[Resolved]  Cox & Kings India — deficient service and non compliance of refund: booking id 765796

Address:

560043

Myself and spouse senior citizens and retired central government officials approached the
Cox and kings branch office in indira nagar for our package tour to usa during month of may 2017.
After discussion we have selected the 10 days package tour to usa named american sojourn. The total cost for the trip rs 495882/- towards main tour and optional tours put together. The tour package was commenced from 22/08/2107 and ended on 31/08/2017. The optional tours selected by us are as follows.
Grand canyon west rim combo tour by aero plane cost per head 370 x 2 (740) us dollars paid on 22nd july 2017.
Bay cruise ride in san francisco, cost per head 45 x 2 (90) us dollars paid on 22/07/2017.
Despite my advance booking for the grand canyon tour the company failed to provide the desired service in us. They took us by the bus to the location which cost per head 215 us dollars only. The difference between two modes per head is 155 us dollars in total for two persons 310 us dollars.
On arrival back to bangalore during first week of sept i approached cox and kings office in indira nagar for the refund. I was asked to provide the bank account details for effecting refund and advised to contact customer care centre and mr sharan viswanath assistant sales head bangalore. As per the advice i addressed mails to the concern stating that we could not get the desired service at las vegas in the morning and forced travel by bus to the location. I was made to wait for more than one month stating that we are checking with us office and revert. On 06/10/17 received mail stating that we cannot concede your demand on no show up account which does not arise in this case. One day earlier to the booked service i informed mr farhad irani tour manager about our optional tour by air. The tour manager informed previous day evening to wait near the designated spot for pick up next day at 6 am and he did not shared any authority or mail with us despite one month in advance payment received by the company. We are in the spot from 5.50 am to 6.30 am and we could not get the service. Hence we called up tour manager and narrated the situation and we were asked to wait and after some time he called us stating, the service provider came by 5.45 am and left. We were instructed to come join with the group by 7.30 am for our journey to location by bus. During breakfast time he casually informed that service option by air 1 pm available which we declined since the service unreliable, no written authority or mail from the service provider was shared by the management further we do not wish to take any chances we had bad experience in the early hours.
At this juncture i would like bring it to your notice that the mail received from cox and kings stated that the service provider had cancelled trip to grand canyon in the morning hours due to bad weather which is contradictory to the communication given by the tour manager narrated in the previous para.
The inference from above paragraph exposed the flaw by the cox and kings further not shared documental evidence till date having booked the seats by flight for our journey to the location.
The difference amount refund sought for noncompliance of the desired service from the company rejected on flimsy grounds. I appeal to the consumer forum to look into the merit of the case and pass needful orders to the company for the compliance of refund, impose penalty deem fit for causing mental agony to the customers and protect rights of the consumers taken for ride by the unethical/unreliable practices of the travel companies. The action taken by the forum will caution and relays right signals over pan india to the travel companies to abide by the norms and rules and regulations.