Thomas Cook India — Loss due to careless visa application handling

Address: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 603203

Website: thomascook.in

Sir/Ma'am, This is to bring to your attention that I Kuldeep Rambhai Barad along with my colleague had chosen to rely on visa services given by Thomas Cook and had applied for B2 Visa for Israel. I was to attend International Astronautical Congress 2015 in Jerusalem and present my research paper. It was under the supervision of Chennai (T.Nagar) branch. It was a very bitter experience with Thomas Cook due to poor attention paid by the staff responsible for Visa at the office. My prior arrangements were made to attend the conference and leave India on 10th Oct 2015 and return on 17th Oct. I did not receive a visa (acception or denial) before my travel date (10 th Oct) and had to lose my flight and hotel reservations. We had submitted visa application with all the asked-for documents 25 days before the travel date but later came to know that the visa application reached the israeli embassy only on 7th Oct 2015 which is 3 days before the travel date when even the embassy website stated that visa application needed atleast 7 days to be processed. I had to cancel my flights and other travel itineraries i had booked due to this. The conference was from 12-16th Oct 2015. Finally the visa got approved on 14th Oct and to not miss my paper presentation, I had to urgently book another set of tickets and leave the country. I got there on the last day of conference. Although i presented my research paper, the conference was vital to my career and major part of advantage of a conference lies in attending and interacting with professionals which I could not do because I lost 4 out of 5 days of conference just because Thomas Cook did not responsibly took care of the application. On top of the loss i suffered in terms of not getting the advantage of the conference, a blow to my career and intense mental and emotional stress in the mean time for my family, we also suffered a great amount of monetary loss. Loss on paper includes that of flight tickets that had to be cancelled and new tickets to be bought and loss of hotel reservation for 4 out of 6 days and other conference event bookings which I was supposed to attend in the earlier days. Also, my college was going to reimburse for my conference but since there was a drastic change in travel plan, the approved refund was reconsidered and the college is not giving me the reimbursement. Being a middle class student its a hard blow to my parents' pockets. I addressed the same issue to the branch manager responsible for Chennai Mr. Kathiravan Raja and he assured me that I complete the new bookings, in the mean time, he would escalate the issue to higher people in Thomas Cook and would be responsibly handeled and answered for. Since then I have written several mails asking for a status of the complaint but havent recieved a reply. The visa staff responsible for my application was Mr. Mohammed Farhathullah. All of this because of the carelessness of the Thomas Cook Visa Agent responsible. Few Careless mistakes by the agent: He forgot to attach a checklist which is an essential and anyone who has looked up the website for Israel visa would be aware of. He forgot to take signature on the VFS declaration form along with Checklist when asking for documents. It was blind collection of documents. For signature we were called again to the office for providing the signatures in the forms. At that time, we were told that, " It went long way in the process and that's why it took time and there's nothing to worry about" . So they kept calling us to office and said it was almost done and we neednt worry. He again forgot to ask for older passports, which was applicable to my colleague. This came to notice only on 6th Oct when we were urgently called asking for older passport of my fellow traveller ( Akash Ratheesh). Not to mention that every time we visited the branch, we had all the documents ready, if they were asked for by the agent. Nonetheless, we made everything available to the office within 2 hrs of getting the info. It was only then, that we came to know that final application was submitted to the Consulate in Mumbai only on 7th Oct, which was 3 days before my travel date (10th Oct) which is a ridiculous response to the visa application which was initiated as long as 20-25 days before the date of travel. I was still reassured by Mr. Farhath till the last day. On the last day we did not receive a visa and we couldn't fly as planned. The flight cancellation was made as advised by Thomas Cook Chennai office personnel at the last moment. My hotel bookings were non-refundable along with conference registrations and other tours and miscellaneous bookings made before hand. All that has gone to trash just because Thomas Cook amateurly paid little to no attention to the application and the travel. Details of the Issue are as follows: Date: 15 Sep 2015 Payment of 9730 INR made via Debit Card Visa Ref No. : VISC002536 Case was transferred to Chennai Office to take care of Collection of Documents and fulfilling visa application requirements. Documents required were listed in an email sent by Thomas Cook (Mr. Salim Sheikh) Date: 19 Sep 2015 We visited the Chennai branch. The visa application was to be handled by Mr. Mohammed Farhathullah, a TCVSIL agent. We visited with all the relevant and probable documents that could be asked for. Mr.Farhath was responsible for asking the documents from us and consolidating it fulfilling requirements for applying at The Consulate General of Israel, Mumbai. We provided every document he asked for. On the other note, I personally advised Mr. Farhath to take great care of the visa application as a Week long Jewish holiday was inbound soon and that it could hinder the process. I was reassured that application was quite early and visa would comfortably be granted/denied before time. Also, if any documents were missing, I would be informed within a day. Calls were exchanged after 19 Sep with no credible answer but a reassurance that it'll be done. Date: 30 Sep 2015 We were called to the Thomas Cook Office to submit a colored copy of the passport and to sign a VFS declaration form and the checklist as metioned, which were not attested with the application and asked for earlier for no apparent reason, by the agent incharge. I re-emphasized that a week long (Jewish) holiday for the embassy was coming and asked if it would be fine. The agent still reassured and said it'll be done. Date: 6th Oct 2015 We were asked to provide my fellow traveller's old passports which was again responsibility for the visa agent to ask in the first place while collecting documents and passports.He said " It was necessary for the passport to reach mumbai by 10 AM the next day. We however, provided urgently within an hour after the notice around 5 PM. Date: 7-9 th Oct It was only then that we came to know that application was submitted on 7 th Oct. 17 days after the process was initiated. It was irresponsible on the part of Thomas Cook when it was clear that my travel date was 10 Oct. Repeated attempts were made to contact the agent but the calls weren't answered. Thomas Cook Customer Care was continuously ignoring the issue saying " We would confirm with the branch and let you know". But it was horrible interaction with both the branch and the customer care. Date: 9 Oct We called the Consulate and asked to check for the list of relieved passports of the day. A helper who attended the call that the names were there in the list for Thomas Cook. However, on reaching the chennai office we were informed that Thomas Cook did not receive the passports that day and that there would have been a misconception with one who attended the call as tracking website also suggested that passports were still inside the Consulate. We were given casual response by the agent that they could not help us and that there was nothing they could do. We expressed our grief to the agent while he had no answer to give. I was supposed to travel on the 10th early morning. So the entire Travel plan had to be scrapped. It was totally a fault by the agent in not being able to execute the visa application and document collection properly. The issue was addressed to The Branch Visa manager and the issue although critical wasn't made aware of to him earlier by the lower satff. We were suggested to look for another travel option. We were supposed to get a confirmation on whether I'd receive the visa by Monday ( 12th Oct) after which I should book a flight while he would help me to get this issue resolved by escalating it through the heirarchy. 12 Oct No confirmation or status has been informed about. A call was made by the agent asking whether I had booked another flight. Since, I hadn't, I was told that consulate asked for the old Air ticket which was provided by email to the agent. 14 Oct No responsible answer from Thomas Cook. I checked the Israeli consulate traking website and saw that the visa had been approved. So, I had to intiate contact with the branch to let them know that It was approved and not the other way round. I told them that I had already lost my conference because of them but I could still atleast do the presentation which was on 16th for which only option was to leave on 15th early morning which was at 4:30 am. The passport at 6:30 pm on 14th Oct was still in Mumbai and had to be brought to chennai from where I was supposed to leave. Thomas Cook staff said they could transport it by next cargo flight which arrived chennai at 12:30 am and I could collect it from the cargo office an hour later after it was sorted. That meant I could get my passport at the earliest at 1:30 am in best case. Which I did not want to risk because that would mean any problem could again cost me an amount of another flight tickets to and fro for Israel. so I had to book urgent tickets for a person to come all the way from Mumbai to Chennai to bring my passport arranged by Thomas Cook itself. I got my passport at 11:30 pm and proceeded for my travel on 15th Oct to Israel. So to sum the loss up Prior Air tickets (cancelled) :54178.5 INR Missed Hotel Reservations: 42741 INR (11-14 Oct 2015) + 50USD for Hotel Surcharges on the booking on late rebook Booked Tour: (45 Euros per tour * 2 ): 6500 INR (approx) Ticket booked urgently for passport delivery(BOM to CHE) : 6074 INR I would want a credible answer from Thomas Cook for this issue and an equivalent reimbursement on mental, monetary and emotional stress caused in the circumstance entirely created due to irresponsiblity shown by such a reputed name. I'm sorry, but I wouldnt want to ever give another chance of service to Thomas Cook in any form and would advise others the same too. Attached here with are respective invoices of flights and hotel bookings: