[Resolved]  SOTC India — Horrible services

i was about to take decision of traveling with SOTC, but looking at overall feedback, need to rethink

I am a structural engineer working in dubai.

I totally agree with Dr Naveen. My wife and I were travelling in the same SOTC tour as Dr Naveen and were surprised to see the messy arrangement throughout the tour.

The worst as Dr Naveen mentioned was the day before departure. itenary mentioned stay in Zurich city but we were taken to a hotel 100km from Zurich. We reached at 9 pm and the airport drop was scheduled at 3am next day morning.

In addition to what he has mentioned we had more miseries. This tour is mostly organised by SOTC India which we joined from Dubai. While doing the booking in Dubai we were charged for 8 days of tour and were told we would have to be on our own only for 1/2 a day. But the day before travel we were told we have to be on our own for first 2 days of the tour. So charged for 8 days but tour given for 6 days only. After return when we raised the concern to SOTC they showed a deaf ear to the whole thing.

BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN BOOKING A TRIP WITH SOTC. Although their tag line says "Expect More", you can't even expect what you paid for.

I have also had bad experience thru SOTC tour of europe and far east. Lousy food, lousy service. Pls pass the message to all your friends never to use sotc.

Shae on them.

I agree to all of you, SOTC guys are real cheaters.

But don't you guy's think that we should get this thing printed in a newspaper insted of discussing it on
the bolg as it will have a great impact.

Am glad people find the time to blog their experiences which prevents people like us from taking the wrong decisions. We were very confident about going with SOTC for our europe trip this summer but now one will have to review the decision. Thanks to all that have posted.

I have a similar experience though i have not traveled with SOTC. I booked for a tour and paid Rs 33, 000 as advance. I was told that you may inform if you don't want to take the tour and the money would be refunded.
For some resons i decided not to go ahead and asked for my refund. They started harrassing me and asking for all sorts of documents. After constant follow up they returned me only 22, 500 and kept the remaining sum saying it is as per their rule.

This is simply cheating

Hi Guys it is vacation time again, and many of my friends asking for advise on which destination to choose and which are the good tour operators. I completely agree with these comments and would like to mention that our Europe tour in summer of 2006 was a total disappointment with SOTC. I would like to mention that their service and follow up is Outrightly bad and their tour guides are RUDE.

Self and wife had taken SOTC tour to Turkey and Ezypt one and halfyears ago. Our experience was very good, well attended, well organised and all guides were knowledgable and always willing to help.

DONT EVER PLAN YOUR TRIP WITH THEM I AM SURE THEY ARE THE BIGGEST CHEATERS OF ALL AND I AM GOING TO FOLLOW-UP AND COMPLAINT THEM TO THE HIGHER BODY

FULLY AGREE WITH Dr Naveen & others. I myself Sanjay Agarwal & a friend of mine took the tour of Europe in June 2009.Right from the start this tour was a mess.Delhi office works like a dictator if you don't agree get lost is the attitude.In my tour we were two familes of Drs from Meerut U.P. & we were harresed by all the way they could.Visas of our two members were not proper as their photos were interchanged & whole of the SOTC office & local agent advised us or rather we sould say forced us to tavel with those documents.At 2 AM in morning at Delhi Airport, airline staff told us that they will not allow us to go, lastly one family was left behind .SOTC promised us to provide 3 rooms but we were given 2 rooms only at all places. All stays were far away from the city & daily travelling time was 4 to 8 hrs.SOTC never delivered any thing which they promised before starting the tour.We were asked to travel to their CP office Delhi to do some formalities which all could have been completed at local agent level & the most surprising part was that we are not sure why SOTC local agent was paid for.The only thing I found good was that our tour manager was very good Mr Amit Kukarni but was helpless.Lastly our members who were left behind joind us 4 ays later in Switzerland.So if you are travelling through SOTC be doubly sure to have the right info
Thanks

Thank you all for your feedback. I was planning for a tour and was thinking to go with SOTC but I think now I have changed my mind.

Hey guys it is true that SOTC is a real cheater. My parents booked a Europe tour for 4th Sept, but on 28th my mom fell seriously ill and temporarily paralysed her legs. We requested them for deferring the tour to a later date on the next month where there was another tour planned. They too agreed to defer our tour and told that only the actuals will be charged. But then 2 days later they outrightly said this will be viewed as cancellation and charged us 40, 000/- per person.

My parents will be travelling for sure, but not with SOTC. A very bad brand indeed.

hello, its worth to see this real feedback, thanks to god an[censored] friends, we 5 families was almost planned for europe tour prefering SOTC, but now we declined and rethinking again.

I agree to all of you, SOTC guys are real cheaters.
I booked a holiday package thr' SOTC to Thailand and as per their package they have to take us all the importants palces. But to our utter surprise they did not take us any places except Budha recycling temple and Safari World that to also they charged 900 bhats per person from each passenger for Safary tour. Being a handicapped person I could not even trave sea beach which they did not mention earlier. During my package tour I visited only Budha temple.

I have retired as Dy. General manager (Engineering) from Indian Airlines on 30/11/2008. I planned to go for Europe tour along with family with SOTC in May'2009. Accordingly I paid Rs. 42, 000.00 as advance on 16/12/2008 to Miss Rinita Chakraborty, the representative of SOTC, Salt Lake Branch, Kolkata, who came to my residence to cllect the cheque. While paying the cheque I had asked her "What will happen if I can not go for the tour for some reason ?". She told me "Don't worry Sir we will refund your money". And it is clearly wirtten in the brochure of SOTC also that they will refund the money in case a customer can not go for the tour. For some reason we could not go for the tour. I have been repeatedly requesting Mr. Some, the incharge of SOTC, Salt lake Branch, Kolkata to refund my money. I made an application also in this regard as per his advice. But I have not yet received my money. Mr. Some is not attending any phone call also. I also agrre with all of you, SOTC is a great cheater. I'll be greatful if some one can suggest me some solution.

I have retired as Dy. General Manager (Engineering) from Indian Airlines on 30/11/2008. I planned to go for Europe tour along with my family with SOTC in May'2009. Accordingly I paid Rs. 42, 000.00 as advance on 16/12/2008 to Miss Rinita Chakraborty, the representative of SOTC, Salt Lake Branch, Kolkata, who came to my residence to collect the cheque. While paying the cheque I had asked her "What will happen if I can not go for the tour for some reason ?". She told me "Don't worry Sir we will refund your money". And it is clearly written in the brochure of SOTC also that they will refund the money in case a customer can not go for the tour. For some reason we could not go for the tour. I have been repeatedly requesting Mr. Some, the in-charge of SOTC, Salt lake Branch, Kolkata to refund my money. I made an application also in this regard as per his advice. But I have not yet received my money. Mr. Some is not attending any phone call also. I also agreed with all of you, SOTC is a great cheater. I'll be grateful if some one can suggest me some solution.

I am extremely sorry, there was some spelling mistake in my previous post hence I am postingit once again.

Hi All
'Thankxx to all of you who have posted your comments on this blog. Was planning to take SOTC as the costs seemed way less compared to Trafalgar /Cosmos/Globus. However after having read all your comments i sure have changed my mind.I think i will spend a bit more but look at other Tours.

same is the case with us guys .we planned our trip to thailand where it was a 5day tour.but when we arrived there we got to know that we'll be sent back on the morning of fifth day itself by a morning flight..nonetheless, they booked really high class hotels for us but i think if they would have rather concentrated on the sight seeing then it would have been satisfactory.moreover we were taken to pattaya city first which was not decided earlier.and due to this change in plan we couldnt see a single tourist spot in bangkok except the temple of the reclining buddha.
moreover since im a physically handicapped person i could not enjoy the speed boat journey wasting my time in the hotel room itself as they had no provisions for taking any kind of care of my special case.we were told that all the sight seeing and the shows' money was included in the package itself but arriving there we had to pay for each and every show ad safari ride we were taken to...this was really unfair on there part, i would say.and the quality of dinner was just extremely cheap and third class but nevertheless, the breakfast given was good comparatively..
i would just say that beware next time if you are planning your vacations with sotc as it will waste your hard earn money and precious time
all the best

Hi all

Thanks for your valuable comments. i was about to book their new 16days us package..after reading all these reviews. i dont think its going to be woth the money..

Thanks to the valuable comments by experienced. I was planning a trip to Switzerland in Jan 2010 on my wedding anniversary but it seems, safer option will be to arrange everything of my own.

Can somebody suggest me if local sight-seeing trips are available once I reach Zurich.

Thx

I C Mukherji