Newer Ever travel by raj travels mumbai.this is one of various email sent by me during the last one ear with no responce from them.
Yogeshgji ,I Nirmal kumar Nahata and my wife Sushma Nahata of 26 b camac street,Kolkata-700016 had taken your USA trip American Express with Alaska Cruise tour of 23 nights and 24 days starting on 9th of June from mumbai. We had a very very bad experience. Yogeshji after I spoke to you regarding my trip experience and as you had told me and on your Assurance in looking in to my grievances and solving them, I am sending you in writing, I hope justice shall be done from your end .
It is shocking that though your trip is one of the most costliest amongst all the similar USA trip provided by other operators like Thomas Cook, SOTC, Kesri etc, The hotels and the service provided by your company Raj Travels is the worst amongst all.
My booking date of 26th May was cancelled by Chaitali because of her sheer negligence or purposely causing me great losses. Till the last day i.e. 23rd of May when I had my Mumbai ticket we had no idea as we were going or not going on the 26th of May. Because of my trip of 26th was cancelled it has caused me great financial losses and mental agony .I am also sending you the full detail which I had earlier send to your office along with this letter.
Why my passport was sent to the Canadian consulate for visa application only on 14th of may whereas I had sent it on the 31.4.10 and your office at Mumbai had recd it on 3rd of may. I have never seen such hopeless sales person. Actually she should be called a con person in tricking the customer to deposit the initial amount and trapping them
From the very day we paid the initial money to raj our bad experience started. After our initial money was paid it was very difficult to get Ms Chaitali the sales person through whom we had booked the tour. When ever we were to speak to her she would never pick up the phone or she would simple ignore our phone. Chaitali was always non available on the phone and we had call her 10-12 times just to get her.Everytime we asked for the information about anything she would say she shall send us the next day but newer cared to reply back.
But after my trip I have come to know that what experience I had with Chaitali ji, everyone in my group had the same or similar experience. Every member of our tour group had the same complain of having to call his or her sales person innumerable times to get all the details .Even some of the members did not have their full information or their tickets with them and which were mailed to them after the trip started. Mr. Mahesh Patel is an example when his return ticket was sent just 2-3 days before he was supposed to depart and that also in my email.
You can very well imagine our hotel list was sent to us just few days before the trip was to begin.
Once the person has paid the initial money and is under their mercy they take him for granted and never reply to the queries of the customer.
Not only so even when we went to visit them in Mumbai on the 6th of June, full information about the trip or the cruise was not provided to us.
Chaitali had told us when we went to visit the raj office that we shall get some one in New York to be our tour guide in America when we reach there. Whereas that very moment the person who was supposed to go with us Gitaji as a tour guide was there’d in your office and we were never told that this person shall be your tour guide.
After the trip I know Raj people never gives the hotel list because all their hotels are very far from the main cities and all the hotels of below standard and if they give the list then the customer can easily identify them and would not like to go with them. Not only so the sales people are rude and have got no idea of the trip and are simply there to cheat you.
Gitaji had gone with us to USA. There only we came to know that no was joining with us or meeting us in New York and Gitaji would be our tour manger. Gitaji had absolutely no idea of the USA sector and she repeatedly told us that she has no idea of this sector as she had come here long time back. Because there was no one to undertake this tour she was requested and forced to take this tour.
FROM THE VERY FIRST DAY THE our bad experience started ,Our Itinerary started changing the very first day .Instead of New Jersey where we were supposed to land we were made to land at New York airport and then taken by bus to New Jersey, whereas it was clearly written in your broachers that we shall land at New Jersey.
After immigration we came out and we were asked to go to New Jersey which is almost 2 hours from New York. Some of the members protested that when we have to come back to New York for sightseeing then why we are being kept at New Jersey. But the tour guide Gita said that is how it has been arranged and we shall have to go.
So all o[censored]s went to New Jersey and got into our hotel rooms and feeling very happy that our beautiful and nice vacation of America was starting.
But we were wrong in the next morning as instead of our full day tour of New York we were forced to take the morning tour of Statue of liberty and then in the afternoon we were taken to see New York After the morning tour of Statue of Liberty we were so tired but still we went ahead with our tour of New York and seeing Manhattan and the empire state building and Broadway.
Can you imagine that New York where all tour operators give not one day but sometimes even 2 days was shown to us in just 4 hours? What we were supposed to see in one full day, we were shown in just 4 hours. By 6.30 we were asked to get ready for dinner as we had to have dinner and then reach our hotel which was outside the New York City in New Jersey by 8 pm for rest. By making us land at New York then taking us back to New Jersey and then again getting we back Raj made our life hell and miserable because of so much unnecessary travel.
We felt totally cheated because it was clearly told by Chaitalji that all our hotels are in the best and centrally located places. All the hotels provided by other major tour operators like Thomas Cook etc were in the main New York and were of much superior standard than that provided by Raj Travels
All the hotels where we were kept were all very far from the main city centre. Almost everyday our more then 3-4 hours were spent on traveling unnecessary on reaching the main cities from our suburb hotels.
The restaurants we were taken were hopeless and of much below standard. For example on the very 1st day were we had food one of our member had an argument with the lady restaurateur about the bad food. At a hotel called nirvana the food served to us was so disgusting that almost half of our members did not have food.
When we asked the tour manager about our far placed hotels, or these lousy restaurants, she told that this all we shall get as per decided by Raj Travels office in Mumbai. When we asked Gitaji as why were not given one full day at New York as per the itinerary given to us and as per the printed broacher then the tour manager told that she has been told by the USA based Raj Travels representative Subaji that the people who make the Itinerary in Mumbai do not have any idea of how to make the iterniy and this is how this shall go. We spoke to Subaji about this the she bluntly told us that people sitting in the Mumbai office have got no idea how to operate in America and we would have to follow the itinerary set by her.
Shubaji was always very rude to speak to us and was of no help any where throught the tour.
When we spoke to Subha ji in the next 2 days that we were so fed up with the hopeless service, then
She told that you can speak to any one you want and do what ever we like but this is how it shall go.
Then all o[censored]s in the group decided to sent an email from a hotel called Comfort In on 11th of June
To you Yogeshji .We sent the mail of the hopeless service, bad atmosphere, lousy food and the bad and cheap hotels to you from the hotel that evening only and also some of the members had a long discussion with you on telephone also. You promised us that you shall take care but nothing happened.
Almost everyday our more then 3-4 hours were spent on traveling unnecessary on reaching the main cities from our suburb hotels.
Almost every day the tour manager would have a fight with the driver Mr. Chang as he would not like to drive us after 8 pm and it took us long to reach our hotels which were very far after having our dinner.
Almost everyday we were forced to have our dinner by 6 pm or 6.30 pm as we had to reach our hotels by 8 pm , as because if we did not have our dinner in the main city by 6 pm then we would not reach our hotels which were all very far by 8 or 8.30 pm.
So you can very well imagine that after having food by 2 or 3 clocks in the after noon we were forced almost everyday to have it again by 6 or 7 pm.
Every time we complained to our tour manger Gita, she would say that she is a replacement and she was forced to come and she had not much idea of this region.
What a hopeless situation we after spending 3 lacs had a tour manager who had no idea of the tour and the places we were visiting.
There was so much confusion with the driver Mr. Chang that on the third or the fourth night Mr. Chang said that he would no longer driver us unless he was paid an over time. So after much fight and various telephone calls to Subaji your American representative, Gitaji was forced to pay him 100 dollars to Mrs. Chang our bus driver as punishment. From this u can very well imagine what difficulties we had to face when the driver does not want to drive us and the incompetence of the tour manager and your American officials. Mr. Chang even told us that he has never seen a tour guide like Gita before as all the tour guide he had met ,explained everything to the group about the places where we were visiting and where as Gita did no explaining and was all the time sitting or sleeping in the Bus.
In Washington dc what was the use of showing Gettysburg and Harrisburg when all most 70% of the persons were dozing during this trip because of bad standard of the guide and bad arrangements. It would have been much better if we could have shown something else. This trip was a total waste of our time and money.
All the hotels where we were kept were lousy and the people staying there of low standard i.e. these hotels were not family hotels and where ever we stayed we found people like truck drivers, taxi drivers low paid salesman etc with us, where as the hotels provided by Thomas cook and other were very good hotel and in the main city centre and near the Indian restaurant so they were able to utilize their time for more sight seeing
The tour manager was most hopeless and all the time saying that she never wanted to come but was forced to come and she had no idea of the places we were going to visit. She also said that the trip is most hopeless and even she would never come.
In Orlando also our hotel was very far and worst of all we were given packed lunches at about 8 am in the morning which would have been prepared at least 10 hours before and by the time we had it at about 2 pm it was more than 6 hours to eat. So We were having a food which was cold and stale almost after 16 hours and on the 2nd or the 3rd day 2 of our group members became very sick because of such food. All through our theme park visit we had to carry our lunches in our hands. What a shame no other tour operator has done like this. I did not take the lunch on the third day and when I told Gita to give me in writing that I had not taken the lunch box she said that she shall not give in writing and even she supported me and said even she shall not carry her lunch as it was so cumbersome.
Instead we could have been given lunches inside only. Why then In Universal Studios in Los Angles we were given money inside to eat on our own.
Why this was not followed in Orlando. Why we were forced to have stale and bad foods.
The Next Driver on this trip did not know English or had very slight knowledge of English. So we had harrowing time everywhere and mainly in reaching the hotel everywhere again because as usual all our hotels were out the of main town and very far .Because of his limited knowledge of English and his not knowing the way lot of our time was wasted and that in turn cut short our sight seeing time. Why employ drivers you do not know English or this was done simple to cut the cost.
What was the point of getting us to San Francisco for half a day as we had to get up early that day to catch the flight to reach San Francisco and just had a small visit of the city and then we had to be back in our hotel and next day again we had to get up early and take a long bus ride to Las Vegas.
Instead of taking us to San Francisco you could have taken us directly to Las Vegas by flight, which would have been less tiring and increased our one day at any of these places.
In Las Vegas the rooms we were allotted were bad and small and did not have even have coffee and tea maker in the room. When we inquired the room which we were allotted, we came to know that they were no frill rooms and costed just about 29 dollars. I am sending you the Xerox copy of the same.
I had lost one of my bag in Las Vegas and did not get any help in getting my bag back. Instead Subaji told me that she had spoken to the hotel people and they have said that there was no bag found. I again asked her to help me out after I had located my bag but she told that I shall have to do everything on my own and she cannot do anything.
After almost 40-50 calls and after spending 8000/-and spoiling my universal studio trip, I managed to get my bag back. The same thing Ms Subha could have done faster and without giving tension to me. I had even told her Mam please do not worry for the expenses I shall give to Gitaji immediately here, but still she informed me that she had spoken and the hotel told that they have not found the bag. My point is that if any thing goes wrong please do not expect Raj or their managers to help you
Everywhere Raj Travels tries to give the cheapest option and the sales person has got no knowledge. They simply fool the customer by promising him the best and trick him into sighing with Raj Travels.
Our best trip started only when we were away from Raj travels and took the cruise.
Here also Chaitali cheated us and spoiled our journey. Repeatedly we had told her that we do not want the rooms on the lower deck as we feel sea sickness. We were even ready to pay extra amount for that. She told us that she has confirmed it and our rooms are on deck 11; imagine our shock when we got our rooms in second floor or deck 2. Not only so for your information there are inside stateroom at deck eleven. We had to stay at the lower most deck causing us immense suffering .We suffered regular sea sickness. We had so much of vomiting and stomach pain because of this that we cannot explain the suffering we had.
One thing great about raj that it has maximum Gujrarti customers all business man who do not have time to protest. So they take things for guaranteed and think that after some protest all these people shall forget everything and they can go on cheating and misbehaving with the customers.
Never ever travel by raj because
1) Once you give money you shall have to call them at least 100 times to get the complete information. Even some people even do not get that. One of our group members Mr. Mahesh Patel got his return ticket in the USA just 2 or three days before the departure.
2) All there hotels are far and lousy. Maximum places we saw people like salesman, drivers etc occupying theses lousy hotels.
3) Restaurants are bad and there is nothing called Jain food. This point I appeal to the Strict Gujrarti Families and there organization as this is how raj takes us for ride. Every where there was non veg food lying with veg food and at lot of the place there was nothing written so as to differentiate the food.
4) The tour managers are bad and non cooperative
5) As the hotels are very far so almost half of your day shall go away in bus traveling.
6) The flight given to us Air India is the worst flight operating from India and I suppose the cheapest.
7) I lost my bag and did not get any help. Our point is that if any thing goes wrong please do not expect Raj or their managers to help you.
Aug 13, 2020
Complaint marked as Resolved 
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