SOTC Complaints & Reviews

Ref: MR A...CHAKRABORTY x2 // FS19005039 // EUF[protected] //...522 //

The Team from SOTC comprising of 1.Ms. Pallavi Shah (Sales), 2.Mr. Sandeep Kadam (Deputy Manager – Visa Services) and 3. Ashish Kadam (Senior Executive – Service(Pune & MAH Channel) towards customizing the travel plan of Greece for me and my husband.
Office Address : SOTC Tour Operating,
SOTC Travel Ltd.103/104/105A,
1st Floor City Point, Dhole Patil Road,
Pune 411001 INDIA

The trip was scheduled : 24th Sept till 2nd Oct 2019
I would like to narrate the most worst experience of my life while dealing with SOTC Travel Ltd. Please note that me and my husband, who an American National, travel regularly to different parts of the world such as USA, UK, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, UAE, Singapore etc. etc., and I have never been refused any visa so far. - We made contact with SOTC end of June 2019 (20th June 2019), to arrange for a customized holiday to Greece me and my husband (an American national) starting from 24th September2019 to 2nd October 2019. I selected SOTC because it was a known and big company with experience. - SOTC asked me to pay up the initial amount of ₹ 100000/- One lakh INR (No.797266 dated 3rd of July 2019) which I paid immediately and it reflected in SOTC’s accounts. - Nearly 2 months SOTC sat with my money and fixed up an Appointment for visa only on 30th August2019. Even though I gave repeated reminder, every time the standard reply was "don't worry everything is in place and our visa team is working on it, they will contact you". As per the instruction of SOTC I had submitted all documents at the time of my Visa Appointment on 30th Aug 2019. However, my Tourist Visa (Schengen) application was refused with the refusal tick-marking on the following two points:
# 7, stating the ‘justification of purpose and conditions of intended stay were not reliable’ and
# 8, stating that ‘your intention to leave the territory before the expiry could not be ascertained’.

Reason for Visa Refusal - first point ‘justification of purpose and conditions of intended stay were not reliable’ .

- Incorrect, inadequate and incomplete data sent by SOTC for the visa application. - The Visa Application Form was wrongly filled up by SOTC, there was no mention of Hotel Names and Address & contact number which is must for Tourist Visa (that particular column in the visa form left empty). - There was no confirmation vouchers of our hotel bookings or rail / bus / boat etc. When I implored to them for some tangible documentation that can prove the veracity of my visit, they gave me some incongruous copy of the letter which spoke about some hotel reservation but without any addresses or confirmation. I, as a lay person doubted it, and even the Visa documentationsection questioned of course justly I should think the Greek Embassy did notgrant me visa. And I was refused the visa stating the ‘justification of purpose andconditions of intended stay were not reliable’. The second reason for refusal as pointed out was ‘your intention to leave the territory before the expiry could not be ascertained’. Reason: SOTC's incorrect and inappropriate request for the grant of multiple entry visa (as asked by SOTC in both the Application form and covering letter) although our stay in Greece from 24th Sept to 2nd Oct ask for a request for single entry visa. When I expressed my doubt about the same, the concerned, so called visa expert, Mr. Sandeep Kadam told me that asking for a multiple entry visa is their usual practice, even though one need a single entry visa permission.

For this entire erroneous job of wrong guidance, incorrect& incomplete data filling up of Visa Application, SOTC charged me INR 8000/- per person . Cancellation of 2nd Visa Appointment of 13th Sept 2019: After first time refusal of Visa, I requested Greece Embassy for granting me permission to reapply for Visa on the ground that we are genuine travelers and our bookings are already confirmed (the impression given by SOTC Team). Greece Embassy grated me permission for reapplication over email. Brought to the eleventh hour in this condition, I approached the SOTC Team, Boat Club Road, Pune, Maharashtra on 11th Sept 2019imploring them to issue me some extra documentation to prove authenticity of my case to the Greek Embassy in New Delhi and reapply for the visa. Ms. Pallavi and Mr Sandeep assured me that they would try and give me the vouchers of my hotel booking. So with this new resolution to try and make things work somehow and re-apply for my visa I requested them to give me the original booking vouchers, so that I may prove my authenticity towards the Embassy. We agreed upon that and I returned home to do the other formalities with a promise from SOTC to send me the additional documents (confirmation vouchers of Hotel Bookings, train, boats and other land travel) . SOTC took new appointment on 13th Sept. for Visa re-application. They promised me to send the additional documents by 11th Sept. evening so that I can go through them before I re-appear on 13th Sept. SOTC Team fooled me once again and to our surprise, very late in the night, they sent us some cock and bull documents, like xerox copies of my passport and husband's passport and an incomplete Application form and a wrong covering letter, which they already provided me during my 1stVisa application. But failed to produce any additional tangible documents canprove the authenticity of my visit without which there is no point to re-apply.Not a single document, as if in the firstplace itself, they had not made any reservations for me and my husband. This istantamount to complete fraud and deceit !!! I tried to call the SOTC Team many times for the additionaldocuments throughout 12th Sept. and every time their standard answer was"Madam give us some time, will send you in an 1 hr. time". Till 13thSept when my interview was scheduled, they did not send me any additional documentsof Hotel Confirmation to proof my case. It is common sense that you cannotapply for Visa with the same documents that were refused in the first place.
Instead SOTC Team lead by Ms. Pallavi Shah cooked up some new story (new proposal)and asked for immediate payment of more than 2 lakhs rupees by 12thSept evening itsel[censored] Moreover in the second Visa Application Form they changed thegrant for entry request from "Multiple Entry" to "SingleEntry" but in the covering letter they requested for grant "MultipleEntry" visa. Total contradiction in the Application form and Coveringletter. Several mistakes made by SOTC again and again.In this way barred me from my second attempt to re-apply for GreeceVisa on 13th Sept. SOTC instead of helping me in fructifying my trip, are all outto sabotage my attempt to make it work. After all these, SOTC tried their best to cover-up their failureand mistakes by writing different emails trying to divert the pointer towardsme. My case is genuine, my attempt to make my trip work is ardent, my financial documents and all other documents which came from my side were allacceptable to the Embassy. We had paid the advance amount two months well in advance BUT what failed was the old champion of a travel company like SOTC which has inefficientstaff or maybe even negligent staff that did not do my reservations and spoiltmy case before the Embassy by giving me inadequate documents. However, now SOTC is trying to gain by putting its hands up by stating that it’sI who didn’t get the visa and not what really prompted me not to get one. In the final run I am the loser in cash and time. We saddled with unnecessary stress, many sleepless nights with an aborted trip and loss of funds for an error committed by SOTC. Incompetency, negligence and misdeeds of SOTC Team caused me permanent dent in my travelling career. I want compensation for the damage caused to us, both mental and financial, by SOTC, plus the refund of the entire money of 1 lakh rupees, which I paid to SOTC without any fault of mine. I want to stop such unethical practices by Big Travel company like SOTC Travel Ltd. of trapping naïve clients who are made to pay all their hard earned money for this frivolous, degrading end.

A Chakraborty

I visited dubai via sotc pimple saudagar branch. I choose sotc just considering that it's such a big organization and it will be a great and pleasant experience.
But to my surprise it's totally reverse.
Even a standalone tour operators would be better than sotc people.

There are couple of reasons behind this.
1) i paid initial amount and they book flight tickets then sotc literally forget me. Before 8 days of my travel date i called them and taken follow up.
Then agent of pimple saudagar took my documents and applied for dubai visa.

2) the kit given by sotc was also extremely bad in condition.
Bag's chain was not working.
Metal on bag chain was rusted which proves that bag is completely old.
I complained and they literally made false and fake promises and even till this date i have that rusted metal bag whose chain is not working.

3) there was absolutely no help for currency exchange from sotc and team.

4) i reside in pune. Even though there were flights from pune to save their stake they gave me tickets from mumbai.

5) there was absolutely no guidance for travelling to mumbai. At least they would have suggested/booked any taxi till mumbai. But no. Customer delight is not at all in their practice.

6) the day before departure agent of pimple saudagar came and gave itenary so you won't have any scope or time of any argument or discussion.
Whatever they have included in itenary you have to simply accept it.

7) i was told to pay remaining amount just before 3 days of departure. Can you imagine? If there is weekend and i couldn't pay them they would not have given final itenary to me.
It's this level of mismanaged by pune sotc team.

I escalated till highest authority and then after number of calls i was able to get things on track. Even their highest authority manager scolled local branch manager for such a mess.

Worst experience on trip.
7) if you think it's package tour and there will be group with you then forget it.
It's more like individual tour.
There will not be common guide.
For one place your guidance will different for another day guide or driver will be different.

8) even their partner in dubai "beat value tour" is also of same degraded level.
He is one step ahead.in place like dubai he drove us from dubai to abu dhabi 160 km with van whose ac was screwed up.
Each and everyone on the van was complaining. But this is sotc.

9) just to fill up empty bus seats a driver of best value tourism waited in parking lot for 43 mins and just wasted every tourist time.

10) there was very little tour guidance from abu dhabi city tour.
Driver was behaving like we are owning money to him.

11) no coordination between sotc and best value tourism of dubai.

Even through i mention local contact that we are veg people next day he send non-vegetarian parcel so this proves that they are not keeping any records for any client.

Worst management.
I'm not sure for what they are charging.
This was harassment and biggest mistake to opt sotc.
I won't wonder is this organization also get close like thomas coock. Because it's standards are even degraded than a local tour.

Frankly speaking try to avoid sotc and opt for any other tour operator.

As i have booked for group tour just two days back and i immidietly asked them to shift for customised pack. But they are saying they are going charge 15k person just for shifting.. And they are not going to share any receipt. Just for shifting from group tour to customised. Worst company and fraud company ever.. Regretting after booking it. Please some one let me know whom to contact or what to do.

Consumer no:[protected], booking id 1: gs19005750, date of booking: 10/05/19, booking id 2 : gs19007020, amount paid: :3, 11, 174/- for one booking, date of payment: :18/3/19, mode of payment: online, transaction ids :[protected],[protected], place:europe, the above mentioned company had offered the 4 days holiday package the tour of europe and consumer accepted the offer booked it on 10/05/19 and paid amount of 3, 11, 174/- through online, now the company is not responding to the consumers calls, so he wants to file a grievance against the company. Expectation: consumer expects the holiday package as promised by the company or the refund amount.

Not only that once we have paid the more than half the amount they said if you pay through credit card there would be additional charge of 2% and we had to shell out another 6 thousand extra. We were two couple and were promised to be in same flight and they gave seperate flights and charged extra for that. They are totally threating customers and extract as much money as possible. As the customer would have paid more than half of the amount, and if he cancels they will not refund without their bulky deductions. I am the one coming forward, i do not know how many are just shelling out the money as per their wims and fancies.

Regards
Sharmila jain

[protected]

They are you acting as fraud,
No body is replying,
If they are not able to arrange my tour then plz refund my money...
I have called their customer care and asked several times for my problem but no body is responding.
They have taken 84000 rs and from that day they are not responding to my mail or call,
It has been 5 day asking their customer care and mailing them to reply.
So if this company can not provide the tour for which they have taken the amount then plz refund the amount.

We had family trip to ladakh with sotc. No travel guide manager was provided to us. The driver was careless and kept talking over phone while driving. Also the driver did not know our itinerary at all, every time we had to guide him about the same. The food was very average and all day the same boring food was provided. The cost of camel safari was not provided by sotc although it was supposed to be sponsored by them, and no bonfire was arranged which is mentioned in the itinerary.

Hi,

Guys don't plan your vacation trip through sotc and specially banglore, they know only one thing that how to ruin someone's trip. I was planing to travel to dubai in march 2019 and they took 2 months to book each and everything i. E. Flight and hotel, and my trip was held in may 2019 instead in march and the service was disaster. Earlier they book flight as per their own without customer permission and when airline have some problem then they said you need pay more amount to book another flight. Instead of accepting their mistakes they just blaming the customers i. E. This is your fault not ours. Not just the employee who working in sotc banglore having casual behaviour their managers have also casual behaviour. Their mangement don't want to understand customer challenges, specially these guys (Preeti pawar & yuvraj) are deaf and dumb.
So guys if you receive call from these guys or if your call is pick up by these guys then just hang up the call don't listen to these guys

Regards
Arun

Extremely poor, unprofessional uncourteous and i'll mannered dealing of the staffs including branch and zonal heads at salt lake, kolkata. Very keen to get the entire payments but once, the full payment is made, they are not bothered to listen to the problems /issues of the people undertaking the package tours. Same comments are applicable to the tour manager. All most all the people who accompanied us from india have the same views. Everywhere, the hotels are located at remote places far from the city. Food is average and no morning tea was provided which is essential for senior people. My purse was pickpocketed at paris and lost all my money and cards but did not get any help to lodge a complaint to the police. Tower bridge at london and collogeum at rome were shown from distant places/outside. Though, deviation charges were paid by me for change in return date but our both onward and return journey tickets were made in etihad air lines in place of emirates. Huge extra money was charged to us with respect to other travellers. Don't know why additional money of eur 3.0 was charged per person per day for guide when guide was seen only on two days in the entire tour.
I am yet to get eur 60.00 refund as agreed to pay by sotc for not visiting disneyland at paris, though i lodged the claim immediately after our return. I am yet to get the details of the free holiday package from sotc.
In short, we are not happy travelling with sotc and probably will not travel in future and also discourage my friends and relatives to travel with sotc.
Mohit mohan baksi
Mob. No.[protected]/[protected]

I am writing my experience so it can help others especially folks who plan from India with an agent who they meet online/ad’s/local branch.
I would like to say that dealing with SOTC initially was very pleasing i.e. going back and forth with prices, packages and all that... after the initially payment (‘so called token amount’)..We realized that their whole intent and agenda was to just force the customers to go on the trip. They are just beyond horrible. I highly suggest to stay away from this money-snatching people/company.
We were a group of 10 or so family members wishing to go on an international trip by using one of the packages sotc was offering. We were given a quote for complete trip per person and 15000 RS per person was collected in the name of “Token amount “in order to reserve a spot on the trip date we were looking for. These quotes were provided over email and nothing official to assure us. Things started to get clear when they started mixing the prices as an how they wish (this was cause we changed agents and each one was just trying to make their commission, typical work politics) this is where we realized that there we no ethics or company standards when it comes to customer service. We informed them that we no longer wanted to go with them and the money that was collected be refunded. And the guy (who was apparently the Manager) stated that per the cancellation policy the amount would be forfeited. This guy was a complete joke, till date I wonder -is this how such people survive? No conscious what so ever. We had the issue escalated from that so called “booking” team manager to customer service manager, and was i surprised – 1000%- that customer service dept was even worst .. They had quite the guts to just keep dragging and put us through mental stress… just writing some random excuse in replies to keep pushing us. In my entire life experience in customer service by any company- this team takes the credit of being the worst. I don’t think I will find any other company meeting this standard set by them. Below cheap, low, name the worst level. They are it . Absolute shameless. After 30 days or so, countless emails asking them for an update, the CS rep informs (over a call, not in email) that they can only do a travel voucher as a favor. So the next thing I did.. was write to managing director of the company and another person from board of directors (this was a first for me) .. Just imagine the service by the employees so far that I had no choice but to write to MD:Vishal suri.within 30 min of this email came the email stating amount will be refunded in full from CS head..and there goes the cancellation policy which was completely made up by the whoever we interacted thus far. the experience dint end here, .. the refund process took easily a month.. God knows why. After two months or painful ordeal, mental harassment, countless emails we were able to get our hard-earned money back.
Suggestions:
• Firstly donot even consider this company but in case you are already decided then..Before you decide on a tour and the price – please ask for the tour brochure, booking form, booking rules, term and conditions, every paper or form that they need to give you, BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY PAYMENT (THIS SHOULD BE DONE EVEN BEFORE YOU PAY THEM A DIME). They will push you saying prices will change, don’t fall for it. Please read each and every word carefully on all of the forms you get, please communicate everything in writing or have then mention whatever they speak over the phone in an email. Trust me they make promises that sound amazing but they never give in writing .if you don’t understand, ask them to once, twice.., till it’s clear to you. Do not hesitate.
• Before they ask you to pay the ‘token amount’.. have them give in writing why they are collecting it, its purpose, is it refundable, why is it not refundable, where is this condition mentioned in the official brochure/ website to make sure of this payment is valid. I have read the all the rules, terms, conditions forms..out on google, their website, everywhere possible .. There was no mention of any token amount or its reference and as to why it’s being collected. If only I wish had done the homework before I paid the token amount. Life would have been easy.
• They have something called a booking form which is THE CONTRACT BETWEEN (along with couple other forms) the company and the customer, the agent and the customer sign on it, it has all the details of the tour, amount, cancellation charges -THIS IS EVERYTHING.. BEFORE YOU SIGN THIS PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SIGNING UP FOR. We haven’t signed this form and it made the whole difference. Because we dint have this form we got our money back. (per booking rules of the company). Before you sign any form please double check as to why. Also please DONOT SIGN BLANK BOOKING FORM .. these agents will try to get you sign this at the beginning so you are left with no choice but to go on the trip or lose the money you paid. Also do not forward any photo copies of your information this early.. all they need is a name (per passport) to make a reservation. It while filling the booking form you would need your complete details.
• If you have change of plans after you have paid the token amount and haven’t signed any forms, as a courtesy please reach out to the CS reps to know when they will refund the amount.
Do not hesitate to reach to the highest level of the management if you don’t get any answers from the lower management.
• I would suggest if the matter is beyond 30 days or so then simply file a case with consumer court of India, this is very important and helpful portal and would save a lot of time and drama since the company would be accountable per the law without a contract.
https://consumerhelpline.gov.in/
There are govt consumer helpline even for each state which could help too.
• Imagine how much unaccountable money they make with such lies, cooked up rules mentioned no where. Fooling the customers. They put us through this night mare without we having any contract – such is the company standards. These people just dint want to let go of the token amount or business. All through the experience all I was thinking was..how do such people exist ?Do they have families? Does the family know what kind of work they do.. Cheating, blackmail, harassing people? How do they sleep at night? How can they make a living out of this?. No humanity what so ever.

The worst company to travel with is sotc. I booked trip for my parents and the management, communication and feedback by the sotc team was worst. No service. Delay in replies. We have to call again n again to take feedbacks. Pathetic service and worst management. Don't travel with this company. It's better to consider other ours like kesari, heena, thomas cook

Sotc booked wrong flights for me and my husband due to which we were at an international airport for 3 days without our baggage. Moreover they overcharged from us. We had a very horrible experience for spending 3 night s at the airport due to the negligence of sotc.

We tried to contact them
Many times no one picked up the phone last day they attended us. Why they took money from us if we had to spend our own

Hi,
In March 2019 I got a written quote for a tour to Sweden for 3 persons to travel to Stockholm and proceed to Falun by train.
Your quote was for INR 323190/-
Including railway.
You confirmed all details and asked for payment and Rs. 255000/- was paid in March itself for the tour from 24 th June to 27th june.
In the first week of June they said they could not book the train tickets from Stockholm to Falun and we were asked to do it by ourselves.
We have booked railway at SEK 2010
Same class 2nd. Because you said you could not book the train from ARN to Falun
Then they said they have booked air ticket so that we arrive on the 25th of June. Instead of 24th. This was not acceptable.
So they rebooked so that our original date of arrival 24th was met
Now they are saying due to the fault of the booking team this happened and the tour cost is going up by 30000/-
They won't release the tickets and passport unless I pay the extra amount
Which arose due to their mistakes.
Please point out what was my fault.
Regards
Hari.n.m

We had a worst experience in picking up Great Britain package for 7 nights 8 days in the month May 14 2019.

This was our 3rd trip planned with SOTC. Every time we book for an international group tour either something would go wrong in the beginning or after landing in the tour, but we get convinced by the hotels they provide in the group tour but this time even that did not happen.

They are very smart in giving the hotels at the best and screw in the middle... like any international budgeted or cost saver tour group tour we pick, the shorter stay like 1night they give 4 star properties outside the cities but if there is a longer stay for say more 2 nights the hotels would be like a lodging on cheaper which is not the worth of the money we pay for.

This time when we went for Great Britain all the hotels provided were holiday inn, ibis and atrium but please do not get carried away by the names since even these reputed hotel have low cost budgeted hotels which we came only after experiencing the tour wherein we stayed in Scotland Motherwell in holiday inn express and we are family of 3 and they adjusted the extra bed squeezed in the entrance and we were not even able to enter inside the room. When we asked for this the hotel rep said that all the rooms were like and currently the rooms are full. Then our tour asked whether we could share the rooms with the other family cos all the family who were of 3 had the same problem. Can you imagine in our holiday we have share the rooms with the other family none of them in our group were comfortable in this idea and I tried calling the south regional manager SOTC MR. Rajeev Naidu and it turns out that he was useless option that we had tried out. None of them helped us out and one o[censored]s had to literally sleep on the floor for 3 nights .

If it’s a budgeted or cost saver tour in sotc please do not opt for this kind international group tour operators since you would be experiencing a lot of shocking unexpected changes in the tour and you will not be able do anything about it. You have argue with the tour manager call your local sales team from SOTC nothing would be changed.

Every thing they put in a fancy way of showing the tour will not be the same once you land there and we have return back thinking of messing our valuable holiday time with our family ruined.

Please do think a lot before considering to book a tour with SOTC international group tour holiday packages

We were given documents to produce at VFS visa application centre and when we produced them there we were told that my wife's documents are there but mine was not there. I had to telephone SOTC Coimbatore and got the documents by e-mail and got them printed by paying Rs 280 from my pocket.
I reported this matter to their customer care asking them to refund the amount but there has been no response.
Our tour commences on 30 Jul 2019. While Visa for UK and Schengen can be applied 90 days before departure, they fixed the appointment for UK Visa only on 04 Jun 2019. UK Visa may come only by 17 Jun or so after which only they will fix up appointment for Schengen Visa which means that till atleast 15 Jul 2019 we will have to wait

COMPLAINT AGAINST – SOTC TRAVEL LIMITED

FROM;
DR DAGA SACHIN V
HEAD HPB & LIVER TRANSPLANT SURGEON
MAXCURE HOSPITAL
HYDERABAD

We were planning for holiday for Singapore so we started online search. During which we enquired on SOTC for Singapore package trip. We got a call from Mr. Harshit Odedra. He took details from us regarding travel and as per our request he Said will customize the travel and get back to us.

Details from our side
1. We wish to travel after 12 noon from Mumbai to Singapore on 31st may as we can’t reach Mumbai before 9am on 31st may .
2. We wish to be in Singapore from 31st night to 5th evening.
3. We can’t provide physical passport for visa as our passports are in Dubai, in view of which our booking is subjected to confirmation only and only if its possible to do visa without physical passport.
He agreed to these things on phone and said we can do everything as per your request and I’m sending quotation for the trip. (Attachment 1) (Attachment 2).

After confirmation and repeatedly asking him regarding visa without physical passport we agreed to do payment and go ahead for further booking . He asked us to send scanned copies of all passports which we sent him immediately on watsapp.

Payment details
We did payments details in two parts
1. 1, 80, 000=00
2. 4, 50, 000=00
first payment was done immediately after their suggestion so that they can go ahead and book on 10th may. Receipt of same from their side ( attachment 3).

Actually after part payment they were supposed to start our formalities of booking. However the greed for money is bad.They asked us to do complete payment other wise booking will not be done. We were in a wedding still due to repeated calls from their person we were forced to download paytm app n do all the payment. We were always asked to do everything urgently or we were threatened regarding problem of visa processing .

He was supposed to share the link for payment of remaining amount on 11 th may which was on Saturday. He didn’t share the link. But was constantly behind us regarding payment and troubling . (attachment 4). With great difficulty I have registered his account in my internet banking and after cooling period transferred remaining amount of 4, 50, 000 on 12th may and 13th may as there is limit for online transfer. (attachment 4).

After complete transfer of amount SOTC stopped communicating with us. There was no call from them regarding how to proceed with visa, what about air tickets and confirmation of accommodation.
We thought they are doing things on their end as they were asking few documents and we were forwarding on wats app. On Saturday 18th we called them regarding what’s happening to our trip we got shocking reply no one is communicating from our side (attachment 4). We are really sorry for such delay we will escalate the matter. Even then no one called or communicated us.
Only call we were getting was from finance people regarding payment. We have received your full payment but we are having some issues please send statement of bank account. I was insisting them to have look at the payment UPI no and tally and for the same reason I have send them all the UPI no of transactions but they were repeatedly asking for my bank statement. I don’t know what was the reason. I really doubt their intentions.
At last we got worried and started calling again the person who did booking for us on 20th may. Then he said I’m sorry for the delay. He said our service team will coordinate with you. The service team said we can’t do visa without physical passport on date 20th eve.( Visa Last moment rush)
We got call from many people regarding sorry for poor service, we are trying best to do booking for you.

Then they asked us to be in touch with local SOTC people for visa services. We gave telephonic call to them asking for assistance of visa . The person Mr. Ajay was so rude and harsh no words can explain that. He was telling you have done online booking why are you bothering us you ask online people don’t bother me. If you want to do visa send documents and we will do it. For all your queires you contact online people. We actually wanted to ask what all documents we need to come with for visa. My wife went to submit visa documents. She was not able to locate the address. She called all the available numbers many times but no one received the calls. She asked nearby people and managed to reach the office. Then she received a call from them. She took all the documents needed as per the mail sent by you. My kids were out of station. We had to call the kids for photos, thumb impression and sign. She went to submit the papers for visa and the experience was horrible. They said kids ID cards and our degree certificates are needed. When my wife told about the problem we faced, a person there asked why did we book online. We should have come to their office and enquired. So your own employees are not confident about your services.
They gave us address of dubai office which my brother already knew about. He has a busy schedule there due to which its difficult for him to roam about and apply for visa. This was the reason for which we booked ur package because your guy assured us visa without physical passport.
Even then because we wanted to go for holiday we convinced my brother to go for visa processing. we asked to share flight details and hotel details. Then we got to know that one total day of our package for one family is reduced. We again called the concerned person n said this cannot happen. He convinced me that he will change the flight. I told him I will not submit my visa documents. I again got a call saying please submit documents because visa in India takes time and he assured me evening flight. I again took kids report cards and our certificates and submitted them. Then in the evening we got a call saying flight is expensive and we will give you a dinner complimentary. I told them this cannot happen and asked them to cancel the trip and stop our visa processing. Even then they sent our passports for visa processing.

Problems here are
1. False assurance of visa without physical passport ( Attachment 1 )
2. No communication after full payment for more than 10 days ( attachment )
3. Even after repeated calls no proper support (attachment)
4. Assured to give 5 days and 4night tour package but gave only 4 nights and 3 days.( Attachment )
5. Every morning new assurance and then denying same in the evening. (deviation of package)
6. Repeatedly asking to continue tour package accepting their mistake.
7. Point of contact were more than 10 people with no one aware of anything, one used to promise and other use to inform that this is not possible.
8. This is forgery and cheating to the common man, its common by these online and so called big travel agent to cheat people first ask them to do booking, then full payment, then irritate them by changing frequently promise made so that they can cancel and they will not give any refund and keep among them self. (Attachment)

I have booked a package for Australia in March 2019. When I enquired about that I have funds in my fixed deposit instead of savings account that were clear about it.
And after some days their executive told me that it’s better to break the fixed deposit.

When I submitted the documents at their CP Delhi branch they told me that all my documents are ok for your visa application and we will file it in 3-4 days.

When I called them after five days they told me that we are currently filing for people who are going in May 2019.

Than almost 15 days have passed and they haven’t submitted the application.

When they filed after 18 days after submitting docs to them they didn’t shared the application for review as almost all travel agents reviewed with their customers.

When the visa got refused and then I asked them to share my submitted application they didn’t provided for 3-4 days after so many reminders.

When they provided application docs were completely mismanaged.

And even their sales executive told me that since you are working in the same company for the past eight years you haven’t provided appraisal letters that shows your growth in income which were never asked by them.

This clearly shows that they are not bothered about their customers and also they didn’t inform me that you don’t have travel history in the past five years so it might impact your application.

And then they deduct 50000 per person.

Never go for vacation with SOTC.

Thanks,
Swapan

The feedback from the company was worst to mention.
The tickets were received 3 days prior to the departure.
Forcefully rs1940 per person was charged on account of sur charge whereas this was not paid by any of the 48 travelers who traveled with us.
The booking of the package was done in feb but in march the company came out with better offers.
The hotel provided in florence was worst. Not even 2 star with iron road beds, washroom as small a cubical.
The company is not transparent in updates and once paid the booking amount you are stuck with no option to do what they ask as refunds and deduction policies are very strong and all to their favour.

I am kalpesh prajapati as businessman.

Sotc give the worst service at both place dinner is worst not even any animal eat this type of food given.

And guide tour is pay more in jungfraujoch because i have twin daughter age is 12 running and they say she is adult so i paid 130 euro of each and other day i want mt. Titlis they have given the 2 ticket for adult and 2 ticket for child so this time my daughter is child when they include the package ticket my child is child and i buy ticket then my child is adult.

Hotel in switzerland no soap no toothpaste and hotel is very bad condition

even ms. Divya ( guide tour )is also not about how many euro or chf in ice flyer so i lot money send in austri and switzerland.
I have purchse some item from swarovski and claim at airport they say that at you enter switzerland then stamp at border then claim so i can't get refund due to less knowledge of the guide tour of ms. Divya.

I suggest not go to with sotc tour . This first and last experience never .

Please i give the advise not tour with sotc.
My tour date (24.05.2019 to 31.05.2019 )

kalpesh prajapti

As i did not have a room partner i was unable to undertake the bhutan tour i informed your office more than a month before the trip i was told that no money is refundable as it was a group booking i also understand that a premium tour to bhutan costs only rs 50000/- whereas a group booking charges were rs 51500/-
I understand that your office has refunded nearly 50% of the trip amount to one mrs. Bhuvana who happened to cancel the trip in the last moment.
Even though i informed of my cancellation more than a month before the trip, no refund out of 25, 000/ paid by me was given.
I also understand that i have been charged over and above the premium bhutan individual tour rates. This clearly indicates that ours is not a group booking rate.
So kindly refund the rs.25000/-paid by me after deducting air ticket cancellation charges, if any.
Lalitha krishnaswamy

I had booked a glimpses of europe tour of 15 days which was schedules to depart on 24th of april 2019, then the tour got cancelled because of jet airways shutdown. I paid 4, 08, 000 for 2 people and i got back only 3, 63, 561 and they didn't gave reason why they cut 44000. I should get back my amount in full as the tour is cancelled by them. I was promised by mr. Nazish naik that only 20000rs will be cut as visa application charges and rest amount would be given back. The mistake here is of sotc as they booked jet airways flight even when they knew the company was on brink of shutting down. I need my money back. I will advise never to book a tour with sotc they always try to extract money from you in some form or other.