waiting for more than that when I again got the call, he too tried to fool me to confirm if the ticket details are correct and they'll proceed. When I confirmed it, he told me the same thing. I kept waiting for hours and then had no option to call back to check the issue. After calling again I'm told that when I booked the ticket although it was 29 April 2022 in Canada but it was already 30 April 2022 in India. So they can't generate backdated ticket. Firstly when the staff shared the payment link he knew at that time too what the time there is and still they asked me for payment. When I asked them for a solution, he said there isn't any solution. I can book ticket for another day. It was urgent for me that's the reason I was trying to book the earliest ticket possible. It would have been easier if they could have told me right away that they can't book now because of this issue. I kept waiting for this ticket and later was left with no other option. To add on to mental harassment the customer support person put my call on hold and never came back. I kept waiting for 1 hr 8 minutes and then had to cut the call by myself. There is never this much continuous waiting time. When I called again the person simply cut my call after saying they can't do anything. After some time I again get a call at around 5 that we have been working on your ticket and this was the issue it's been resolved and you just confirm your details with the PNR and they'll confirm it. Once I confirmed I was told the same reason why they can't confirm the ticket and when I was asking further questions he simply cut the call. I didn't knew Air India Staff is trained to behave like such rudeness and stupidity with their customers. My brother was trying yo contact from here and he's also told that they'll refund the money but they can't book the ticket. They told him that I should go to the Vancouver airport and tell them all the details, They assured my brother that at Vancouver airport the staff will be able to confirm the ticket for me as it's still 29 April there. I picked my luggage and went to Vancouver Airport. When I discussed my situation, the person Mr. Satish said this PNR is not active anymore and if I need to book the ticket they can help me but I'll need to pay everything in cash. He stated that the ticket will be booked from Toronto and was the girl there needs to sleep, its already late so they can't wait for even a 30 minutes for me to collect the cash when there was still more than couple of hours for the flight. He was pressurizing to make it quick as the girl there in Toronto is awake just for my ticket. I couldn't manage to withdraw that much cash because of the bank limit. As I 'm a student, I can only withdraw $500 cash per day. I kept requesting him to please give me another option, please generate a payment link and I'll get it paid by my brother right away to which he said no, we only need cash. I requested that I'll try to call someone to give me cash if they can just give me some time to which the answer was same, the girl there needs to sleep. So we can't give you even 10 minutes. I kept requesting to passengers too if they could help me with cash after getting the payment in their banks, but there weren't many passengers present at that time and no one was willing to take any sort of risk. This kept on for almost a couple of hours. and he kept asking if I am able to get the cash. Like if he would have simply given me some time that within 20 or 30 minutes or whatever time if you could arrange the money then I would have tried contacting and calling any friend for help. But when he said he won't wait, I couldn't call anyone because no one was with me and it'll take minimum 30 minutes for anyone even in Taxi to reach airport. In the meanwhile my brother tried to discuss the situation here. The customer support said that such issue of paying via cash should not occur. They activated the PNR and told me to approach for the check-in and talk to them. I checked the PNR status and it was active. When I went there the girl there took me to the another counter where when I told them the details she said she's confirming. I kept standing their and waiting but she was busy chitchatting with other staff members and roaming and doing other works. After some time I again asked if there's any update to which she said she's checking with the manager. I again kept waiting for almost 30 minutes and when I again approached her, she said the PNR is not active anymore. The result was after getting mentally harassed and exhausted for trying to get the process done I wasn't able to get a ticket. I was told to come again some other day or book a ticket via travel agent for the upcoming days.
As a result, I had no choice to wait on the airport for whole night as there was no other flight available for Delhi at that time. I had to take Air India flight to Toronto wait there for almost 10 hours and then I reached India at 12:30 am on 2 April, 2022. Only because of the ignorance of the staff who booked the ticket earlier and because of the cash demand at Vancouver airport I had to bear severe mental stress.
I booked it along with the return ticket earlier but now I had no option other than taking one way ticket. which costed me even more. And don't try to tell that they were not Air India Staff. He was no other than the staff and if he wasn't how was he given so much liberty to roam around with Air India ID card in neck and talk to staff so freely and even visit the areas restricted for everyone other than staff. It was all happening at the place we end for check-in. Everything who so-ever was talking to me would have been easily captured via CCTV cameras.
Till now even after bearing all this, I still hadn't received any refund till now which the Customer support on that day was saying will be refunded back and would hang up the call.
An untrained staff to book tickets which they can't issue, useless, pathetic, misguiding and very unprofessional customer support, and then pressurizing for cash. I never ever imagined bear such things in Air India. I was always told that Air India services are not good to which I never paid attention as people are habitual of making complaints but this was really the worst experience one can have. My mother was not doing well, that was the reason I needed to come as early as possible. I lost my father an year ago due to sudden heart attack. But all your staff was concerned was just cash payment to made like in a snap of eye. Who in these days travel carrying this much cash? Even the local stores in India and even the stalls are accepting online payments but you need to give only cash in a city like Vancouver? The physical and mental stress I had to endure was just because of negligence of your staff. If they could have simply said that they can't issue the ticket for today for this reason, I would have booked the other ticket which was available direct to Delhi but missed it for all this harassment.
I booked my return ticket for 3 June 2022. As I was expecting, my mother will be recovered by then. Now, I want yo get a complete refund with a compensation for all this situation caused by the your employees. I didn't had a single fault, I get the ticket booked by your staff on call only and paid by the payment link generated by your staff. All these things can be easily traced and I also have screenshots of everything. So, I deserve a genuine compensation. Or you give me a better deal on my return ticket. I'm still ready to take a chance with Air India, only if my complaint is taken into consideration and a genuine and appropriate action is taken to ensure that neither me nor anyone else will have to endure this in future.
This is every customer's right to be treated with respect and given support. For what reason customer support is if they themselves push you in such a situation and then instead of trying to help they start hanging up the calls.
Air India customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
