SOTC Complaints & Reviews

SOTC i s cheating the customers and even customer service at the highest level do not comply with promises. Money back promised is just gimmick and not pay even after months of complaints. The credit card swiping is done on different entity thus depriving customer of promised money back.
CCK Nambiar
[protected]

I have booked for dubai group tour. Our one night stay was in palm atlantis. For that our tour manager has charged double amount from us telling dolphine bay is included. But when we reach there they told us your booking is not there.
If any responsible and sensible person is there in sotc to listen then please do any action. Everytime i call any person they say talk to this talk to them. Is this the way to treat your customers.?

We have booked japan group tour for departure on 10.09.2018 for 6 nights. Now due to adverse circumstances, the trip is departing on 11.09.2018 but sotc has cut down the trip to 5 nights. This kind of service is not acceptable at all. We already had a short trip of 6 nights and that you have reduced it to 5 nights now with the same cost. The trip is as it is very expensive and we are not satisfied with this shortening of our trip.
We are not satisfied with your service and don't feel that we are getting true value for our money.

I booked mauritius travel package with sotc. After making payment they never got in touch. They rarely pick up the phone, and no senior person is ever available to answer any grievance. 2 days before my departure i have still not got the tickets or hotel vouchers. Any enquiry for additional information, booking of additional optional activities, etc goes unanswered.

Sir, i had booked splendid europe - eur232 - 04th october 2018 and suddenly i came to know from email that it is cancelled. No body from booking office had intimated me for this latest status of my tour. Sotc sales office had also offered me splendid europe eur232- 18th october 2018 or any other product as per availability without mentioning the cost to the customers, itinerary and tour program i. E. Places likely to cover in the offered tour. I had also contacted helpline to give the reasons for cancellation and other information, they had also failed to give me the information. I feel that sotc should concentrate to trained their sales office personnel and call center staff to take care the needs of the customers. My carries is still pending and hope to get feedback at the earliest.

Brig harwant singh and his wife had booked a group tour to japan through the chandigarh branch office of the s. Ot. C.
Tour name *"splendors of japan"* (06n/07d).

S. O. T. C. Tour code: far[protected]

Duration of the tour 14 august to 20 august 2018.

For getting the visa for japan, in july '18, a representative of the s. O. T. C office chandigarh came to collect passports and other documents like the bank statement, copies of the income tax returns. While collecting the passports he asked brig harwant singh to write down his e-mail id so that in case passports are misplaced and are found by some one, the owner could be informed
Accordingly brig harwant singh wrote his and his wife's e mail ids on page 2 of his passport.

When brig and mrs harwant singh went for check in at the new delhi air port in the evening of 13 august brig harwant singh was informed that since some thing was written on the passport, he could not board his flight to japan (Flight number ai 314. Thus the whole tour was aborted due to the mistake of the representative of the sotc.

Name of the representative of the chandigarh office of the s. O. T. C. Who collected the passports is deepak, phone number [protected].

Address of the s. O. T. C. Office at chandigarh is sco 147-148 sector 8.

Name of the in charge of their chandigarh office is sushil sharma, phone number [protected].

I have booked a tour for 3 persons through sotc lucknow. Until they have got payment from me staff was very humble and cooperative. My tour is from 17-25 aug 2018. There is some issues which i wanted to be solved but now nobody is responding even they are not giving any reply of my emails. Earlier they were saying that my staff will be there to help you but as if they are not helping here how can i expect help in uk tour. They have given me itinerary and sightseeing tickets in such a way that i have to go everywhere to collect on my own, even at some places they have not arranged transfers. Now these people even customer care and head office bombay people are not responding satisfactorily, just everybody want to escape.
I will never advise to take tours from sotc.

I have booked Mumbai to Port Blair and back 5Days 6 nights package on 4.4.18 from 17.4.2018 and conformed the same on7.4.2018 for hotel bookings. Unfortunately I received message on 8.4.2018 my mother is expired at mt village i Telangan. Immediately I infored to customer care on 8.4.2018 not book hotels and requested for cancellation. I sent my mothers death certificate also. The Manager SOTC informed me they are trying for full refund because of genuine reason. After 3 months on 18.7.2018 they have deposited Rs.31, 361/- out of Rs. 42000/-. It is nearly 25% of paid amount deducted. They do not responded for hotel booking paid amount bills evidence. Being an international travel company how cheating is being done. I requet to refund me full amount By reducing 5% of paid amount towards processing fee. Kindly help me in this regard. from
A. Sreeramulu
Deputy Director General-retd.,
DGFASLI, MOLE, GOI,
Sion Mumbai-400022
Mobile: [protected]

Sir,
I have booked highlights o[censored]sa tour departing from 28/7/2018, i have paid all required tour cost as demanded by tour advisor the another tour advisor recovers additional tour cost from me more than estimated cost, about since 21 days i daily phone to sotc toll free number but neither tour advisor nor his senior taking phones, i have to board the flight on 26/7/18 but till 25/7/18 i don’t received any confirmation tour documents from sotc in spite of i have valid passport, usa’s visa, confirm air tickets, i am fade up with sotc, s system. And non cooperative staff. Who mentally harassed me.
Please help.
One fade up tourist

Booked Kenya Tour for three persons from SOTC Salt Lake, Kolkata. by paying 90000 for three family members. Asked for cancellation more than 45 days before the journey due to medical reasons . But they are reluctant to refund the advance amount. Asked for Doctors Advice, . The relative Prescription was provided .Now they want diagnostic report and yet I am uncertain whether or not they will refund or whats the end of this harassment . Similar to other complainants they are threatening that apart from this we would have to pay more charges Not expected such an unprofessional approach from SOTC. Its no denying once they get the payment their attitude changes . Will the appropriate authority look into it ?

G S Ali

I travelled on sotc tour european experience with cruise on 26th may 2018.
On arrival at the airport in barcelona, there was no body to receive us. I had to call the indian office of sotc at least six times, they provided a contact number, which nobody responded to.
I was traumatised for one and a half hours, running from pillar to post to locate a sotc representative.
I ran a bill of rs 2600 on my cellphone, calling india.

During the tour in florence italy, the room provided in hotel san marco was a single bed, very small room with hardly any amenities, inspite of sotc having charged me extra as i was a single passenger.

Sotc has a record of cheating and ill treating their group travellers, no amount of complaints has any effect on their unethical and un professional behaviour.
Its high time the consumer complaints forum took up these issues wuth sotc and levy exemplary penalities on the tour operator.

We have booked europe tour of sotc through space travels lucknow. Mr. Sagar joshi who is currently our group's tour manager for europe (12th to 22nd june 2018) is managing the tour very unprofessionally. It's already 10:10 am & the bus has not yet come to take us to disneyland. Mr. Sagar is giving excuses of rules & regulations while he is totally incapable & inefficient who does not know how to conduct tours smoothly. Yesterday also, our tour should have staryed by 1 pm but he came at 4 pm. Sotc must take strict action against him and also tell us how they can compensate for such mismanagement.

Goodevening

I am paresh salvi from badlapur maharashtra, i book thailand package for 8 member for 15 may 2018 from mumbai to bangkok, at the time of booking package the sale executive give us cost 34k per person but at the time of final payment they increase amount from 34k to 36800/- per person, we already mail to sotc related to this but no response is there, because of there sales and service team we give to extra amount for package and for visa.

We are ready to pay all balance amount before 20 days but they only giving wrong commitment regarding out flight tickets and hotel booking, they give us flight ticket and hotel booking on 14/5/2018 on night at 8.45pm, were are departure is on 15 may 12.15pm.

Worst service we face from sotc in india as well as in thailand, poor quality of food, hotel and no one guide us from mumbai to bangkok because of this we lost our luggage on airport.

Never want to book package again through sotc mumbai team.

Regards
Paresh salvi
[protected]

Sotc, 4 dham, char dham, travel package.
This was the worst travel of our life. We have been travelling for more than fifty years but this was the worst travel. We booked the premium package but sotc cheated us on all three fronts’ viz. Travel, food and accommodation.
1. The trip involves entire travel by road. The travel was very clearly booked for a/c vehicles and we were charged accordingly. But the driver switched on the air conditioning only during delhi –haridwar and rishikesh - delhi sector i. E. For only two days out of 11 days on road. Remaining all 9 days we had to breathe dust, diesel fumes and heat, with temperature sometimes touching 40 c. Whilst we were charged for a/c vehicle the drivers were paid at non a/c rates. Drivers offered to start a/c if they were paid a/c rates. This was brought to notice of ms. Neha (Operations dept. Of sotc) thru calls \ messages but she did not sort it out and we have to suffer for 9 of the 11 days. This is downright cheating.
2. We had never imagined that sotc will provide lunch\thali at roadside dhabas costing rs.80 per head. On the way to yamnotri there were a number of decent hotels which were ignored and food was provided at a small dhaba. Next day on visit to yamnotri there was no lunch at all. We saw kesri tour people being given packed lunch. When same thing happened on third day and we made a noise then the tour coordinator gave rs 1000 each person and asked us to make our own lunch arrangements for remaining 6 days, i. E. Rs 170 per lunch. What a great gesture on the part of sotc. The breakfast/dinner at all locations were also substandard. The reason was not “lack of availability” but of sotc trying to save money. At nirvana while we were given very basic dal/ sabzi dinner and two item breakfast, the next door nirvana was providing full spread breakfast. I saw the other family from our group being denied simple bread butter and milk for the child. One hotel owner mentioned that he was being paid rs.75 per head for the breakfast. He packed 2 parotha/ alu sabzi for breakfast and refused to even add a banana. Never expected sotc stooping to this level to save money.
3. Except at hardwar, all accommodations were substandard to say the least. Cockroaches, spiders kept us the company. Sotc initially mentions good hotels but changes these to substandard hotels after receiving full payments, on the grounds of non-availability of those hotels.
4. Less i say about the tour manager better it is. He was sent by a local travel agency and was totally ineffective. He was the best example of “hands off management”. We even had to manage the drivers.
In short, the worst experience of our life. It was like a punishment which we paid for.
Thanks sotc.
You have lost a long time customer for good.

My parents have been availing sotc for quite a while for tours around the world and they were satisfied. But recently they had a bad experience with sotc.

They booked a trip to japan from kolkata for 400k inr. They paid sotc in full 6 months in advance and provided the documents as they asked for. Sotc always told they will take care in checking and submitting the documents to be submitted for visa. Sotc applied the visa only 1 week before their travel and 4 days before the travel, the visa was rejected. Now they don't care or take responsibility about the loss even though my parents were their regular customer. They are only prompt while collecting the money.

Very unprofessional behavior from sotc. Before going for the visa process, we are asked to do the complete payment for the european splender trip and when asked if it can be paid once the visa is approved, we were told that they will cancel our visa application and the executive was very rude on call. With no other option the complete payment was done.

All documents were presubmitted to the executive and not observation was reported to us.

The visa application process was completed and to our shocker our visa was rejected due to "the information submitted regarding the justification for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay was not reliable"

On contacting the executive who was handling our application, he informs us that it is because of our mistake that the visa was refused and they had no role to play in this. Cancelling the trip was an option and the cancellation charges as per their policy will be applicable.

They offered us mauritius as an alternative location and there was one more sentence attached to it stating that

"as we discussed over the telecom please find the below cancelation details for your reference.

1. If you want to travel mauritius cancelation charges will be 40k + 5 % gst per person applicable.

2. If you are not traveling to mauritius cancelation charges will be as per the company policy.

Requesting you to kindly let us know your decision at the earliest."

Why should i loose my money because of their mistake?

We understand that both the documents "for justification of purpose and conditions of the intended stay" has been provided from your side since these documents were not asked from us.

The error is from their side and we are not ready to loose our money because of their miss in the documentation.

There were deviations from your side that was observed. The flight details that was sent to us for confirmation was completely different from the one that was documented in the documents which was submitted during the visa process.

Its high time these tugs are exposed to the travelling community and make sure no one goes through the trauma which i and my family went thought.

The way their executives handed our complete appointed is already giving us the impression that it was done with purpose. I am not ready to loose my hard earned money for the mistake that their executive did nor i am ready to be the scapegoat in their money making tactic of getting the visa cancelled and minting the money as cancellation charges.

The cancellation charges needs to be only the amount that was given for the visa application process

Sotc is definitely not serving its customer the way it says” it’s a chor company”! We had very bad experiences for continuous three years and in spite of that we had not learnt our lesson and the fourth and the last trip with these fraud people was last year 2017.
They hired such expert drivers for a customized tour from austria to budapest for us (That is what they say), the expert driver slept while driving on a highway to vienna in the morning it was a 4 hr drive and after completing two hr of drive sotc expert driver slept and the car met with an accident. It got dashed with two more cars and then hit the railing, thankfully the railing was existing or else we wld have toppled and got thrown into the lake.
We were traveling with our two daughters 14 and 17 yrs, we all got badly injured with bruises and fractures and my husband was the worst in all o[censored]s, he was unconscious for few seconds and his back his ribs got fractured, he was not able to walk or sit. It was the most scariest thing i had witnessed.
Sotc team instead of helping us out, laid their hands of the entire mishap.. We were asked to pay all the bills in the hospital in spite of insurance been taken. The mental trauma my whole family faced just because their driver slept while driving. My children couldn’t sleep for nights and were in shock for several days.
Instead sotc asked us to rebook our tkts on our own expenses and to fly back.
The best part is yet to come my husband was on a complete bed rest for 3 months. We requested to give us back our refund, of the incomplete trip which we did not finish due to the negligence of sotc. We had not yet asked for the compensation and the insurance amount also from sotc, it was just our refund amount. Inhumanity of the team and the audacity of sotc they had not even apologized once for taking us into this trauma.. But refused to refund our amount also as they said we had already prepaid so we cannot refund it back to you. This is what they promise us before taking us for a trip that “you are in safe hands”
I am thankful to god we are safe and under the-roof of our house but it still haunts us, especially my children.. And our lives are not the same as it use to be.. My husband after a year still has problem with his back.
This i have written not to get back any amount from this fraud company sotc but to warn people who put their hard earn money to make their dreams come true as what they say.. Please check re check before you plan a trip with them. Don’t risk your life, it’s precious than anything in this world.
Our tour operator were praveen reddy and nadeem who is the head operator.

I am complaining of harassment faced by my daughter at turkey airport on may 5th because of non-availability of egypt visa, which sotc was supposed to organize for us. She was not allowed to board the flight from istanbul to cairo (Turkish airlines) twice at the istanbul airport. She spent 17 hours at the airport pleading with the airlines but they would not let her board without a valid visa.
Here are the details:
We are a group of 21 people, who booked a tour of egypt, greece and turkey from may 5th to may 17th through sotc, bangalore. We booked the tour almost 4-5 months before the date of travel. Out of the 21 people, 16 were traveling from bangalore, 4 from mumbai and 1 from san francisco, usa. All tickets including the return ticket from sfo was booked by sotc themselves. The name of our sales representative from sotc bangalore is jayashree suvarna.

We were told to arrange a greek visa ourselves for my daughter, while sotc would take care of turkey and egypt visas (Copy of mail from jayashree available). We got the greek schengen visa from sfo issued on mar 20th 2018. A few days before the travel, we got the turkey e-visa. We got a letter of guarantee from a travel company (Elegant group) in egypt (On 27th april) containing names of 21 passengers on that letter. This letter would apparently entail us to get egypt visa – this is not a valid visa!!

On enquiring about pickup arrangements for my daughter as she was reaching 2 hours after us, we were suddenly informed on may 2nd that it is impossible for my daughter to get egypt visa if she arrives alone and hence we both should stay back in the airport and do the immigration with aditi (Min 3 people required). I asked for a separate letter for the 3 o[censored]s which sotc refused to give. On may 3rd, while checking flights we realized that the two o[censored]s are landing in terminal 2 (Oman airlines) while my daughter is arriving via turkish airlines in terminal 1. There is no way to exit from a terminal in cairo without clearing immigration. We panicked. Please note that instead of sotc informing us about this, we the passengers found out and informed sotc (Mail dated may 3rd). My husband and a friend spent the whole day at sotc office on may 4th trying to come up with a solution for this problem. We asked them to book both of our tickets on lufthansa which arrives in terminal 3 (1 hour before turkish airlines flight lands) and hence will solve the problem of terminal atleast!!

After a full day of negotiations, as soon as my husband left the office around 5 pm, sotc informed us that they will issue a letter of guarantee and guarantee us visa for my daughter and assured us that their agent would be waiting at the airport for her and “try their best” to get her into egypt. Since friday was a holiday in egypt, they could not get us the letter and would send it the next day (We were traveling next morning and my daughter was traveling in the next 10 hours). We did not want to take a risk and asked for cancellation for the 3 o[censored]s. Sotc rudely informed us that since they have provided all the services and we are cancelling, we will lose 100% of the money we had paid as cancellation charges!! 6+ lakhs is a lot of money to lose!!

I have a mail from jayshree guaranteeing me with sotc guarantee that my daughter would reach egypt!! Seeing this, we had no option but to travel very reluctantly. At sfo airport, turkish airlines (Sfo to istanbul, istanbul to cairo) took a written declaration from my daughter that if she does not get a visa, airlines is not responsible. She boarded the flight from sfo with valid boarding passes. At istanbul airport, she was stopped at the boarding gate and not allowed to board the flight to cairo. She showed them all the documents, letter of guarantee, our tickets etc. But no avail. They would not let her board (May 5th : flight tk 694 6:45 pm departure)

When we informed sotc of this, the first reaction was that she should fight with the airlines and handle everything herself. She was stuck without a ticket and visa in the airport – neither can she come out nor can she do anything there. After requesting a lot, sotc agreed to buy her a ticket on turkish airlines, next morning at 6:30 am. With this ticket, she again got a boarding pass issued – we appealed for help from egypt travel company, turkish travel company and sotc india.

Mr. Rajiv naidu from sotc bangalore (Jayashree’s boss) was most insensitive and started spreading false news that my daughter had missed the flight herself and the fact that she was not allowed to board was false. This is what he informed jayshree and i have sms from jayashree to prove this. He called us up atleast 4 times (3 different people) just to inform us that we should get a written letter from turkish airlines that they do are not allowing her to board because of visa issue or else we should pay the ticket fare ourselves. Imagine we are tense the while night waiting in egypt, my daughter in istanbul airport and here is the time to say such nonsense and spread lies about us!! Action, should definitely be taken against this person.

Next morning, my daughter reaches the boarding gate at 4:00 am – waits. Finally, they again stop her at the boarding gate again. She tries to call the egypt travel agency (They do not respond), sotc india, turkish travel agency (They did respond) and make them speak to the airlines but airlines refused to let her board. They informed that they have waited for 12 hours for confirmation from egypt visa authorities – since there was no reply from egypt, they could not let her board the flight!!

Finally, after 17 hours of ordeal, she took an e-visa into turkey, spent a day in the hotel and on 7th may she reached greece where a few of my relatives were there. She joined us on may 9th at santorini and completed rest of the trip with us.

1. Why did sotc not arrange a proper egypt visa for us (Or even inform us that visa is required and that we should arrange the same ourselves)? The web site clearly shows that visa on arrival is not granted for indian passport holders unless they are in a group. Since all tickets were booked by sotc 4 months prior to travel, why did they not know this for my daughter who was traveling alone and arrange proper visa?
P. S. The agent from elegant (Mr hamid) clearly told us that he can only try but not guarantee as visa-on-arrival is granted for indian citizens only if they arrive in a group!!

2. Since sotc has not arranged egypt visa as per service agreement, why did they demand 100% cancellation fee from us when we wanted to cancel trip for the 3 o[censored]s only (Not entire group)

3. Why did mr rajiv naidu inform sotc that my daughter has missed her flight intentionally and why was i mentally harassed by jayashree for this when i was already worried for my daughter on may 5th night?

4. We demand compensation for the expenses borne by our daughter for her stay in turkey and flight tickets from istanbul to athens and for mental harassment. We also demand full refund of the egypt tour amount for my daughter only.

Please note that all email communication, sms, phone records and witness details are available with us and can be shared with authorities as required.

Please respond at the earliest, failing which we will be forced to take further action against sotc.

I booked a tour to us with the company. After the booking nobody was available to resolve a simple query about the dates also. Every call was met with "we will get back to you on the issue". I would want my booking amount to be refunded.
They portray themselves as a big company but are actually a bunch of frauds who take no responsibility once they get the money....

Hi - i booked a package - hills of karnataka through sotc on 10th of may. I paid them the full amount then and there. I got minimum 10 calls about the package and payment link. But once the package is booked and paid they totally forgot me. When i contacted them again on 14th (I am supposed to travel with family on 19th) i was told that all hotels of ooty are booked, which is a lie because i can see that hotels are available. Also why did sotc slept after taking the full amount without booking hotels. I mailed them, no response. I called them and most of the time i had to ait on line for 20-30 mins or else i was told that they will call back and they frequently never did. They even had the gall to tell me to travel to mysore when i booked and paid for ooty. This is a cheat organization.