[Resolved]  Redbus — cheated by taking online payment for ticket booking and not allocating the seats

I booked my bus tickets on www.redbus.in to travel from Pune to Indore in AC VOLVO SLEEPER and confirmed my seats as 13 and 14 at HANS TRAVELS AC VOLVO SLEEPER for traveling on April 14th, 2009. I also received a confirm ticket from www.redbus.in.

The Redbus ticket showed my bus to be AC VOLVO SLEEPER and Seat Number to be 13 and 14. The timing stated on the ticket was 1900Hrs. They charged me Rs.2400 (Ticket Fare) + Rs.25 (Delivery Charges). First of all, they failed to deliver at my hostel address and hence I got the ticket delivered at my friend's place.

On 14th, when I reached Hans Travels, Jehangir, Pune, I learned that the bus the were putting me on was a normal AC sleeper (not Volvo) which was scheduled to depart at 1900Hrs. I refused to travel in that bus as I had paid for the VOLVO bus (Rs.2400), and the fare of this bus was only Rs.1600 (Two tickets). When I came down from the bus, they refused to provide me the seats 13th and 14th on the Volvo bus, as they had booked it for other passengers. The Schedule departure of the Volvo bus was 2000Hrs (and hence Redbus provided me wrong information). This could also be considered on the basis that Redbus ticket itself says that the scheduled departure may delayed from what is printed on ticket.

Now, Hans Travels refused to put me on seat no. 13 and 14 in AC Volvo Sleeper, and instead put me on seat number 31 and 32. The interesting fact that I learned inside the bus was that there is actually no seat 32 in Hans Travels AC VOLVO BUS (MP41-P156). They actually fool customers by selling two tickets on a berth that is only approx. 6 inches wider, and has no seating at all (Actually single berth technically).

The people on berth 13 and 14 certainly refused to exchange that berth with me, considering it was only for one person and secondly it was the last berth. After fighting for about an hour, they promised me two separate berths, but later, one of them was again given away to other passenger. I insisted on two berths on the basis that I booked at least four days earlier and paid the price for it, but they were continuously trying to convince me to take the berth no. 31 (+32) instead. They also moved the bus and took it out of the city while I had no seat confirmed on the bus. I managed some place on the bus to sit and my partner sat on the floor till Nagar, where they put us back on the bus which we had already refused to take (considering, the journey was important and we had no alternative, we had to take it).

To conceal the evidences, the agent at Hans Travel earlier took my Redbus ticket away and gave me a hand written ticket which nowhere mentioned my booking on AC VOLVO SLEEPER.

I tried contacting at Redbus and complaint about all this but even after nagging with at least five customer service executive, they failed to provide me any solution. Even after booking, at least four days prior to travel and paying the price for confirmed seat, they couldn't confirm my seat. Hans Travels also didn't consider and tried to cheat me first by putting me on wrong bus and second by trying to put on a berth which doesn't even exist (and selling my confirmed berth to someone else)



CONSEQUENCES
I paid Rs.2400 for traveling in a bus where I should pay Rs.1600 (and that too without bargaining, which is quite common on these buses. I returned on a bus of same standard {other operator} for Rs.700, again without bargaining.

I could not take my confirmed seat on AC VOLVO BUS and had to travel sitting till Nagar from Pune, while my fellow traveler was sitting on the floor. I have a phobia of traveling in bus and that's why we insisted on a seat together. I was quite disturbed mentally and even started quivering, as I was not keeping well. The whole journey turned out to be a bad experience, including defiling comments from the bus staff.

I would also like to mention that this is a regular practice at Hans Travels that they put two people in one berth i.e. 31 on their AC VOLVO SLEEPER MP41P156. Usually people don't complain, but those who refuse to take those berths are happily put on other bus (Rs.800/berth) without any refund.

www.redbus.in also cheats people by showing confirmation on ticket and failing to provide the seats on bus on journey day. There are many such posts on internet, which I read now.