| Address: No 160/D, 1st Floor, Sardar Patel Rd, Patny Ngr Begumpet Hyderabad - 500003 |
My parents had booked Asia tour many months back after I insisted they need to travel the world. I advised them to use Thomas Cook as I felt it was well reputed and when I was c=visiting Europe I saw few people travelling with them. Thomas Cook (TC) very well knew that this trip is going to include 3 countries. We were asked on September 8, 2022 to submit all the documents by Sept 13, 2022. We have submitted all the document to Mr. Emanuel at the Hyderabad office by the said date. There was no delay on our end.
All through the process, my father had been asking and communicating about the itinerary but no one replied back to him. A very poor customer service from the Indian organization of the prestigious TC. Then about few days before the actual trip on Oct 13, 2022. my father insisted that he needs to know what is happening, he was told that they cannot issue or give any itinerary because he has to pay the remaining balance- which was due as there was a change in the value to the INR from the time they booked the tour and if not they were not going to issue the tickets.
Paying money was never an issue, but what really bothered my parents was that they were told that what rate was agreed to in the past, that rate had changed due to change in the value of the INR- understandable. They paid the difference of about 9000 INR. They were finally sent the itinerary for the trip 1 day before the departure on 12 October 2022 and were told that the visa to Malaysia was rejected. They were given 2 options- travel to Malaysia- stay in the airport and then travel onwards and complete the tour-staying in Malaysia in the airport or book a flight to Singapore at their own expense and then complete the rest of the leg of the tour. Mind you, this is 1 day before the actual travel date.
They could not understand what was happening and ultimately got fed up and helpless talking to Mr. Nadim at the Mumbai office. They had called him but he stopped answering their calls. I had to intervene and call the Mumbai office to help them figure this whole fiasco.
When I spoke to Mr. Nadim, he mentioned the same thing and told me that the only options left were for us to cancel the trip and that we would be charged the cancellation fees or to book our tickets on own to Singapore and continue the journey from there, skipping Malaysia, if we prefer.
What is really surprising is the way they told me this, very non-chalant and not a bit of sympathy or remorse for the mistake that was committed. I should really admire the manager-mentor/supervisor on how they have trained him. Kudos to them.
When I asked that how TC could book the tickets just few days before the trip inspite of the knowledge that the Malaysian visa was rejected, Nadim told me that they always to do it this way and advised me to refer to their terms and conditions.
Great planning by TC. I can only admire and be content about their planning skills from a great travel organization. I hope the training/planning team all the best with their policy. If your policy is to book tickets without visa and if the visa is not issued, there is nothing much you can do, I can only admire your boldness in telling me the same without any repentance. They also asked me to look at their terms and conditions as I was ignorant of their policies. Wow- great customer service.
I serve in the US Army and when I was deployed, I used to comfort my parents everyday and one of the days when I was talking to them, I had asked them to get of India and roam the world. They told me that they would not like to go anywhere as they don't know how and where to go. I took a lot of time looking for various options and told/insisted that they should go with Thomas Cook.
When I visited Europe with my wife in 2017, I saw a lot of Thomas Cook buses and felt that the passengers were all Indian senior citizens and felt that they were well taken care. I, based on that stupid excuse/experience, insisted that they have to go through Thomas Cook. I looked up the number for the Hyderabad office and got them in touch with an agent who spoke to them and convinced them that this is going to be an awesome trip. I was excited that they chose Thomas Cook and they were excited to go on this trip.
What really bothers me is the kind of deceitful practice that the Indian part of Thomas Cook has done in this whole scenario. They have not only wasted the precious time of my parents but also hurt us emotionally and mentally. This will affect them for a long time.
TC clearly mentioned that the Malaysian site is down for 1 week, why did none of the so called travel agents from TC organization inform us that the site is down?
Why were my parents not informed about the issue with the Malaysian visa?
TC issued them tickets to Malaysia and sent these tickets 1 day before their departure date and did not even inform that the Malaysian visa was not issued. They came to know about this when they called the Hyderabad Office and then called the Mumbai office to find out what should they do next as they do not have the Malaysian visa.
Why were my parents not given details about the itinerary despite their repeated requests?
Why did TC issue a ticket and send the itinerary 1 day before departure inspite knowing that malaysian visa was not granted, when your travel agency well knows that it is impossible to get the malaysian visa.
Why did you force them to pay the remaining balance and insist that they have to pay additional money for insurance.
After all this, TC did not give us any options-they asked us to cancel the trip with the due charges that will be deducted and they said they will refund the remaining amount. We had made all the arrangements to travel. TC has not only wasted our valuable time but also did not keep us informed about what was happening.
I understand that travel and the whole planning process is very intricate and tedious but that is what Thomas Cook is good at, but they have totally screwed this trip.
If TC would have informed us that they still did not receive the Malaysian visa, we would have asked that the trip be postponed but they have not given us any information. There is lack of transparency and there was so much pressure from TC to pay that now it feels that the sole purpose of Thomas Cook in India is to deceive people of their hard earned money. Once TC got the money, they make their own rules about how to deduct charges and fees- very unethical, unprofessional and unlike the ideals of the organization.
Thomas Cook kept us in darkness about every process and also tried to just scam us into cancelling the trip so that they can charge the cancellation fees.
Forcing us to travel on our own to Singapore on our own cost and not do the Malaysian leg at all. Thomas cook has become so incompetent and money mongering- I have always felt that Thomas Cook has good ethics and I had informed my parents to only go through Thomas Cook for your reputation, but seems like Thomas Cook has hired incompetent people who don't know what they are doing and I will inform all my friends the scary tactics and manipulative techniques used by you guys to force senior citizens into spending their hard earned money on an organization that has moved away from serving travelers to just thinking of their own profits.
Naranath Chintala
