[Resolved]  Musafir — Refund for the losses due to Musafir Team's negligence

Address:	Mumbai City, Maharashtra, 400092
Website:	www.musafir.in

Hello Everybody.

This is regarding the horrible experience I had by the services given by Musafir’s team for my Bangkok – Pattaya trip. It is absolutely insane when you get pathetic services from such a big company. Please check all the details below.

I planned to go on a 5-day trip to Bangkok – Pattaya from Hyderabad with my wife in the month of April 17. We planned to fly on 8th of April 17 and were supposed to return on 12th April 17. So, we decided to book through Musafir. I messaged them through the online portal on 12th March 17 and then received a call back from Mr. Abdullah on 13th March 17. He provided me with couple of offers according to my requirement. The offer included 3 star hotel stay with breakfast, part lunch, couple of sight seeing’s, visas and return flight tickets. He then suggested me to make the payment for the flight tickets as soon as possible since the rates may go up. I made a part payment of Rs. 40, 000/- for the flight tickets on 14th March 17. Later on, we continued checking the hotels with Musafir. Mr. Abdullah showed us some hotel pictures, which, we eventually didn’t like it and asked him to show us some better rooms. He then suggested us that there would be an additional cost of Rs. 1000/- per person to get better hotel rooms. After checking the pictures of the hotel rooms shown by Mr. Abdullah, we decided to go with the Sunshine Hotel and Residence in Pattaya. I made the balance payment of Rs. 28, 100/- on 17th March 17 including the extra cost for better rooms. The total cost of trip was Rs. 68, 100/- inclusive of the itinerary mutually agreed by us. I had confirmed with Mr. Abdullah that I don’t have to bear any other cost apart from what I had paid and he agreed.

Later on, Ms. Madhuri called us for the visa process on 24th March 17 in the evening. She told us that we need to handover the passports to their offices either in Chennai or Mumbai for the visa stamping. First of all, it took them 7 days to ask us for the passports Secondly, we were never told before that we have to submit our passports for the visa stamping. We were under the impression that visas will be on arrival. Since I work in Hyderabad, I preferred to send my passport to my wife in Mumbai. Ms. Madhuri said that once the passports are ready, we need to contact her so that the arrangement will be made for the pickup. She informed us that she needs to take an appointment for the visa processing and it will take around 4-5 days. She suggested me to send the courier through Blue Dart. I stay outskirts of Hyderabad, so I decided to send it by the DTDC Courier Service, which is around 3 kms from my house. 25th March 17, I was at work so went in the evening. The DTDC person told me to get the passport on Monday morning coz Saturday pickups were already done by afternoon. I sent my passport through the fast service in the morning at 9:30am on Monday the 27th March 17. However, my passport was received by my wife at her office in Andheri East (close to Musafir office) in Mumbai on 29th March 17 at 1:30 pm. My wife called Ms. Madhuri for the pick up. She said would send the pickup by evening. However, in the evening she informed us that there is nobody to pick our passports and will arrange it on the next day which was 30th March 17. Finally, our passports were picked on 30th March 17 in the evening. Also, Ms. Madhuri informed that she has taken an appointment on Monday and the passports will be sent to the consulate on Monday itself. I was surprised and asked her about the delay. She assured us not to worry and our visas will be ready by 5th April 17. I told her that my flight is from Hyderabad on 8th April 17 at 1.10 am and I need to have the passports atleast 2 days before my journey. She told me that the passports will be handed over to my wife in Mumbai on 5th April 17 by evening. My wife was travelling to Hyderabad on 7th April at 7.20pm from Mumbai. However, when I called her on 6th April 17, she told us that the passports are yet to be received. She then told us on 7th April 17 by afternoon it will be in our hands. By now, we were getting very frustrated. On 7th April 17, she told me that the passports will only be received by the evening and will be handed over to my wife at the airport. My wife was waiting till 6.00pm at the airport but nobody came with the passports. Then Ms. Madhuri informed me that the passports will be couriered directly to Hyderabad and I need to collect them from the airport. She assured and asked us to continue with our journey to the airport. Also, later Musafir demanded us to pay Rs. 3000/- as the courier charges. I told them it was not my fault. The company needs to pay for the delay. However, they didn’t agree and since I didn’t wanted to miss the trip, I paid the said amount.

I reached Hyderabad airport at 9:00pm. However, when I asked them about the passports they told us that the passport is still with them and they were unable to dispatch it in time since no flights were available. Now, I had started to lose my patience since my wife was on her way to Hyderabad and we were about to miss the flight. Then Ms. Deepa, their manager called me and demanded us to pay Rs. 27000/- so that they can book the next day flight. I told them very clearly that I m not going to pay a single penny and they need to book my tickets or else I will cancel the entire trip and then demand my money back. Also, I told them they need to pay whatever losses occurred due to their negligence. After much discussion, they agreed to pay for our tickets and said will look into the matter. She also asked me to collect the passport early morning at 5am from the airport. I returned back to home, which is 40 kms from the airport. Also, I told them would collect the passports in the daytime coz it was not feasible for me to come so early to the airport. The next day when we reached the airport, the airport authorities informed us that the couriered passports need to pick up from the cargo area and not from the airport. This was never communicated to us and we had to travel all the way to the cargo area, which was far away from the airport. After paying the handling charges there, we picked our passports and returned home. In the meantime we were told that our itineraries have been changed. They told us that they couldn’t arrange for the pick up at the Bangkok airport and we have to manage by our own. Also, they told us they will refund us the airport transfer charges but they never did. We also asked them how much it would cost us to travel from Bangkok airport to the hotel in Pattaya and Mr. Sohail informed us that it would cost around 600-700 Bahts.

When we reached Bangkok airport, we were informed that the taxi fare from the airport to Pattaya is 1700 Bahts. They also showed us the government card, which was clearly mentioned on it. So we had to take the bus to the Pattaya City Center. From there, we had to take the city cab to the hotel. They charged us 200 Bahts. They were not ready to negotiate and it was hard for us to find a cab that was ready to come with the meter on. After reaching at the Sunshine Hotel and Residence, they demanded us 1000 Bahts as a security deposit. Again to our surprise, Musafir never informed us about the deposits. Sine we had not converted our currency by that time, we deposited one of our passports. When we reached our room, it was in pathetic condition. The blankets were smelly and the room and the bathroom were very small. I had paid extra Rs. 2000/- to get a better room in Pattaya but we never got. We complained at the reception about our room condition and the size. However, we were told that our travel agents already did our bookings. We were very upset.

Now coming to the itinerary part, Day 1 was Arrival to Pattaya and Alcazar show at 6:00pm. Day 2 was Coral Island with Speed Boat and Lunch at 8:00am. Day 3 was departure to Bangkok at 10:30am and then half-day city tour with Marble Temple, Golden Buddha and Gems Gallery. Day 4 was Safari World at 8:00am. Since we missed Day 1, they arranged the Alcazar show on Day 2. Also, since we reached Pattaya in the afternoon, they cancelled the Coral Island itinerary and the lunch. We didn’t get much time to spend in Pattaya coz the next day we had to travel to Bangkok due to changed itinerary. The driver picked us up at 10:00am instead of 10:30am. We reached Bangkok at 1:45pm. After lunch, we started for the half-day city tour. However, after showing the Golden Buddha, they decided to skip the Marble temple. When we questioned why, they said they would be late for the Gems Gallery. But when we reached Gems Gallery, we found that it was actually our waste of time. They just wanted us to buy things from there. They dropped us at the hotel at 6:45pm.

At the Woraburi Sukhmvit Hotel, they again asked for the 1000 Bahts security deposit. This time, we paid them and checked into the room. This room again was not in good condition. The air conditioning didn’t cool the room. There were no towels. The room was full of mosquitoes. We requested the room service staff to get it rectified. It was a very bad experience. On top of it, the buffet breakfast in the morning had all half cooked food. Finally, we were given the airport drop off on the final day.

We had paid the entire trip amount including additional charges. I also made all the formal complaints and sent emails on regular basis regarding the services. I had told them very clearly that would continue with my trip only on one condition that is I need to get refund for my losses. I told them, coz of their faults, I lost an entire day hotel bookings, Corel Island itinerary, lunch, Airport transfer one way (had to pay from my pocket), courier charges, handling charges, unnecessary taxi fares in India travelling to and fro from the airport. They are not ready to refund me anything. Instead they said they would give us Rs. 5000/- flat discount on our next international booking. This is disgusting!!! Who will book from Musafir after receiving such a bad service? Please make sure this reaches the higher authorities that should look into the matter and check the kind of services received by the customers. Prior to this, I had done my visa from Musafir but never had any problem. I definitely need my money back for the things they didn’t deliver. I never had such a horrible service in my entire life. Please help!!!