Paras Holidays Pvt Ltd — Illegal/Irregular practices+Misleading information!

Address:

New Delhi, Delhi

I along with my family (Total 4 persons) just returned on 13th June, 2015 after undertaking an 11day/10night European Tour organised by Paras Holidays Pvt Ltd (hereinafter referred as "Paras"), 312-322, Gold Plaza Building, Gurudwara Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi 110005. Right from start to end, this was a tour full of misery for us due to deceit and false commitments by Paras. On my return, I even tried many times to speak to Ms Kiran and Ms Khushbhu on Monday the 15th June, but one of them attended my call. I requested for Ms Mamta Jain, Mr Naveen Jain and Ms Sapna Jain phone nos and email ids but was refused. I was rather told bluntly by the receptionist that if I have any feedback, I should send through mail. So, having been taken for granted too long, I decided not to put up with such an arrogance and cheating by Paras.Given below are a few factual details justifying my claim. A. Irregular/Unscrupulous Conduct: 1. Illegal Issuance of ICICI Travel Cards on May 20 by Paras Holidays in the names of Jatin Madan and Meeta Madan: Paras got Travel Cards (with Euro money) issued in my and my wife's names without our consent. I had to spend almost half of the day(in chasing Khushbu in Paras and then following up with ICICI) on 30th May to get this WRONG undone. Presume, they would have got such illegal cards issued in the names of other other passengers also. NEED A CLEAR ANSWER AS TO WHY DID PARAS RESORT TO THIS ILLEGAL ACT, OTHERWISE, I WILL BE FORCED TO REPORT THIS ISSUE TO THE ECONOMIC OFFENCES WING OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 2.Rs8000 charged by Paras as extra taxes for our Air Tickets: Paras had told me that Rs8000 is charged extra by Oman air on account of additional taxes for my family's tickets. And I was further told that it is transparent and that I can check directly with Oman Air also.On their suggestion, I called up Oman Air Delhi office twice to take details of extra taxes paid. However, they refused to give me any details related to Taxes on our tickets. THIS AMOUNTS TO MAKING EXCUSES (OR COOKING FALSE REASONS) TO FLEECE THE CUSTOMERS. B. Fake commitments/Wrong Information: Example 1: Intimation about Tour Manager 1. Information by Paras: On June 1 at 5.20pm (Approx 14 hours from our flight departure), we received a mail from Ms Kiran [protected]@parasholidays.org) conveying Mr Brahm Singh Yadav as our tour manager. We were also given his phone no as [protected]. 2. Reality: Totally Different (i) Mr Yadav didn't receive any calls on the phone number given by Paras making us UNDULY ANXIOUS. On second or third day, we discovered that there was another phone number being used by Mr Yadav. UNFORTUNATELY, THERE WAS NO COMMUNICATION FROM PARAS ABOUT THIS IMPORTANT PIECE OF INFORMATION RELATED TO THE CORRECT PHONE NUMBER OF OUR TOUR MANAGER. (ii) To our surprise, a person (different from Mr Yadav) received us at Paris airport and another (third person) guy (Mr Chandra) came at 9am to take us for "Paris city tour" on the morning of 3rd June (next day of our arrival in Paris). We had no formal information from Paras about these two guys. In a foreign country, we were being managed by total strangers without any formal intimation from Paras. On checking with Paras/Delhi on phone, we were told that Mr Yadav is struck in traffic and he will reach us by 2pm on 3rd June. (iii) The Third guy (Mr Chandra) took us around for a tentative brief tour of Paris with the passengers confined to the bus mostly. Even after completing our lunch, Mr Yadav was still not with us. We were then taken to Eiffel Tower by Mr Chandra and were asked to wait till Mr Yadav joins. (iv) Finally Mr Yadav joined us at around 5pm Paris time together with another group from London and then started for the ticketing process for Eiffel. NONE OF PARAS DOCUMENTS CONVEYED THAT OUR DESIGNATED TOUR MANAGER, MR YADAV WILL JOIN US LATE ON 3RD JUNE AND THERE WILL BE A STOP-GAP ARRANGEMENT TILL HE JOINS. 3. Consequences: We ended up wasting the time till 5pm on 3rd June, 2015 with an adhoc city tour accompanied by an unannounced tour manager (Mr Chandra). 4. Questions to Paras: (i) Since our designated tour manager, Mr Yadav was accompanying another group coming from London, that means Paras knew it all. IN THAT CASE, WHY DID PARAS NOT FORMALLY INFORM US ABOUT MR YADAV'S LATE JOINING? SUCH AN HONEST ADMISSION WOULD HAVE GIVEN US AN OPPORTUNITY TO MANAGE OUR OWN TIME INSTEAD OF HAVING A LAST MINUTE SUBSTITUTE SPOILING OUR DAY. (ii) HOW CAN PARAS GIVE (BARELY 14 HOURS BEFORE GROUP DEPARTURE) A WRONG/NON-CONNECTING PHONE NO OF MR YADAV TO ALL CUSTOMERS? Example 2: Misleading information on travel time 1. Information from Paras: As Printed in Paras booklet of 2015 and also shared with us on mail (dated 6th May from Ms Khushbu of Paras), the travel times were conveyed as follows; (i). Paris-Swtizerland: 6hours 49 minutes by Bus (ii). Innsbruck-Venice: 3 hours 54 minutes by Bus (iii). Venice-Rome: 6 hours 15 minutes by Bus (iv). Rome-Milan: 6 hours 20 minutes by Bus 2. Reality: (i). Paris-Swtizerland: over 10 hours (as against 6 hours 59 informed by Paras) (ii). Innsbruck- Venice: over 8 hours (as against 3 hours 54 minutes informed by Paras) (iii). Venice-Rome: over 8 hours (as against 6 hours 15 minutes informed by Paras) (iv). Rome-Milan: over 10 hours (as against 6 hours 20 minutes informed by Paras) 3. Consequences: The wrong travel time information shared by Paras mislead us to believe that we will have enough time for sight-seeing. HOWEVER, WITH REAL TIMES TAKEN AS STATED ABOVE, WE WERE GIVEN JUST 1 TO 1.5 HOURS BY THE TOUR MANAGER FOR SIGHT-SEEING AT EACH OF THE LOCATIONS. IMAGINE TRAVELLING 8-10 HOURS FOR SIGHT-SEEING OF JUST 1- 1.5 HOURS!!! THE TOUR GUIDE DIDN'T EVEN COVER ALL THE PLACES LISTED BY PARAS IN THEIR INFORMATION BROCHURE SHARED WITH US. 4. Questions to Paras: (i) WHY REALISTIC TRAVEL TIMES WERE NOT SHARED WITH US? FYI, NONE OF THE TRAVELS WAS AFFECTED BY TRAFFIC!!! (ii) WHY DID THE TOUR MANAGER NOT COVER ALL THE PLACES LISTED BY PARAS IN THEIR INFORMATION BROCHURE? Example 3: Bus facility 1. Information from Paras: As conveyed to us, the bus would be a comfortable one with an emergency toilet. 2. Reality : (i)The bus didn't have any emergency toilet. There was a small TV screen but that was also not working. IMAGINE, WE HAD TO UNDERTAKE SUCH LONG TRAVELS IN A BUS WITHOUT ANY EMERGENCY TOILET AND WITHOUT ANY BASIC VIDEO/ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM. (ii) WORST OF ALL, THE BUS HAD TO BE STOPPED ( DUE TO SMOKE AND A STRONG BURNING SMELL IN THE REAR PART) FOR NEARLY AN HOUR DURING OUR PARIS-SWITZERLAND TRAVEL. (iii) The bus drivers didn't know English and were not skilled enough. Many times driver went roaming unnecessarily for 1~2 hours locating the destinations in spite of having GPRS systems. THIS PUT A LOT OF TIME PRESSURE ON US (THE GROUP MEMBERS) AND WE WERE LEFT WITH A LOT LESS TIME EVEN FOR OTHER NECESSARY ACTIVITIES (LIKE SLEEP) DOES THAT MEAN THAT THE BUS SERVICE HIRED WAS OF VERY POOR QUALITY? 3. Consequences: Such long travels turned out to be boring and uncomfortable. We wasted a lot o[censored]ncalled for time (when the driver was just looking for the location) inside the bus. Example 4: Tour Manager's persistent complaints about lack of adequate money from Paras. DUE TO THIS THE TOUR MANAGER HAD VERY LITTLE TIME/INTEREST TOWARDS ENSURING QUALITY SIGHT-SEEING. Seeing this attitude of the Tour Manager, many times, we the group members had to call up Ms Meenu Walia/Paras Delhi requesting for settling issues with the Tour Manager. On insistence of Ms Kiran, I had to write a mail on June 11, 2015, briefly writing about Examples 2 and 4. Still, there was no action towards improvement. 5. EXAMPLE 5: POOR QUALITY HOTEL CHOSEN LIKE HOTEL OLYMPIA IN AXAMS NEAR INNSBRUCK. IT WAS PATHETIC. I EVEN HAVE THE VIDEOS OF OUR ROOMS OF STAY. THE TOUR MANAGER HAS ALSO GIVEN THE FEEDBACK TO PARAS SPECIALLY ON THIS HOTEL. These are just a few examples (among many more irritants) of our miserable state during the so-called "Holiday Tour". IN THE LIGHT OF THE AGONY AND MISERIES SUFFERED BY US, I DEMAND A FULL REFUND OF RS5, 71, 984 (RS FIVE LACS SEVENTY ONE THOUSANDS NINE HUNDRED AN EIGHTY FOUR ONLY) PAID BY US FOR THIS TOUR.