[Resolved]  Travel Triangle — mental harassment to female travellers, girls... beaware of travel triangle - carlo travels and the whole chain

Address:

New Delhi, Delhi, 560068

People involved:

Travel Triangle, https://traveltriangle.com/, https://www.facebook.com/traveltriangle/
Nishant - [protected], chauhan.[protected]@traveltriangle.com
Aditya - [protected], aditya.[protected]@traveltriangle.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditya-saini-3374a3ba/
Apoorva - Not sure if we should share her number in public portals
Carlo Travels, https://www.carlotravels.com/, https://www.facebook.com/travelscarlo/
Sudhanshu - [protected], sudhanshu.[protected]@carlotravels.com. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudhanshu-sharma[protected]/, facebook.com/sudhanshu.pathsariya
Raj Sharma - [protected], raj.[protected]@carlotravels.com
Other agent ( Mostly Shekhawat Travels)
Rajveer[protected]
Driver
Satyaveer Shekhawat - [protected]
Jagadish - [protected]

We(2 girls) approached Travel Triangle (https://traveltriangle.com/) for 7D/6N trip to Rajasthan 2 months back. The iterinary mainly involved - Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Udaipur primarily and then Pushkar, Ajmer if we want to visit them.

We reached Jaipur and visited a few places there where we found out that the driver has no idea of the city. We informed the same to Rajveer who seemed to be the boss of the driver, Satyaveer. Rajveer introduced himself as the local representative of our trip. We also asked to see if he can get a new driver before we leave the city. Rajveer apologized and assured that we will not face any issues. Later, we traveled to Jodhpur, Jaisalmer where we did face a bit of a problem with the driver but we managed with google maps, zomato, trip advisor and other online portals.

Meanwhile, we did not receive any call from any of the agents mentioned above to ask if we are fine and safe. And we both we completely ok about them not calling us.

It was 5th day of our trip, we reached Udaipur where the driver asked us to complete the last installment of the trip which was 12500/-(we had already paid 75% of the total payment before the trip). The driver also said to transfer the money directly to him instead of Travel Triangle. Meanwhile, Raj from Carlo Travels (https://www.carlotravels.com/) called us and confirmed that we can pay the last installment directly to the driver.

We agreed and we decided to transfer the amount through Google Pay so that we have proof of payment. Unfortunately, the payment did not go through immediately and the status was “processing”. We showed the status to the driver and shared the screenshot to Rajveer and Raj to let them know to wait for some time. And the worst situation started from their!!! Suddenly, the driver was feeling tired and instead of taking us to “Hathipole market”, he didn’t stop the car and took us directly to the hotel (Rupis Resorts), where we were staying. We had a round of argument but no point, after all the driver was the one driving the car. He forcefully made us stop the trip for that day and took us to the resort. Rajveer, his boss supported him and we went to the resort.

Next day morning, we just started from the resort for our sightseeing at Udaipur from 8.30 am and then the driver drove for 20mins and in the middle of an empty road, he stopped the car and said: “Madamji gaddi nahi ja rahi hain, jab tak payment clear nahi karate ho” (Car will not go further unless you clear the payment) - with a smirky smile. I cannot explain what we felt. We explained again that we already did the transfer but it’s processing and again showed the current status. We, again and again, explained to wait for some time but the driver didn’t move. Then we called up all agents mentioned above, few didn’t pick up, few said: “Maine car rokne Ko nahi Kahi” ( I did not ask to stop the car). It was a complete blame game going on. We explained about amount under processing and shared the screenshot but neither we got a resolution from them nor they asked the driver to move the car. The car was there at the same spot and definitely we cannot get down also (our feelings, unexplainable). When we saw this is wasting our whole day of itinerary, we interacted with Raj - who is apparently some head at Carlo and explained the situation. It was decided and agreed that we will pay 4000 in cash and rest 8400 by evening if there is no status update on the money transferred through Google Pay. The driver stopped the car in nearby ATM and we handed over the cash to him. We went ahead to the tourist spot, we were very angry and disappointed. Our main concern was what the google pay amount gets deposited to them with the rest of the money, it will be a double payment. So in the end we reached out to Apoorva, who was our POC from Travel triangle and explained the whole story to her. We even shared the screenshot of the transaction to her. It was discussed, decided and confirmed the following:
We will pay 8400 through NEFT to Travel triangle.
Also, if the amount that was under processing through Google pay gets successful, then travel triangle will refund us the money

These all we decided verbally and via email. We transferred the rest of the amount immediately after the email agreement mentioned above. The email was between Carlo travel agent POC - Sudhanshu, Travel Triangle SPOC - Apoorva and Nishant. We also got am email confirmation from Apoorva that Travel Triangle has received the payment successfully. So, at last we were on the same page and we thought everything is sorted now!!

But NO, the story doesn't end here...

On 7th day we were traveling back from Udaipur to Jaipur early in the morning as our flight to Bangalore was at 5.30 am the very next day morning. Travel time from Udaipur to Jaipur takes around 7.5- 8 hours. On the way, we planned to stop at Ajmer to collect a parcel and to buy a charger of the mobile as one of our mobile was off as the charger wasn’t working. Also, we planned to stop at Pushkar to buy rose water. So our total time estimation to reach Jaipur was 9-10 hours which was doable.

We checked out from Udaipur and covered 50km, then in the middle of a village, the driver again stopped the car and said he would not move as he did not receive the payment. Again I can’t explain how unsafe, humiliating, pathetic we felt. We told him to check with his boss because we have completed the payment. By the way, it was his boss Rajveer’s instruction to again stop the car which we found out later. We again called up Apoorva and she had no clue why this has happened. She told the driver to move the car because Travel triangle received the payment, but the driver wouldn’t believe Apoorva. And later we had to put Sudhanshu, Apoorva, Rajveer and the driver in a conference to sort that out. I want to stress more that they were just blaming each other for not knowing that the payment was done. We were quietly listening to them because we were alone in the village and we are helpless. The car didn’t move for 2 hrs. In the end, these agents blamed us for not calling them and letting them know that we completed the payment.
Why we will call each of them to tell that we have completed the payment even after getting confirmation via email?
Why didn't they called us back to check with the payment and used this technique to take money from us? What was their intention?
Why the car always stops in the middle of an isolated area rather than in front of an ATM or a place where every options are accessible?
Why did they repeatedly harassed us like this way even after we completed the payment? Is this because we were 2 ladies in a new state?
After all these, the driver tells us “mera dimag na kharab karo, utarna chaho toh yahi utar jao” (don’t eat my head, get down here if you want). During the trip, we were getting calls from Sudhanshu, Raj and they were blaming us because we didn’t call them up after the payment and that’s why the vehicle was stopped. I couldn’t stress up more that rather than making a simple reminder call of the payment, they chose this as their weapon. These are some more incidences happened throughout the journey:

Sudhanshu calling up and saying, his internet and out going calls were not working so he didn’t knew we did the payment and he blamed us the we should have called up and informed about the payment. BTW just to mention, he was available on whatsapp in between
Raj calling up and saying driver will stop the vehicle because he did not get the pay. Had been the payment done before, this wouldn’t have happened
Aditya Just says sorry
Driver was driving the way he wants. He says he will 1st have lunch and then move even if it’s late. We asked him, have we stopped you from eating. He replies you cannot stop even if you want to.
Driver started driving in 50km
Driver took 1 hour to eat lunch, which normally would be max 20 min
During lunch time, we asked him to go for lunch but we will be in the car as we were not feeling like eating. But he wouldn’t leave us in the car with AC on because it’s his diesel that will go.
He wouldn’t stop to buy a charger for my mobile. If he stops, his phone will be busy and we had to wait until he ends up his call to coordinate with where he has parked the vehicle.
Nishanth, calls us and asked if we reached airport safely at 3PM. He has no idea about our trip when he was marked in every email.

So everyone was doing what they want. It was 12 hrs of journey and the whole time we were praying that we should reach Jaipur safely. Only bad incidents were coming in our minds about the acid attack, kidnap, rape, harassment, and whatnot. We did not eat and the fact was we were not feeling like eating anything from the last day experience. We were very much distressed.

We finally reached Jaipur and checked-In to the hotel. The hotel was 23 km from the airport and away from the city. We took a bit of relief. We called up Sudhanshu and requested to give us a new driver to drop us to the airport in early morning at 3.00 am. Simultaneously, we talked to the hotel and asked them also to check for airport drop. After an hour Raj calls us and asks us to continue with the same driver as it is JUST a matter of airport drop. I really don’t understand how can anyone even think of asking such a question when it was a matter of women safety, late at night travel of 23kms. Will the same agent allow his family members to travel with the same driver again?? Then we understood that the entire management does not care about anything.If after all these they are asking the same then they are definitely unapologetic.

Meanwhile, we still kept these options open as the hotel guys were unable to get a cab at the last minute. We also heard that getting an Ola or Uber was difficult from that location. Later, Raj got us information about a new driver and we both called the new driver, and he said he will come.

But this is not over... We waited till 2.45 am for the driver to arrive at the hotel but we didn’t get any calls. So we again called up the driver and we were again in shock. He picks up the call and he was either fast asleep or drunk before we ringed him. He was unable to talk. We asked “Bhaiya aap kidhar ho” (Brother!! where are you). He said, “Jaisalmer mein hoon” ( I am in Jaisalmer). We said, “Apko Jaipur hotel mein Ana tha na airport drop karne “ ( you were supposed to come for airport drop in Jaipur). His reaction was as if he doesn’t know. He said I am sending my brother and he started snoring while talking to us. That time my friend and I were in tears coz we thought we cannot leave Jaipur. We called up a few drivers through the internet and got a guy who asked a lot of money for the drop. We said yes, withdrew cash from ATM on our way, reached the airport and completed the security check. At that moment we finally believed that we are going home and not staying at Jaipur. We sent an email to Travel triangle and Carlo agents about No show of the new driver but its 48 hours and they haven't called us or emailed us to apologize or to check if we have reached safely. They all are just money suckers, they are not bothered about women's safety or any customer issues. All they want is money, money and money.

We could not go to the police station at that time as our mind was blank and all we wanted is to reach home safely. We decided to voice out now as we felt it is unfair to us and to several other women travelers who must be looking for trip advice. Please stay safe!! We can completely understand what those girls must be feeling when they face so many other tragic incidences.

Now, we are asking for compensation on all the trauma they have given us. If they wanted the last installment, they can call us up, they can even take us near an ATM for cash, why did they took us in the middle of the isolated place and asked us money. And why did they repeated the same act again after we paid the money without checking their bank statement? Why did they do this mental torture through the journey?

So to sum up,
I want to take action for misbehaving, dishonoring and harassing 2 women travelers.
I want them to compensate for all the Hassles they did to us.
I want to let people know to be aware of travel agents like this.
Will you please help me to do so???