[Resolved]  Musafir.com — Fraudulent Dubai Trip

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.