SOTC Complaints & Reviews

I and my family booked a 4 day holiday using SOTC GK office. The team had a good initial response. The problem started when asking for specifics. The travel vouchers did not mention room category, the half day city tour did not mention any specifics of what it would cover. We were charged in USD. We were three adults, and we paid a full supplement for the third adult for the room, however were only given a room twin room with an extra bed, where as the hotel had rooms with two twin beds.

The financial proposal that the SOTC agent sent me had travel insurance included, but when the final details came (only few days before travel) the insurance was not there. On pointing out the same, the agent refused to provide the travel insurance saying it was a mistake and I have to pay an additional Rs 900 (approx) per person. This was escalated to a colleague/superior who basic attitude was do what you want I will not give it. Since it was only one day before the travel I had to procure the travel insurance externally at additional cost.

What was also interesting is that I was asked to pay everything in advance with out being presented a Invoice. The figure quoted had some cost related to taxes. On asking for an invoice something called a Booking Invoice was provided with all charges mentioned as MISC, there was no mention of the GST number. On pointing this out, the rep only say "this is our standard invoice" format. Your "special" request for invoice has been sent to our mumbai office.

There was a mistake in my visa, and the rep only had to say please ignore this. I’m quite surprised at this considering it is falsifying information in a VISA

Till date there is no mention of the denial of services on the travel insurance

I escalated this matter to [protected]@sotc.in, got a prompt response that the matter would be looked into. A few weeks later I have received a cheque for some amount which was attributed towards travel insurance. The letter accompanying the cheque states this a full and final , and no further "claims" would be entertained etc etc . Where as it is a simple case of denial of services which were committed in writ (e-mail) . The matter related to give me a TAX invoice is still not resolved and a General Manager from the Customer Team has taken upon themselves to give me legal advise on not to pursue this any further and that I am ill advised. I wonder what the real underlying issue is with SOTC not mentioning the GST number on the Booking Invoice. Would be interesting for the Tax Authorities to look into this.


I would advise avoiding these travel companies and you would be better off doing stuff on your own. Or take a lawyer along for your travel discussions :-) and your CA for the invoices

I booked a tour from SOTC (Order No: [protected]H) and ended up paying Rs. 6k/- as advance ... The tour price they quoted on the site is very different from what they offered (Rs. 21400 vs. Rs. 57000/- per passenger). They will not refund the money even if we do not opt for the tour.

I have the printed receipts, bank statements, quote prices and their emails to reflect this information.

Beware of these scamsters. Please book your flights and hotels on your own.

I wish to report and share, the extremely bad experience that I had during my recent European Grand SOTC tour.

I had taken SOTC's European Grand Tour in July 2012 from their agents in Abu Dhabi UAE... I was advised by their agents that I need to opt for the European Grand Tour over the cheaper Cost saver Tour, as this tour had better rated Hotels and in the Central locations of the cities (even though it had lesser number of days and also did not include London). Though this tour was approx. 4000 AED expensive than the cost saver, I still opted for it based on the Travel Agent's recommendation that this tour offered better Hotels.

I myself did a check between the Hotels of Cost Saver Tour (indicative names) as well as for this tour and found that SOTC proposed to use better hotels in this tour (or Similar.)

I received the final list of Hotels at 11:30pm on Tuesday Night, just two working days before the tour departure. To my surprise and Horror, I found that the first two nights, which were supposed to be in Amsterdam City, the hotel was booked in the City of Den Haag!!

I reported the same to the agent about this discrepancy and I was initially offered some excuses like SOTC is free to give Similar Hotels and Den Haag is a twin city of Amsterdam! Upon my insistence that Den Haag is 45 minutes to 1 hour away by a train from Amsterdam and cannot be called a twin or sister city, finally at the last moment, SOTC called me back on my mobile and offered the following two solutions:

1) SOTC to provide a dedicated car for me and my family only for travelling To and Fro from the city (as this Hotel was far away from the city) under the condition that I don't share this detail with the other group members!!! or,
2) to change the hotel back to Amsterdam City.

I was surprised at this unethical behavior of providing additional services to a single customer as he had complained and not extending the same facility to other group members. However, finally they managed to shift the entire group to a Hotel on the outskirts of Amsterdam city.

I hoped that there would not be any further problems on the tour and started the tour on a positive note.

However, to my surprise and Horror, I found that ALL HOTELS provided by SOTC (barring the three nights in Switzerland), the hotels were of much inferior quality than indicated in the Brochure. To prove my point, I have attached an excel sheet (see attachment 07), wherein I have found out the normal rack rate prices of the brochure Hotels as well as those actually provided and find that the Hotels provided to us costed 50-60% of the Brochure Hotels.

Also, there have been instances that the Hotels had better facilities (e.g. in Idea Hotel in Italy), However, other groups were provided those facilities and SOTC group was subjected to the use of old, stinking and dilapidated hall for the purpose of Buffet breakfast. This problem was rectified the next day only after a strong objection being made by the group. (Please note that I have attached photos and video for the same. - See attachment 01-04)

I have also attached video of same Hotel (Hotel Idea - See attachment 05) and I need not say anything further as it speaks in detail about the condition of Hotel. I am 100% confident that no tour operator can say indicate that this is a 4 star or even a 3 or 2 star Hotel!

Another thing which was mentioned in SOTC Brochure was that the travelling will be on a Coach, which will have emergency toilet facility available. During the trips there were two coaches used. The Toilet was not available on the first coach, and we thought it was our bad luck that the toilet in this coach was not operational. After 4 days of the trip, the coach was replaced by another coach, (which was only one year old). Even in this coach the toilet was locked. Clearly, the intent was not to extend this facility to the passengers! As a result of this, we faced a lot of inconvenience, especially when one is travelling with small kids with over 8-9 hours of drive time. I treat this as a breach of service provided.

Finally, as per the tour details, only one day Packed Lunch was to be provided. However, on two occasions, we were refunded 10 Euro per person as Restaurant Lunch could not be provided and on two more days there was Packed Lunch. Also, this packed lunch was offered to us in the middle of nowhere and the people were forced to eat it sitting on the floor next to the parking lot (Video attachment 06)... If such poor services and planning is to be provided by SOTC, then why should people to pay a premium price for an SOTC tour???

All the above attachments are available at the following link :

https://www.box.com/s/9bbf27b075b5a846f2a0

I wrote the above complaint to SOTC management and got the following casual response, which was most evasive and did not even attempt to understand the problem.

QUOTE

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your family for travelling on our SOTC World Famous Tours to Europe - 2012. We are in receipt of your feedback dated 16st August 2012 addressed to us and have noted and gone through the content.

Having gone through your feedback please allow us to present the following to you

Choice of tour and hotels:
In respect to your feedback received regarding the choice of tour, we wish to state that we offer value for money as per the package chosen and booked. We wish to state that the rack rates differ from time-to-time and are directly related to the demand during a particular period whereas the contracted group rates remain the same throughout the season except during event/festive period. Our choice of hotels confirmed for the tour is based on the budgeted group rates and is booked accordingly. We further confirm hotels based on the group size and room configuration and subject to availability. We keep in mind the comfort of our passengers and choose our hotels in accordance. All hotel confirmed for the tour are of a 3 plus/ 4 star category, hotel Idea is a 4 star property which has been provided, however we have noted your feedback on the hotel for corrective action.
In respect to your feedback regarding the area designated for breakfast, there are multiple areas for breakfast and allocation for the group is done by the hotel.

Coach Toilets:
In respect to your feedback regarding the use of toilets on the coach, we ensure that comfort stops are given every 2-2.5 hours. We wish to state that the using the toilets on long distance European coaches is not possible as all are not bio toilets. There are challenges to find a proper facility to empty the septic tank which is mainly found in the city municipal areas which is not en-route from one city to another. If we allow the same to be used the stench will surely be discomforting to the passengers on the coach while travelling on road.

Packed lunch:
In respect to your feedback regarding the packed lunch, we would like to state packed lunches or auto grill lunches are provided in order to make up with time lost either due to late reporting of the passengers or due to traffic conditions. At times coach may have to take an alternate route which is longer due to highway closure or other related factors. Keeping in mind these circumstances, our Tour Manager manages to finish the days sightseeing/ program rather than missing it and prevent having a cascading effect on the following days of the tour. We hence try having our packed lunches in at autogrills/parking area or at times a picnic spot. We have however noted your feedback and will surely share the same with our operations and product design teams

With this we trust we have answered all the issues raised by you to the best of our efforts. We would look forward to having the privilege of you and your family travel with us in future and service you better.

UNQUOTE

I only Hope that after publishing the above feedback / complaint, I am able to help other people by saving some of their money so that they don't fall into this trap and web of deceit !!!

I with my family had travelled to Malaysia-Singapore through SOTC in April 2012.

1. SOTC had informed us that we would get roll-over bed in Genting Hilands, Malaysia. When reached, we were told by the hotel staff that the room is very small and roll-over bed is not possible to be provided in the room. Finally I had to manage with bed sheet through out my stay in the hotel!!!!!

2. While travelling to Singapore, the airline had preponed my flight and I was not informed by my travel agency. When arrived in Singapore, the local travel agent refused to pick me up and I had to hire taxi and reach to my hotel my own.

After coming back to India, I talked to SOTC Vadodara, they refused to help me/ compensate me in any ways!!

My point is, why should we pay more and select globally famous tour operator? Just to ensure that we are in safe hands and we can enjoy holidays without problems. SOTC is cheater and I would request people to stop patronising SOTC.

My email conversations with SOTC are available as a token of evidence of their false commitments.

I have made payment of Rs 84,000 as booking deposit amount for the “American experience tour” on !4th dec 2011. We had paid Rs 4000 for securing the booking amount. Mr Vinay who was in charge and took the cheque assured us that if the tour is cancelled for any reason, the booking amount can be used for any other trip we would like to take with SOTC.

We are a family of 4 who were planning to travel. My husband’s passport was due for renewal and Mr Vinay said it could be done since there was ample time and he referred an agent to get it processed.

The passport did not get renewed even by march 19th. We contacted the Andheri SOTC to cancel the trip. They informed that there was still time and not to worry and Neha Mankar who is the sales manager gave us a letter addressed to the regional passport office to speed up the renewal but it did not help. Our plea to cancel the trip and refund the amount was always replied with a reassurance that we could take some other trip in that amount.

After that when I planned a trip I called SOTC for booking then to my horror I was informed that Rs 10,000 per person will be deducted since we did not take the trip which we booked. They were very much aware of our situation and were updated regularly and inspite of paying Rs 4000 for securing the deposit, if I have to lose 40,000 what is the use of this deposit?

If the passport office does not renew the passport are we responsible? We have had very good relationship with SOTC, hence we booked with you. Now the staff is Andheri is very rude and callous and irresponsible. Mr Raj, Neha Mankar, Vinay have behaved very badly. I would like to bring this to your notice. When I contact the andheri office they ask me to complain to costumercare, the phone of customer care is never answered and the mail id does not work

I am not asking for a refund, I am ready to travel now in December holidays. So kindly attend to my plea so that I can do the necessary booking. Hope I can get a positive response from you.

This open letter is about our own (horrible) experience of booking a 7-day holiday package to Hongkong, Shenzhen and Macau with SOTC, a tour operator. Every point here is based on our experience and no exaggeration, if need be, we can show proof. We are bringing to light the various problems that we faced with SOTC travel agents Divya and Chandrasekar. We want our readers and travellers to be aware of these issues before booking a holiday with SOTC. We strongly hope the senior management of "SOTC / Kuoni India" look into these issues.

Please read the entire compliant here in this link : http://www.travopia.com/2012/05/open-letter-to-senior-management-of.html

Request every traveller to read this post and share it with your friends.

We were a group of 6 and we had 2 elderly people travelling with us. Given SOTC's reputation, we booked our South African holiday with them in December. There were some instances / incidents which clearly left a bad taste in our mouth and we wondered whether SOTC is even bothered about customer loyalty and retaining customers. When I took up the matter with them on my return, they dealt with the issue quite casually.

a. The brochure said that after our stay at Shamvari Reserve, we will be moving to Knysna. This was not really a huge distance andwe thought this would be done in about 3/4 hours. However, what we went through was one of the most harrowing day of our lives. What with parents, 70 years and 80 years, this was just torture. We were asked to be ready by 930 AM in the morning for the transfer to Knysna. We all believed that we would be leaving for Knysna and would be there in a max of 4/5 hours. In reality, the first thing that happened was that we were taken in the Rangers vehicle to another lodge in Shamvari. We were asked to move to a bigger bus and then there we met the local guide. He told us that we will have to pick up another group coming to Port Elizabeth and that we will have to wait till 6 PM in Port Elizabeth. Finally, we reached Knysna very late in the night – around 11 PM! After a 12 hour nightmare on the roads. Given that we were about 17 passengers from Shamvari, a separate transfer could have been arranged directly from Shamvari to Knysna. The inhuman side of SOTC came very much to the fore and there was no one to take decisions since we only got to meet the Tour Manager for the first time later at 6 PM at the Port Elizabeth airport. All this was done by SOTC to just save some transport charges. In the process, the group lost clearly more than half a day for travel/leisure and more importantly, after this harrowing day, the next day, we were all down.

b. The journey from Cape Town to Sun City was quiet a long journey - we left Cape Town after breakfast and reached Sun City around evening after a short trip to Pretoria. A combination of plane and bus journey. The previous day, we were informed that Indian lunch packets would be arranged for the transit from Cape Town to Sun City. Based on this, we did not prepare ourselves for our kind of lunch. At the end, nothing was arranged and there was not even a mention of the cancellation and the background of the cancellation.

There were several other instances as well, which made this overall quite deficient in service.

we have been cheated...we had bokked Swiss-paris for our family of 7 adults and 2 children in the travel fest in mumbai.we were negotiated for the package at 90,000 pp and we paid the booking amount. The person who made the booking, Mr.ROhan patil (Dadar branch) disappered for weeks and now we are asked to pay 98000 Pp. we never expceted this from SOTC but now we are stuck up with our money and the company seems to be blackmailing uo to pay that higher amount.

We are having a series of problem with SOTC for the past few weeks. We approached SOTC for a package tour of Europe for my parents, and we were offered a 7 days package which covers 4 countries.

Firstly, they are not in a position to provide a confirmed itinerary even a day before the visa interview. They keep saying that the final accommodation might change. What kind of a company is that, which cannot provide a confirmed itinerary at least 2 weeks before the actual travel date!!!
What is even more unusual is the fact that they changed the dates of the travel and reduced it by 1 day just a day before the visa interview! This was done even without the notice of my parents and we were completely taken aback by this modification. What was even more surprising was the fact that even SOTC was not aware of this change!
Now they are offering just a meager 50 euros of compensation in total for my parents. They charge 1500 euros for the 7 day trip and just 50 euros for 1 day cancellation! They also say that the initial 42000 INR which was given as an initial deposit will also be not refunded.

We do not want to have any more negotiations with such a company which do not even care about their customers.

Could you please help us out to get back our money?

Thank you.

Kind Regards,
Pavan

This is the mail sent to SOTC as feedback and no one replies to this mail also! Worst! Don't travel by SOTC ever!!

This is a feedback which though SOTC hadn't asked for but since we had such a great experience (pun intended), it forced me to share some of it with you. There were more of bad memories than the good ones to take away from the trip so the mail probably may not find you in good spirit!

Visa Issue of Nepalese Citizens and Ignorance of calls by Patna Office.

Just couple of days from departure, SOTC realises that the Nepalese citizens need Visa for Mauritius as there had been some change in regulations (previously it was Visa on Arrival same as for Indian citizens). Both the Passport is sent to Delhi office. Getting tensed on not receiving any update on the processing of VISA we tried calling people at Patna Office - only to find it answered sometimes and mostly being ignored.

Till 20th (day of departure) 1P.M. there was no confirmation on whether the VISA has been approved and by when the passport will reach Mumbai from Delhi. Then Mr. Kenneth of Kolkata branch intervenes and assures on sending the passports on time. We await for the passports at the airport. The flight was scheduled for 10:20 P.M and luckily in the nick of time the passport reaches the airport (9:30PM). We were happy to receive the passports just in time and the effort by SOTC. (though there was no fault from our end which should make us much happy rather we were more tensed on how the thing was done)!

This was just a start!

Mauritius Problems
On reaching the resort the SOTC representative informs that the itinerary of the tour has been changed. This was a clear case of cheat and fraud by the company, cause firstly you change the itinerary after taking the payment and not informing the travelers. Secondly you exclude half a day of the trip!

Moreover the best thing was when I was communicating the same at Kolkata and Mumbai office of the change in itinerary and problems, the people at SOTC got irritated of me calling them again and again. Bloody hell! What should you get irritated for?! Doesn't the company imbibe the culture to listen to customers complaint in right spirit that too when its not their fault!

Dubai Problems

The itinerary for this was also changed!!

The travelers reached the hotel at 7A.M as per the scheduled flight just to realize that they have reached the hotel way prior to their bookings done by SOTC (check in done by SOTC was @ 1PM). The hotel guy said that they will have to give 100Dhrams if they need to check in earlier. Like before there was no local SOTC representative to help with the issue and the communication needed was to be done by calling people in India!

Nevertheless to avoid much time in confusion the travellers left for the City Tour cause the city tour was also not included in the revised itinerary ( but for the same Mr. Keneth had assured that that cost will be refunded after talks with Mumbai Office. We are waiting for any response to come by).

The hotel was not upto the mark (at Dubai). Very bad choice of hotel selection by SOTC! Moreover the hotel people weren't informed about the meal preference (veg) by SOTC! Why was this not communicated?!

Moreover one dinner (as per the package) was also not there. Why was this done?!

Also if you aren't able to fill in the minimum number of people (10 for this trip), that doesn't gives you right to alter with the itinerary or give poor service to the existing customers!

With so many surprises, no assistance at any time ( Hotel, Trip etc.), irritated customer assistance, bad choice of hotel, change of itinerary without informing the customer ( a clear case of cheating the customer) and for all this spending over Rs. 1lac per person was truly not worth it!

This was supposedly a memorable trip planned to celebrate 25th Anniversary of my parents and all you gave us was painful experiences! If I had to coordinate everything (also account for spending of over Rs. 1000 on international calls in mere 7 days) and the time put in for coordination, I better should have planned this by myself. All you did was offer something for lesser price. Let me remind you its more of the experience that counts than the money! Now to tell you I had planned to choose SOTC just for the brand value it had (obviously now I understand its real value).

Nevertheless it was my duty as your customer to give a feedback on your service. Thanks for giving us a chance to avail the service. Hope you are able to rectify some of it with other travelers at least and understand that the crux of your business is service and you truly lacked in it, Hope you do justice to the travelers money! And give them a real life time experience!!

The SOTC Tour and Travel company have advertised yesterday in The tiems of India that total p for Thailand is 7899 including Flight chgs-Air fare/ accomodation/ food -Beakfast/ trasfe rand sight seeing plus Airport taxes extra.

The package is called Supe Saver.

I blocked my holidays and my childrens holidays also.

now they are asking for 21899/- Rupees. You tell me how can taxes be 14000 Rupess.
This company is giving fake advertisment and wasting valauable time and enegy of innocent people. I have called so many time to the Toll free Number and and sent email also.

please take action against such type of tour & travel co.

Horrible Experience Do not use SOTC if you value your life

Took the Grand European 14 Day Tour for Europe with 6 of my friends July 9, 2011 thru July 22, 2011. The Driver was "Dillis" and the tour Manager "Mac Spencer". The Driver was racist. We stopped in Lurerne near Zurich and were told to get out in the middle of the street. I was the last person to get out. The Driver slammed the doors and I was stuck in between. He continued doing so several times unitil I screamed. I have a swollen area from the injury between the stomach and chest. I filed complaints with the Bus operator AMZ.NL. They denied everything. SOTC is investigating and will do so for ever. This bus driver was also verbally mistreating other people on the bus. This driver is a danger to all passengers on the bus. The tour manager was aware of everything since he was standing right there while the passengers got off the bus.

The last 2 days we were accomodated at The Novatel Le Bourget in Paris. The hotel was run down and in a industrial area. You would not want to stay here and venture out if you knew how the area was. Really creepy! We did go out to the Eiffel Tower on our own without realizing what we were getting into. We took the bus and the train to the Eiffel Tower with directions from the Lobby personel. The Lobby personel are uncooperative and give evasive answers and don’t like Indians.. We took a taxi back to the hotel. The taxi driver informed us that this area was no good and nobody comes out over here. We had a "no disturb sign" on the door when we came back the room had been entered into/cleaned inspite of the "do not disturb sign".

Central Hotel in Engelberg supposedly owned by the Indian food supplier/caterer for Europe had one elevator for all the people and the elevator was defective. It kept on dropping from the 4th floor to the ground floor repeatedly. It should not have been in use under any circumstances.

I questioned AMZ.NL the bus operator about mandatory tipping the Driver for poor service/trying to harm you. Their response was that the 2 Euros collected per passenger per day, only 1 Euro went to the Driver the other 1 Euro went to the Tour manager Mac Spencer. Its strange SOTC’s web page said $1 per person per day, the printout from the travel agent had $2 per person per day and the printout from the Tour manager Mac Spencer had 2 euros per person per day.

How can SOTC pick such a hotels and bus companies jeopardizing customer safety?

I have made a tentative booking with the SOTC on behalf of our Guest Mr Divyesh R Shah for a 7 days CS-SWISS PARIS Tour starting from 2nd week of August 2011 and have paid the sum of Rs, 1 Lakh in two installment as detailed below through account payee cheque favoring KUONI TRAVEL INDIA (P) LTD,

1. Cheque No: 011926 on 3rd May 2011 for Rs 50,000.00 payable at Axis Bank Sector 18 Noida.
2. Cheque No: 743274 on 25th May '11 for Rs 50,000.00 payable at Axis Bank Sector 18 Noida.

Both the aforesaid cheques were deposited with their SOTC G-18 Sector 18, Noida branch.

Since our Guest had told me his inability to proceed with the above Tour Package,because of the fact that SOTC saying it is not a fixed scheduled tour and it may be deferred 2 to 3 days Hence I sent a E-mail requesting SOTC to cancel the booking on 23 June 2011 and have requested them to refund the amount at the earliest.

Since then I had been continuously requesting them to REFUND THE AMOUNT but instead of making refund they are simply promising that it will be refunded in 2 days time,

I would request you to kindly help me to get the refund along with the interest since 23rd June 2011 the day I sent the cancellation.

I have taken SOTC European Grande Tour this june.
I would like to bring to notice of people like me who are taking this type of tour for the first time, a few facts & my experience with this SOTC
1. When they do the booking they take the money before you get the visa. If you don't get the visa for some reason you loose too much money.
ALSO THEY DONOT INFORM YOU ABOUT THE NAMES OF ALL THE HOTELS BOOKED AT DIFFERENT PLACES BEFORE starting the tour which they are supposed to do. And the last hotel we stayed in turned out to be way below standards we were promised by our tour operator
(atleast 4 star hotels but that was also not always the case).
2. They donot assisst you at all before & after tour as concerns with your travel to reach the venue or departure to your home. (our hotel in paris was 2 hours away from paris actually, IN JUNGLE, was not even three star !! not even no ac, there was no provision of ventilation through the ducts. MORE-OVER THERE WAS NO LIFT IN THE HOTEL & MANY WERE ON 1ST FLOOR. Had to carry all our luggage up there. We were forced to check out of this hotel as oit was far away from city & further away from airport. We had to pay from our pocket for the travel to other hotel, fare for the other hotel near to airport for the night when we were supposed to stay IN hotel arranged by SOTC IN PARIS.
3. The bus driver does not continue to be same. So, don't tip him at the start of the tour. The second one we got did not assisst us in putting our luggage in the bus or while taking it out even. BUT YOU HAVE TO TIP THEM @ 2 EUROS / PERSON / DAY. So, 8 euros/day for a family of 4. AND THIS TIP IS NOT OPTIONAL!!! How can tip be compulsary???
Pls look into the matter & do the needful.
Thanks

We have booked for Europe tour with SOTC. The main problem is they are not at all transperent in their dealings. The letters and estimates what they give is on xerox copy and not signed or stamped. They probably think that they can escape legal action by doing so.

They have two components for payment, Indian Rupee component and Euro money component. For payment of INR equvivalent of Euro money component they say the exchange rates applicable as per Dautsche Bank rates on the day we pay money. When you actually go to pay they charge 2 to 3 Rs. more than the exchange rates of Deutsche Bank rates. When you question them they only say try to justify that that is the rate given to them by Deutsche Bank. They litterally fleece the customers. I do not know if they can be sued against the FERA regulations for this. I have to pay them as per their demand just because my advance money is stuck with them and no way to get it back.
They make their Clerical staff front for all the transactions, who really do not have much knowledge about visa rules nor about anything else. When you ask them for the senior person’s contact numbers, they just say they are not allowed to give their numbers.
I would not recommend any one to take tour with SOTC, if any one still wants to book with them it will be great risk. The tour is not money’s worth.

Sir

Dear Mam,

I harsh nahata have booked a tour of singapour and malaysia with cruise and paid a booking advance of Rs.80,000 to SOTC tours and travels.I have told them that i have to go their on 11th of june but after taking the booking advance now they r calling me and and telling me sir can u go on 18th of june.I have called them and i have asked them to refund my cheque,they have misbehaved with me.I and my family is totally dissappointed with ur services and commitments and now i want u to take strict actions against these people who misguide the customers for selling their products.Plz solve this problem otherwise i have to lodge a complaint in police against this company and against these stupid people who always misguide the customers.Do solve the problem as soon as possible.



Thank u

first and the foremost thing why did i have to pay extra fees than the rest of the tour members?



1) as per my conversation with the staff at chennai office the amount decided earlier was 143,929 but suddenly one fine day somebody else at chennai office was handling my case and charged me an astronmical fee of 150,670



2) when i booked my tour i had called Mun Mun and Amit at the bombay office they had confirmed me that i can make the AUD payment in AUD itself on calling the chennai office the concerned staff declined to accept the payment in AUD [ i COULD HAVE SAVED 5583 from the first option)



3)of all the people in the tour why was i the only person who had to pay extra hundered dollars, the reason given by ur offce for the extra dollars was that the seats are not full so i need to shell out more money. again this is absolutely disgusting and not acceptable, if seats are not getting booked the organization has to fix the problem and not harrase its exisisting customers





4)During my booking SOTC chennai assumed that my MEAL OPTION WOULD be jain as my name is KAVIN JAIn without my consent the meal option was chosen as jain , i had given them in writing that i need vegetarian food and not Jain. the food was absoultely pathetic , i was very much annoyed everytime when i had my meal,





5) Why was there no tour manager in the entire trip? there was not a single person who could explain and guide us about the city the country, again it shows poor management by your team



6) All SOTC members were given free caps and travelling bags but i never got my bag





7) the worst of all nothing was promised as per the itineary i asked the chennai and bombay office to send me my flight details which were as follows



bombay to brisbane ( without any stoppages) unforutnately this is how it turned out to be



Bombay- singapore



halt at singapore for 1 hour



Singapore to perth



----- on reaching perth we had to sleep at the perth aiport for more than 7 hours as we reached in the middle of the night and our flight to brisbane was in the morning --- i had a very bad experience at the airport where some authorities asked us to vacate the airport and come back in the morning- unfortunately we spent the entire night in the parking bay nearby





8) problems were plenty but once again i am not happy with my trip , it was my last trip with u folks i feel bad that you guys did this to somebody who is travelling with you for the second time,







I do not seek any monetary compensation neither do i want any coupons i have decided to take the legal route and file a petition against SOTC and Kuonii INDIA,





Very soon i am starting a community on facebook and other social networking sites for others to know about my horrible experience ,





i had been CNN-IBN's Citizen journalist so i am adding them to know my horrific experience

Kind Attn : Mr. John

Greetings! This is Anant Parikh from Ahmedabd and approach you with utmost despair and anguish.

I was to travel in your ROMANCHAK EUROPE tour supposed to be initiated from Ahmedabad on 8th Sept.

I have been surprised to hear from your office boy [not any responsible person] that tour has been postponed / cancelled to 20th Sept, when I went personally to your office to pay remaining amount.

It is highly agitating that the person responsible for this MR. VENKETESH has not bothered to inform me and upon calling him from within our office he gives a flimsy answer that he does not have access to connection.

I can not travel on any other day and demand full refund of my advance money of Rs. 21,000=00 X 02 in full. I also deserve & demand an apology from you for this mess.

Expecting you favourable response.


Anant Parikh
04/09/2010

hi this is gaurav kothari 1 month before i registered a complaint of nont refunding a amount of rS.20000 by sotc jaipur, but now the problem has been resolved by the delhi and mumbai office and i have received the amount back.

thanks to sotc for there proffesional behaviour.

regards
gaurav kothari

We a group of 8 persons of 2 Families visited Singapore & Kualalumpur in a 7N/8D package of SOTC.The entire tour was mismanaged & the Hotels they booked is not even 1star ranking in India whereas they told that those are 3star catagories.The Breakfast is Horrible in Indian standard.Till the last day of boarding We are in a dilemma about the tour & lastly couldnot be picked for Airport at Singapore & nobody was there to listen to us.The half-day City tour at Kulalumpur started at 10am & finished at 12noon without even shown anything except the Chocolate Factory & Jadd's batic center the 2 commercial places.The experience to travel with SOTC is horrible.Please check before you book with it.