| Address: Mumbai City, Maharashtra |
This is with regards to a recent tour which was organized by
MUSAFIR.COM for our group of 18 Pax. We
had departed from India on 30/09/2014 and reached back to India on 05/10/2014.
All the arrangement was made by MUSAFIR.COM. In our arrangement we had requested
for all the site seeing and hotel stay which was confirmed by your tour desk
and a detailed itinerary was circulated to me before we left the country for
our tour.
We were discussing and detailing the trip one of the
employee named Ms. Shefali. To begin with to reach Ms. Shefali was a really
difficult task. She would never pick up the calls in one go and I would have to
call her multiple times to reach her. After giving her our requirements for the
travel, she quoted me some rates for the package and even after we had
confirmed our booking on the same she would went ahead and changed the quotes
and hotels. We did not got our agreed hotel in Dubai and had to settle with the
option given my Ms. Shefali, even though we had confirmed the package for my desired
hotel at the cost she had mentioned and she could not block the rooms for us.
Just because we had paid the advance for the booking of our trip and our
handsome amount of money was now blocked with Musafir.com, Ms. Shefali took the
liberty of playing with our booking. She shifted our booking to a hotel which
was a limited service hotel which she didn’t even bother to inform us.
Later, just 4 to 5 days before we had departed from India
the final payment to the extent of the trip package cost was paid and we had
discussed in details about the itinerary. Ms. Sana and Ms. Shefali, had briefed
me on the itinerary for my travel and it was agreed, which was later mailed to
me. It also had the number of local correspondent for us in Dubai – Mr. Azhar.
We reached on 30/09/2014 at Dubai Airport where Vans waiting
for us to pick us up and drop us to our booked Hotel. To my surprise, there was
no provision made to carry our luggage to the hotel and we had to accommodate
our luggage with us on the seats. At this point the bus driver handed over me
the itinerary again which was same as which was circulated to me on the mail in
India.
Day 2 - 01/10/2014, we were scheduled to check out of hotel
at 12:00 PM post which we were suppose to check in at the other hotel Hotel
Hyatt Place, Al Rigga, Dubai and carry on with our city tour at 3:00 PM local
time followed by Burj Khalifa at 08:00 PM. The city tour as discussed included
a Photo Stop at Palm Island, Photo Stop at Atlantis Hotel, Drive thru the
Jumeriah and Stop at the beach adjacent to Burj Al Arab for photo shots. We
were also suppose to be taken to Jumeriah Mosque, Gold Souk, Spice market and
Mina Bazaar briefly before getting dropped at the Dubai Mall for Burj Khalifa.
As a part of the Dubai City Tour, the tour operator was suppose to provide us
with water in the bus. (Annexure 4) But,
we were running a little behind schedule so I spoke to Mr. Azhar for a small
change in itinerary in which I request him to delay my Pick up from Atlantis to
03:00 PM and we will carry on for the city tour directly from their and check
in at Hyatt place will be done in the night post Burj Khalifa on which he
didn’t sight any difficulties and agreed to the same. As confirmed by Mr. Azhar
the bus did reach us around 3:00 PM for our other excursion but to my surprise
there was again no provision for us to keep the luggage. We had to accommodate
the entire luggage on the rear seats and stuff ourselves in the remaining
seats. The tour guide directly took us to a shop where he dropped us to a shop
of his own personal choice, for the local famous items which was in Dierra
Area. He did not allow us to enter any other shop except that and the moment
couple o[censored]s entered another shop he called for the bus and ask us to board. 3
of the members of our group was settling the bill at the other shop for the
goods they had purchased and we did ask the tour guide and driver to wait for 5
minutes for them but he refused to wait and took the bus ahead. We had to plead
the driver and the tour guide to take the bus back so that we could pick the
other 3 member of the group. Post this he directly dropped us at the Dubai Mall
at 5:40 PM for Burj Khalifa. We were not taken to more than half of the areas
which was agreed as a part of city tour. Also, water which was a part of our
city tour excursion was not provided to us in the bus. After we got done with
our Burj Khalifa visit we headed towards the bus at around 9:00 PM and we
requested the bus driver to stop by at a restaurant, but he out rightly denied
without even thinking about the dynamics of the group which had people right
from the age of 10 to elder people of 70+. We were directly taken to the Hotel
where we were dropped for check in.
The hotel did not have provision for addressing the
requirement of such a big group as it was a limited service hotel. Because of
the hotels nature of limited service we are not given an extra bed whereas we
were booked on triple sharing. All the third pax in each room had to sleep on
sofa cum bed which was not at all comfortable and all had a back ache next day,
conditions were truly inhuman.
Day 3 - 02/10/2014, we were scheduled for Abu Dhabi city
tour and Ferrari world with express entry pass. The bus was supposed to pick us
up from our hotel between 09:00 AM to 09:30 AM. This schedule formed a part of
the itinerary which was sent to us in India and which was again handed over to
us in Dubai by the bus driver at the time of pick at the airport. So, as per
the itinerary our entire group did finish with our breakfast and waiting at
hotel lobby for the bus. We also bought a crate of Cold Drink and a Box of
Water, as we had a long distance to travel between Dubai and Abu Dhabi and we
were prepared accordingly. At 09:30 AM when the bus did not arrive for our pick
up I called Mr. Azhar to check and that was when he informed us that he had
changed the itinerary of our trip and we were now been taken to SKI DUBAI at
the Mall of Emirates for our Snow Park followed by Desert Safari !!!
We were shocked to hear the change in itinerary without any
prior intimation and consent. But still we carried on with the revised
itinerary, as there was no choice and from buyers, now we were treated as
beggars.
At 10:00 am the bus came to pick us up from the hotel and at
10:30 am it dropped us at Mall of the Emirates for SKI DUBAI. We had carried
the cold drink crate and the box of water with us which we had purchased and we
requested the driver and Mr. Azhar to keep the same in the bus as we will be
going to Ferrari World and Abu Dhabi next day.(This surprise change was on
account of MUSAFIR.COM only, this was no out of the way request.)
But they did not allow us and we were made to carry the
entire crate of cold drink and box of water with us to the mall. At the mall we
had we wait for 1 Hour 45 Minutes before the passes the of SKI DUBAI was handed
over to me. In this 1 Hour 45 Minutes whenever I called Mr. Azhar he did not
speak to me on the call and always gave an excuse that he was on another call
and he will get back to me which never happened. After half an hour of waiting
at around 11:00 AM Dubai Standard Time, I called Ms. Shefali about the same and
asking her whether she knew about the change and she confirmed yes and she had
sent me a mail on the same (expecting me to check my regular mails on a leisure
trip where I have gone to relax and not to work).I also told her that we are
wasting our time waiting at the mall and we have not got the ticket. On this
she told me that she will check with her Dubai counter part and call me back
but for next half an hour I received no calls from her. In the mean while I was
also trying to coordinate with Mr. Azhar and he refused to speak to me sighting
the same reason of being busy on other call and making the entire group wait
standing and not even taking calls, as for sure we were on your mercy. After
half an hour when I called back Ms. Shefali on the status, she just told me
that she is checking and half an hour in not good enough time for her to check
on anything and she will get back to me once she can give me the status, but
she never called me. I only got the passes for SKI DUBAI at around 12:20 PM
after waiting for close to 2 Hours.
Post SKI DUBAI we headed towards Desert Safari. On reaching
the camp site we got to know that there was no entertainment available as the
UAE government has announced 02/10/2014 to 05/10/2014 as dry day due to EID
Festival. It was a sheer disappointment for our group. On knowing this we were
even more disappointed because this announcement was not sudden and if the tour
operator team had taken the self liberty of rescheduling our itinerary once
without my knowledge, they could have very much changed our itinerary one more
time and schedule our desert safari on 01/10/2014 for us to experience desert
safari to the fullest.
On reaching the hotel after the desert safari we had to
request the hotel officials for putting the extra bed in our rooms as per the
booking.
Day 4 - 03/10/2014, as per the revise schedule we were again
ready for our Abu Dhabi City Tour (Grand Mosque) and Ferrari World excursion.
When the bus arrived it had no tour guide to take us around the city of Abu
Dhabi. We assumed that the tour guide might join us from Abu Dhabi for our city
tour. On speaking to the bus driver on the same we informed us that there was
no tour guide for us and we are directly been taken to the Ferrari world. On
hearing this I called Mr. Azhar, to sort out the confusion and he informed us
that we were only booked for Ferrari world and Grand Mosque.
Also he cannot take us to Grand Mosque as it is a Friday and
it is closed for the tourist. This was very disappointing. On reaching the
Ferrari world at around 11:00 AM the bus driver told us that in a very harsh
way that be back at the bus pick up point by 4:00 PM. This is when we tolerance
level came to a saturation point. We called up Mr. Azhar and he refused to
listen to us, instead he said you will have to follow our time lines or I will
instruct the bus to leave without you. After this the bus driver handed over to
us the Ferrari world passes which were
normal pass and not express pass which we booked.
Again asking about the same to Mr. Azhar be point blank
refused any such request and said that he is not answerable to me and asked to
talk to the travel agent in India, whom we had made the reservation with, which
in our case is Musafir.com. After hearing this I called Ms. Shefali to ask her
about the confusion. At the first call she did not pick my call up and after
that I called her multiple times, on which she didn’t respond. I was left with
no option but to report the incident to the police and I told bus driver to
take us to the police station, which he communicated to Mr. Azhar and I am
guessing which Mr. Azhar communicated to Ms. Shefali, because within 5 minutes
she called me and was trying to explain me the reason for the confusion/planned
cheating. The call snapped while talking to Ms. Shefali and she did not have
the courtesy to call back. Also when we were approaching the police station Mr.
Azhar called me and further started proposing various options, ensuring that we
further waste our time.
We were left with no choice but, to record our statement at
the Abu Dhabi Police station.
All this while the kids and the ladies were waiting in the
bus.
Post we reached hotel
Mr. Amrik Singh insisted on meeting us, and came to meet us at 09:00 PM. On
narrating all the trouble faced by us, he confirmed all the confusion was due
to the miscommunication from India Counterpart and there was no fault of
theirs. The discussion with Mr. Amrik Singh ended at around 10:30, when we
tried to order the food at the restaurant, but the hotel restaurant refused to
serve us stating the reason of Limited service hotel and they don’t have full
time chef. That day the entire group had to sleep hungry in the hotel, with no
lunch or dinner.
ON 04/10/2014, we were scheduled for a day at leisure for
shopping on our own and evening Dhow Cruise for all. But because of the events
that has occurred the previous day, we had to leave our other plans of shopping
and went to Abu Dhabi. On reaching Abu Dhabi, driver just took us around the
Grand Mosque as a drive thru. Even though we requested the bus driver to stop
at the main door of Mosque so that we could try and enter the mosque the driver
refused to listen(as he mentioned that entry to the mosque is not allowed
today) to us and dropped us directly at Ferrari world for which the express
passes were handed over to us the previous day by Mr. Amrik Singh, when he had
visited us. Post the Ferrari world we were dropped at our hotel at around 07:00
PM. This was not the first time that a particular service which we had paid for
was not given to us. It clearly states the intention of cheating, fraud and
misguiding customer. Because of this we were not able to redeem our booking of
Dhow Cruise and the entire trip was a trauma to all 18 people travelling.
Next Day, 05/10/2014,
we were scheduled for departure to airport for our flight at 2:00 PM for which
the bus did come on time, and dropped us to the airport on time.
Aug 14, 2020
Complaint marked as Resolved 
I am extremely unsatisfied with the services your organisation is providing. In the present case I wrongly booked the ticket for 3rd Jan'16 from Srinagar to Jammu instead of 4th Jan'16, of which I immediately informed to your esteemed organisation through mail at the mentioned e-mail id ([protected]@in.musafir.com), but not got timely response ( got mail for penalty etc. for cancellation of tickets 2 days after the booking ) resulting in a total loss of approximately INR 15, 000/-, which is 90% of the total booked ticket cost.
I had also confirmed with Indigo airlines, that if the Indigo airlines have been informed of this on the same day than they could have changed the date without Penalty.
This shows lack of responsibility & accountability towards the customers from your side, resulting in loss to the customers financially as well as mentally.
I have used this site for the first time, but after this incident I would not use this site for any transaction in future & also will recommend my family members & peers to not to use this site for any bookings they make & will also rate your site "0" for your services.
Thanks & Regards
Arun Jain
Ph [protected]