SOTC - Pune — non-refunding of money by sotc

Address:

Amanora Park Township, Hadapsar, Pune, Maharashtra, 411028

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.

Note: i raised a customer complaint with sotc. I received a call from mumbai sotc telling me that they will look into the matter. Till date sotc haven't replied to any of the points i have raised in customer complaints. Unfortunately the enquiry team was trying to turn the pointer towards me telling various things. Ultimately i lost my hard earned money on account of sotcs failure. I seek justice.

Mrs. Arpita chakraborty