Gem Tours And Travels Pvt Ltd — package tour promise to actual, unprofessional handling of visa issue

Address:600002

I give below the severe mental stress and agony faced by me and my family members - a group of 27 members - during our tour to hong kong/macau/shenzhen from 12th may to 18th may 2018.

This was highlighted by mail to the local branch - mr. Nilesh mehta of gem tours and travels pvt ltd. At chennai by way of mail which is given below and is self-explanatory in detail.

Dear nileshji and nishant,

I am still recovering from all the mental stress, emotional strain and financial burden imposed on me and all members in the group due to the total screw-up of our 27 member single family group package tour to hk/macau/shenzhen.

What happened cannot be undone.

However, a lot could have been avoided had you managed it properly.

I am writing this eye-opening facts and hope you do not repeat such mistakes for your future package tours of other groups and avoid such an horrendous ordeal to any of them.

I am giving below some of the issues that could have been avoided by you had it been handled properly.

1. Hong kong par - we confirmed the package in end feb and the first advance was paid to you on 27th feb 18 and you should have applied the par and got the approval even before booking the flight tickets and hotel confirmations of anyone.
In fact, my daughter's uncle-in-laws also are going in june through another agent and the first thing they did was apply for par and only then they took the money for all bookings.

So, it resulted in 3 members not getting the par and 6 members were forced to leave the group and go separately to chimelong instead of hk which was also suggested by me and for which you have demanded and collected separate payment of the same.

2. You do not check the correctness of the par - you need to have separate person to carry out such work.

Srinidhi bharadiya par was issued but you forgot the security answer due to which the par was not downloaded till day of travel and you kept on insisting that there is a problem and it is also unsuccessfull.
However, you had given incorrect security answer due to which this was not downloaded. We got it right by giving different spellings and were able to download on 11th may at around 2am.
To our surprise, the place of birth given was wrong and noticed by chance and we managed to rectify it.

Sagar karwa par had incorrect date of birth and he was stopped at hk immigration and interrogated at hk airport for over 2 hours and was refused entry to hk and asked to go back to india or macau.

So, he had to go to macau with his wife (My daughter) vanshika karwa to macau.

3. We requested several times after this that sagar and vanshika be sent to chimelong to join me there so at least they could enjoy for some part of the tour.
You kept on saying that it is being done, happening in 10 minutes etc and have also shouted on us when we tried to check status with you.
Considering the total number of persons in the group, you should have taken some positive steps to ensure that they did not go through this ordeal.
I understand that this was not done due to financial costs involved.

4. Your guide at zhuhai (Zina) who received the 6 member group sent us in two taxi from the macau border to circus hotel. These taxis took us on a merry go round for 90kms and nearly 2 hours and collected 720rmb and we were very tensed at that time of the hour (Around 6pm) as we were unable to communicate with the drivers due to language. Guide was supposed to have accompanied us.

On return journey, we took the coach from hotel and to our surprise, we reached in less than half hour and not more than 20 kms.

5. On 13th/14th may, you have also sent message to me by mail demanding hkd 15000 to be paid immediately to agent otherwise tour would be in problem and i had to pay from the money taken for shopping as i did not want to risk any trouble for our family.

6. On 17th may, at shenzhen entry, you have given 2 separate visa for 24 members and 3 members (Persons who did not get par - raj sri bharadiya, keshav bharadiya and panav dhiran - one lady and 2 kids).

Here again, 2 person details in visa was wrong (Srinidhi bharadiya and varun malu) - due to which there was tense moments for over half hour and we were shouted at. Luckily, they were allowed to enter as the details were of old passport instead of the new passport.

When i saw this that even sagar and vanshika were in the 24 members visa which was obtained on 16th may only, i immidiately highlighted that sagar does not have par for hk and how would he cross the border, we were told by you that it is not a problem and that they will make some setting and get him through. For this, i suggested immidiately that visa can be taken for these 2 again and sent by ferry without trying at hk immigration.

Further, to my shock, we were told by guide that the visa is for exit by road (By coach) instead of ferry transfer agreed between us.
I was told by a different guide that the coach transfer is less than 25% of cost of transfer by ferry and you have taken the coach option to save money.

7. On 18th may, at shenzhen exit, sagar was stopped and again interrogated for over 2 hours and again sent back to china side with vanshika where they were subjected to another 1 hour of questioning and sent to ferry point where they reached only by 3pm and were not able to board the ferry on time to take the sq flight booked by us.

Had ferry transfer was done for all o[censored]s from shenzhen to hk airport, we would not have passed through hk immigration and this problem would not have happened at all.

By this time, both sagar and vanshika had enough mental and emotional stress and had completely broken down and i had to book them on cathay pacific flight to mumbai and then onward to chennai at a very high cost.

8. Similarly, first time traveller and single lady raj sri bharadiya with 2 kids was forced to travel on her own by ferry. Here, at the immigration, she was not allowed to pass through as panav dhiran (Aged 9 years) was not with his parents and also the destination for him was different from the other 2 due to which the immigration staff asked her to leave panav behind and go.
Apparently, children upto 16 years of age are to travel only with parents.
She broke down completely and unable to handle the pressure had to plead/beg/fall on their feet to let panav travel and after explaining the situation for over half hour, the authorities cooled down and then checked with sq about the group and let her go with warning to avoid this in future.

Again, had ferry transfer was done for all o[censored]s from shenzhen to hk airport, we would have all travelled together including panav dhiran's parents and this problem would also not have happened at all.
So, this is also a learning for you.

I hope you will take care such issues do not repeat to anyone in future as it is really very very stressful to go through this in a different country, more so in a place where communication is a major problem.

Please take this in a positive way.

Please acknowledge receipt of this mail and confirm that these issues will be addressed by you for your future bookings.

In the interest of equity and justice, you should adequately compensate us for the suffering and mental agony besides monetary loss suffered by the group members.

Regards
Govind bhattad
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