My son rohit mehtani booked a trip to bali and singapore for 6 nights/7 days from 9th july 2018 to 15th july 2018 for four family members from yatra.com. Yatra.com had subcontracted it to their travel partner “reasonable check-in” on 11th june 2018 vide booking reference number rcpwb[protected]Booking id[protected]. We made the full payment of the package of rs.1, 87, 440/- on 13th june 2018.
The services provided by “reasonable check-in” have been very casual, unprofessional, and mismanaged since the booking was made. We had been contacting their officials daily regarding formalities required from our side for visa application process however, we did not receive any clarification from them. Initially we received an email from them regarding visa application to thailand, which was later corrected by a subsquent email from them. We were told to send passport and singapore visa application form of 2 passengers to kolkata. However on telephonic conversation with the seller on 18th june 2018, we were told to send the passports to mumbai instead of kolkata. The visa team of “reasonable check-in” was itsel[censored]nclear of the procedure to be followed for visa application process of singapore.
After a harsh e-mail from our side to them on 19th june 2018, we finally received all details and documents required to be sent with our visa application form on 19th june 2018, after a delay of 8 days made by the seller.
Despite repeated reminders, we did not receive our travel vouchers and details of contact persons in bali and singapore until 5th july 2018, just 3 days before our scheduled departure to bali. Also the vouchers did not mention the water activities included in bali, sight-seeing covered in singapore city tour or the activities included in sentosa island.
We were promised a “lovely lunch” as per itinerary on 11th june 2018 after water activities in bali. However, we were served plain boiled rice with noodles without any accompanying curry/vegetables. The seller considers this food as “lovely lunch”. The food which was served to us was inedible, to say the least.
Tickets for sentosa island, night safari, s. E. A. Aquarium, universal studios and wings of time show were sent to us on 12th july 2018, after we reached singapore. These tickets should have been mailed to us atleast 3-5 days before our departure as was promised to us.
As per itinerary, our city tour in singapore on 12th july 2018 included fountain of wealth, merlion park, suntec city, orchard road, china town and little india. However, we were taken to visit singapore flyer and river boat cruise. We had to pay sgd 55 per person for both the attractions. We were not informed of this additional cost at the time of booking and we had to spend this money from our own pocket. We were not taken to fountain of wealth, suntec city, orchard road and china town on this first day of city tour as promised as per itinerary.
As per itinerary tour of sentosa island scheduled on 13th july 2018, was to include cable car ride, sky ride and luge combo, madame tussauds museum + ios live show and s. E. A. Aquarium. On reaching sentosa island, we realised that madame tussauds +ios live show tickets and luge sky ride combo tickets had not been given to us. After contacting “reasonable check-in”, we received the tickets for madame tussauds + ios live at 9 pm singapore time on 13th july. Also, the tickets of madame tussauds which were sent to us were booked on 27th june 2018 as per the date mentioned on the tickets. These were deliberately not sent to us on time so that the seller “reasonable check-in” could save the money for not providing the services promised to us.
We now had to cover both universal studios and madame tussauds + ios live on 14th july itself. There was no other option left for us, as it was our last day in singapore. However, as 14th july was a saturday, we were barely able to complete universal studio visit due to huge footfall at the venue on weekends. There was no time left for us to visit madame tussauds museum. The ticket still stands unutilized. We were not issued the ticket for skyride and luge combo.
Due to this casual, mismanaged and irresponsible actions of “reasonable check-in”, sub - agent of yatra.com, we have faced immense mental stress and financial loss. The losses incurred by us during the tour as per their itinerary is as under:
Sr no. Description no. Of tickets rate per ticket (Sg$) total amount
(Sg$)
1 tickets of madame
Tussauds + ios live 4 32 128
2 price of tickets of
Luge & skyride combo 4 30 120
Total 248
Besides the above, we paid sg$ 220 for 4 tickets of singapore flyer and river boat cruise which forced us to take these rides as no other option was available but had to waste 1.5 hours, remaining idle if not taking the ride. As a result, we had incurred the financial loss of rs 24336/- (1 sg$= rs 52/- * sg$ 468). All this loss happened due to unorganized, unmanaged, casual approach and poor service provided by the service provider.
The mental stress, harassment and agony which we faced till the visa was not received due to casual approach and incompetent services provided by the tour operator and due to delay/non receipt of tickets cannot be measured in terms of money but as compensation i had lodged my claim of rs 80000 (Rs 20000 per person) as a compensation for the mental stress and agony faced by all four family members from the date of booking of the tour till conclusion of tour plus rs 24336/- for the loss i suffered. They have admitted the mistake and apologized for the inconvenience caused to us and ready to pay only rs 4326/-.
Please take up my case and provide justice to me.
Regards
Parmod kumar mehtani
[protected]
Verified Support
Oct 04, 2018
Yatra Online / YatraTrip.in Customer Care's response Dear Pramod,
Greetings from Yatra.com!
Regret the inconvenience you have faced. We have tried, however; not able to get any booking with the given reference and your contact number, request you to kindly share your Yatra booking reference number or your registered email ID to enable us to check this.
Best Regards,
Yatra Care
Oct 05, 2018
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
The Booking no is YT30313720 which is already mentioned in my complaint. I think you have not seriously gone through the contents of the complaint. This complaint was previously closed at your end by stating the same reason.
The booking was done in the name of my son Rohit Mehtani and his email ID is rohitmehtani.[protected]@gmail.com.
I hope that this time you don't close the matter for one reason or the other as I was compelled to lodge this complaint because of the deficiencies of services and intentionally delaying in providing the tickets of the activities by your sub contractor 'Reasonable check in' so that we could not use these activities. details given in my complaint.
Regards,
Parmod Kumar Mehtani
(Father of Dr Rohit Mehtani)
Verified Support
Oct 05, 2018
Yatra Online / YatraTrip.in Customer Care's response Dear Mr Mehtani,
Thank you for the sharing the details. We are getting this checked.
Regards
Yatra Care
Verified Support
Oct 09, 2018
Yatra Online / YatraTrip.in Customer Care's response Dear Mr Mehtani,
Greeting from Yatra.com!
We regret the delay in response. As per our finding our team was in contact with you on call and email and assisted you. As checked visa was handed over 7 day's prior to travel. According to our team guest was informed that booking was on SIC basis, Hence Singapore flyer and river cruise was part of the sight-seen. As checked attractions like Fountain of wealth, Suntec city etc were covered by you he next day and at the end, you were made to visit more places in Singapore than promised. Regarding Luge and Sky ride team accepted their miss and offered actual ticket refund and compensation and regarding Madamme Tussads + IOS live with Universal Studios our team offered you the refund as it was difficult to cover places in one day but same was denied. As checked most of the query's were resolved/ closed on the call itself.
Regards
Yatra Care
Oct 10, 2018
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
I was expecting this kind of a reply from your as either you don't want to understand my concerns highlighted in the complaint or are intentionally ignoring the same and not interested to resolve my issues/concerns. In this connection, I would like to draw your attention to the following points in your reply received by me on 9th Oct 2018:
1. As per our finding our team was in contact with you on call and email and assisted you.
Reply: Being in contact and resolution of our issues are two separate things. I lodged the complaint and claimed for compensation of the activities not provided to us and the delay/deficiencies in services on your part. Where is the question of assistance in this regard?
2. As checked visa was handed over 7 day's prior to travel.
Reply: Since the time of booking your officials were not clear regarding visa application process and misguided us regarding the same. We faced immense agony and mental stress as even after paying the full booking amount to you in advance your officials were not able to guide us what documents are required for visa and where these documents have to be posted. Only after a harsh email written by us on 19th June 2018, your company appointed the staff who guided us in filing the visa application properly. Who can compensate for this deficiency in services which caused mental stress for us as our hard earned money was at stake.
3. Hence Singapore flyer and river cruise was part of the sight-seen.
Reply: If Singapore flyer and river cruise was part of sight seen, then why the guide charged SGD 220 (SGD 55*4) from us in the bus? The tourist guide charged SGD 55 from the entire tourist despite resentment showed by the entire tourist including ourselves. My claim amount includes this amount also.
4. As checked attractions like Fountain of wealth, Suntec city etc were covered by you he next day and at the end, you were made to visit more places in Singapore than promised.
Reply: These sites were never shown to us during the city tour. Around 3 hours of city tour were spent in Singapore Flyer and river boat cruise (for which we were charged extra). The company wanted to earn extra money by making the tourists visiting these sites instead of what was mentioned in the itinerary. This is a clear case of fraud and cheating. The next day tour was to visit only Universal studio for full day. Since the places which we were promised in the itinerary were not covered then how can you say that we were made to visit more places than promised?
5. Luge and Sky ride team accepted their miss and offered actual ticket refund and compensation and regarding Madamme Tussads + IOS live with Universal Studios our team offered you the refund as it was difficult to cover places in one day but same was denied.
Reply: It was not a miss but intentionally ignored to send the tickets before our start of the tour which was to be given 3-5 days before the trip starts. . Not only the Luge and Sky tickets were intentionally ignored but the Tickets of Madamme Tussads were also intentionally ignored to be provided. All the tickets except these two were emailed to us during our trip. On being pointed out during the tour, Mr Anand telephonically informed that you could not cover both the events on the same day i.e the next day being the only one day available to us.
It is wrong to state that the refund was offered to me during discussion. Whether we planned our Holiday trip only to get the refund of the services not provided? The reply that they offered the refund and compensation regarding Maddame Tussade depicts that intentionally they have ignored to provide the tickets well in advance so that their cost could be saved and this type of action ignoring to send the tickets in advance may be happening to most of the customers.
On being asked to send the tickets of Madame Tussade, as we wanted to see this attraction also during our trip, Mr Anand sent the tickets issued on 27/06/2018 which was supposed to send to us on 27/06/2018 or before our start of our holiday trip. The validity of these tickets is 6 months from the date of issue. These tickets could not be used by us as Saturday was the holiday and there was tremendous rush in Universal Studio. If these tickets were sent to us in advance as promised in the package tour, we would be able to cover both the attractions on Friday.
I doubt that on being asked for the refund in the claim, they may have utilized the same so far. Only the amount of Luge & Sky ride that too at price very much lower than the price quoted on the official website of Luge and Sky ride was offered to me which I denied to take as it was not the issue of only these service which were deficient on your part but many other services which I have time and again mentioned to you. Can this small amount compensate us for the huge expenditure incurred by us out of our hard earned money by depriving us from these attractions during the Holiday Trip? Can we go again and spend huge money to see these left out attractions for the fault of the Tour operator.
6. As checked most of the queries were resolved/ closed on the call itself.
Reply: First of all please not that this was not a query but a complaint on the deficiencies in the services provided and the promised itinerary was not provided. Further please note that my issues in the complaint have not been resolved so far. Then how the question of ‘resolving/closure on the call itself’ can be stated? I think your sub contractor is misleading you and tarnishing your Image. My claim for the compensation still persist, please note.
The reply received from your side highlights the fact that you are just trying to mislead the forum.
Regards
Verified Support
Oct 17, 2018
Yatra Online / YatraTrip.in Customer Care's response Hi Mr Mehtani,
Regret for the inconvenience caused to you!
We have received your query & would respond to you at the earliest. Request your patience in the interim.
Best Regards
Yatra Care
Oct 17, 2018
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
Please note that this is not the query but a complaint.
Regards
Verified Support
Oct 22, 2018
Yatra Online / YatraTrip.in Customer Care's response Dear Mr Mehtani,
Thank you for your patience and we regret the delay in response!
However, we would like to inform you that we have received the below reply from the seller.
1. As per our finding our team was in contact with you on call and email and assisted you.
Reply : It is really demotivating and demoralizing to point out our customer's assistance when Mr Mehtani was practically on call with Mr Anand Goswami on daily basis during his trip. And issues were addressed and dealt on priority basis but if Mr Mehatni is not happy with our services, we apologize and promise to make improvement within ourselves.
2. As checked visa was handed over 7 day's prior to travel.
Reply : Regarding VISA, there was some delay in the beginning. But when Operations Manager - Ms Rekha Nair hopped in to take care of Mr Mehtani's VISA's personally, at that point of time the guest was very happy. They were in discussion on daily basis over the call and through the messages. And as already explained many times, we have handed over the VISA's and passport 07 days prior to travel. Screenshot shared dated - October 05, 2018.
3. Hence Singapore flyer and river cruise was part of the sight-seen.
4. As checked attractions like Fountain of wealth, Suntec city etc were covered by you he next day and at the end, you were made to visit more places in Singapore than promised.
Reply : Regarding Singapore City tour, it was sharing tour with bus coach full of people. As already explained, the attractions of City Tour can be changed or modified and they only have photo-stops. We have checked with supplier also. The City Tour could not consist of only Singapore Flyer or River Cruise only. And we have received no other complaint for any member of the SIN City Tour on that day. Singapore Flyer is the last point where the coach stops for the people to enjoy flyer which was again a photo-stop during the tour.
Furthermore, we have initiated an elaborated investigation for one more time for this specific issue which would take 7-10 days and we shall get back to you on this specific point.
5. Luge and Sky ride team accepted their miss and offered actual ticket refund and compensation and regarding Madamme Tussads + IOS live with Universal Studios our team offered you the refund as it was difficult to cover places in one day but same was denied.
Reply : This was already accepted and we have approved the refund for Luge & Skyride. It was already advised to the guests that Madamme Tussads can not be covered with Full Day Universal Studios. But since the guest was very insistent that they need tickets, we shared it with them. All these conversations happened at the end of the day. Had we been informed regarding the same during the trip, we would have given the tickets during their tour. The date mentioned by the guest to prove our intentional error is an Open Dated Ticket. It was booked the same day same time when guests asked for the tickets for the next day, opposite to advise given by Anand as the time was not adequate enough to cover both the places. Later on when guest reached there and could not cover activities, the guest realized that Anand was right and the refund was a better option which unfortunately had become null and void now since the tickets were already given to the guests. The refund was offered due to professional courtesy in order to avoid more wastage of time. However, for Luge & Skyride, we will refund the amount of 22 SGD per person.
According to the last conference call with Yatra, Anand and Mr Mehtani, Mr Mehtani repeatedly insisted that major concern was the delay in Visa only and nothing apart from that was important to him. Since VISA was delivered on time and it did not hamper the holiday in any way, this issue is resolved and the guest was happy and satisfied after receiving the VISA. So this is resolved already.
According to us, the only concern which needs to be addressed is point no 4 and will revert according to the time frame given above.
As per now, the approved refund is of SGD 22 X 4 = SGD 88 which will be refunded once Mr Mehtani share his bank account details
We all know there is nothing anyone did intentionally to hamper the experience of the customer and even the customer was been happy until he returned home. Please share the resolution with him and advise the further course of action for us.
Hence, we would request you to kindly check the same once and connect with us again for any further assistance.
Regards
Yatra Care
Oct 29, 2018
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
I reiterate my pointwise reply dated 24th Oct 2018 as under :
Dear Sir,
This is in reference to Yatra care response dated 22nd Oct 2018 in respect of my complaint. The point wise submission is as under:
1. As per our finding our team was in contact with you on call and email and assisted you.
Reply by Yatra dated 22/10/2018:
It is really demotivating and demoralizing to point out our customer's assistance when Mr Mehtani was practically on call with Mr Anand Goswami on daily basis during his trip. And issues were addressed and dealt on priority basis but if Mr Mehatni is not happy with our services, we apologize and promise to make improvement within ourselves
Our Response:
The response by Yatra care is not as per our submission. It is totally incorrect to say that we were in contact on daily basis with Mr. Goswami. During our stay at Bali and Singapore, we contacted Mr. Goswami only once on 13/07/2018 when we realized that the tickets of Luge & Skyride and Madame Tussauds were not sent to us. By simply admitting and apologizing on the deficiency of services does not compensate us for the mental agony we faced and depriving us to experience of both these activities by not providing the said tickets before our departure from India, as promised in the itinerary. Had the tickets been provided before leaving India, we would able to do all activities as promised by you in the itinerary.
2. As checked visa was handed over 7 day's prior to travel.
Reply by Yatra dated 22/10/2018:
Regarding VISA, there was some delay in the beginning. But when Operations Manager - Ms Rekha Nair hopped in to take care of Mr Mehtani's VISA's personally, at that point of time the guest was very happy. They were in discussion on daily basis over the call and through the messages. And as already explained many times, we have handed over the VISA's and passport 07 days prior to travel. Screenshot shared dated - October 05, 2018.
Our Response:
Thank God! Yatra Care had admitted that there was some delay in the beginning. As stated in my reply dated 10th Oct 2018, we faced immense agony and mental stress as no one guiding us properly and correctly for the formalities to be completed by us during the initial 7 days of our booking as we had paid the whole amount of the trip in advance and yet the tour operator was unable to guide us regarding the visa procedure. It was only when we sent a harsh email, the right personnel for guiding us regarding visa application process was allotted to us. Our complaint is for the mental stress and agony we faced during the first 7 days of booking which we should be compensated. The reply by Yatra Care is silent on this aspect.
The whole point of booking a trip from a tour operator is that whole planning of the trip is the responsibility of the organising company and the customer does not have to face the trouble of booking various tickets on time at a reasonable price and completing visa formalities. But in this case, all the trouble was faced by us. We had to constantly communicate with Yatra to send the formalities for visa application on time, we had to remind them again and again to send the tickets of activities on time, even after so much pain taken by us, Yatra was deficient in all these services. Who can compensate for this deficiency in services which caused mental stress and agony as our hard earned money was at stake during the initial 7 days of Booking?
3. Hence Singapore flyer and river cruise was part of the sight-seen.
Our Response:
No response received from Yatra care on this aspect. Please refer our submission on 10th Oct 2018 on this aspect.
4. As checked attractions like Fountain of wealth, Suntec city etc were covered by you he next day and at the end, you were made to visit more places in Singapore than promised.
Reply by Yatra dated 22/10/2018:
Regarding Singapore City tour, it was sharing tour with bus coach full of people. As already explained, the attractions of City Tour can be changed or modified and they only have photo-stops. We have checked with supplier also. The City Tour could not consist of only Singapore Flyer or River Cruise only. And we have received no other complaint for any member of the SIN City Tour on that day. Singapore Flyer is the last point where the coach stops for the people to enjoy flyer which was again a photo-stop during the tour.
Furthermore, we have initiated an elaborated investigation for one more time for this specific issue which would take 7-10 days and we shall get back to you on
This specific point.
Our Response:
First of all, there were no photo-stops during the entire city tour except at Singapore flyer and River Boat cruise for which we were charged SGD 55 per person, and a Chocolate shop so as to enable the tourists to buy chocolates. The last stop was at Little India where we had lunch and after lunch our pickup for Sentosa Island was from Little India. The bus did not stop at any other point apart from these mentioned stops. This was also pointed out to Mr Anand through whatsapp chat. Are we supposed to take photographs from a moving bus? If we just wanted photographs we could have downloaded them from the internet. Why spend so much money to go to Singapore and not being able to visit the places in person?
5. . Luge and Sky ride team accepted their miss and offered actual ticket refund and compensation and regarding Madamme Tussads + IOS live with Universal Studios our team offered you the refund as it was difficult to cover places in one day but same was denied.
Reply by Yatra dated 22/10/2018:
This was already accepted and we have approved the refund for Luge & Skyride. It was already advised to the guests that Madamme Tussads can not be covered with Full Day Universal Studios. But since the guest was very insistent that they need tickets, we shared it with them. All these conversations happened at the end of the day. Had we been informed regarding the same during the trip, we would have given the tickets during their tour. The date mentioned by the guest to prove our intentional error is an Open Dated Ticket. It was booked the same day same time when guests asked for the tickets for the next day, opposite to advise given by Anand as the time was not adequate enough to cover both the places. Later on when guest reached there and could not cover activities, the guest realized that Anand was right and the refund was a better option which unfortunately had become null and void now since the tickets were already given to the guests. The refund was offered due to professional courtesy in order to avoid more wastage of time. However, for Luge & Skyride, we will refund the amount of 22 SGD per person.
According to the last conference call with Yatra, Anand and Mr Mehtani, Mr Mehtani repeatedly insisted that major concern was the delay in Visa only and nothing apart from that was important to him. Since VISA was delivered on time and it did not hamper the holiday in any way, this issue is resolved and the guest was happy and satisfied after receiving the VISA. So this is resolved already.
According to us, the only concern which needs to be addressed is point no 4 and will revert according to the time frame given above.
As per now, the approved refund is of SGD 22 X 4 = SGD 88 which will be refunded once Mr Mehtani share his bank account details
We all know there is nothing anyone did intentionally to hamper the experience of the customer and even the customer was been happy until he returned home. Please share the resolution with him and advise the further course of action for us.
Our Response:
You had already accepted that the tickets of Luge & Sky ride are a miss even before my complaint was lodged with the Consumer Forum. I disagree with the contention given in the reply that I realized that Mr Anand was right and the refund was a better option. This is totally wrong as no refund was offered during conversation. If that was so, even then I would refuse the same. I need specific answer from Yatra Care on the followings:
a) Does a tourist plan a vacation to get refund of all activities which are not provided by the tour operator? If a tourist has spent so much money on visiting a foreign country he will try to visit all the attractions he was promised at the time of booking as possible as it is unlikely that he will visit the same country again. It's wrong to put the blame on the customer that he was advised against visiting Madame Tussauds due to shortage of time. Yatra and Reasonable check-in are responsible for landing us in such a situation where we have to chose between visiting a once in a lifetime tourist attraction or taking back the refund for the activity which was deliberately not provided by the tour operator.
b) Can this small amount compensate us for the huge expenditure incurred by us out of our hard earned money by depriving us from these attractions during the Holiday Trip?
c) Do you expect all your tourists to visit a foreign country again and spend huge money to see these left out attractions for the fault of the Tour operator?
d) Why were the tickets of Madame Tussauds not sent to us in advance and whose fault is there in the delay due to which we were ultimately unable to visit the attraction? Is it not obligatory on the part of Tour Operator to send all the tickets as promised in the itinerary before start of the trip from India? This behaviour of the tour operator depicts their intention to save money by not sending all the tickets before the start of the trip as few of their customers might not point out the lapse in services.
e) The ticket of Madame Tussauds sent to us has a purchase date mentioned on it as 27/06/2018 while you are saying the ticket was booked on 13/07/2018 after we pointed out that we haven’t received the ticket. In either case, the fault lies with the tour operator. If the ticket was booked on 27/06/2018 the ticket should have been sent to us well in advance of our tour and if the ticket was booked on 13/07/2018 why the same date is not mentioned on the ticket and was the tour operator not responsible for the delay even after explicitly mentioning tickets of Madame Tussauds in the inclusions package of our trip? The ticket has a validity of 6 months and the ticket is still valid. It’s reasonable to say that the tour operator would not have incurred a loss with respect to these tickets as they would have utilised it with some other guest as we have not used the tickets till now.
f) Is there no delay on your part in sending us the formalities which caused mental stress and agony to us and also is there no delay on your part in providing the tickets of activities which were received by us after reaching Singapore while the same was promised to be sent to us “3-5 days before the start of our trip”?
I don’t understand how you can say that we were happy until we returned home. The bad experiences faced by us abroad can only be overcome by visiting the places which were intentionally deprived to us on our trip by the tour operator.
Regards,
Parmod Kumar Mehtani
Nov 09, 2018
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
My complaint is yet to be redressed by Yatra Care.
Regards,
Parmod Kumar Mehtani
Nov 12, 2018
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
I reiterate my pointwise reply dated 24th Oct 2018 as under :
Dear Sir,
This is in reference to Yatra care response dated 22nd Oct 2018 in respect of my complaint. The point wise submission is as under:
1. As per our finding our team was in contact with you on call and email and assisted you.
Reply by Yatra dated 22/10/2018:
It is really demotivating and demoralizing to point out our customer's assistance when Mr Mehtani was practically on call with Mr Anand Goswami on daily basis during his trip. And issues were addressed and dealt on priority basis but if Mr Mehatni is not happy with our services, we apologize and promise to make improvement within ourselves
Our Response:
The response by Yatra care is not as per our submission. It is totally incorrect to say that we were in contact on daily basis with Mr. Goswami. During our stay at Bali and Singapore, we contacted Mr. Goswami only once on 13/07/2018 when we realized that the tickets of Luge & Skyride and Madame Tussauds were not sent to us. By simply admitting and apologizing on the deficiency of services does not compensate us for the mental agony we faced and depriving us to experience of both these activities by not providing the said tickets before our departure from India, as promised in the itinerary. Had the tickets been provided before leaving India, we would able to do all activities as promised by you in the itinerary.
2. As checked visa was handed over 7 day's prior to travel.
Reply by Yatra dated 22/10/2018:
Regarding VISA, there was some delay in the beginning. But when Operations Manager - Ms Rekha Nair hopped in to take care of Mr Mehtani's VISA's personally, at that point of time the guest was very happy. They were in discussion on daily basis over the call and through the messages. And as already explained many times, we have handed over the VISA's and passport 07 days prior to travel. Screenshot shared dated - October 05, 2018.
Our Response:
Thank God! Yatra Care had admitted that there was some delay in the beginning. As stated in my reply dated 10th Oct 2018, we faced immense agony and mental stress as no one guiding us properly and correctly for the formalities to be completed by us during the initial 7 days of our booking as we had paid the whole amount of the trip in advance and yet the tour operator was unable to guide us regarding the visa procedure. It was only when we sent a harsh email, the right personnel for guiding us regarding visa application process was allotted to us. Our complaint is for the mental stress and agony we faced during the first 7 days of booking which we should be compensated. The reply by Yatra Care is silent on this aspect.
The whole point of booking a trip from a tour operator is that whole planning of the trip is the responsibility of the organising company and the customer does not have to face the trouble of booking various tickets on time at a reasonable price and completing visa formalities. But in this case, all the trouble was faced by us. We had to constantly communicate with Yatra to send the formalities for visa application on time, we had to remind them again and again to send the tickets of activities on time, even after so much pain taken by us, Yatra was deficient in all these services. Who can compensate for this deficiency in services which caused mental stress and agony as our hard earned money was at stake during the initial 7 days of Booking?
3. Hence Singapore flyer and river cruise was part of the sight-seen.
Our Response:
No response received from Yatra care on this aspect. Please refer our submission on 10th Oct 2018 on this aspect.
4. As checked attractions like Fountain of wealth, Suntec city etc were covered by you he next day and at the end, you were made to visit more places in Singapore than promised.
Reply by Yatra dated 22/10/2018:
Regarding Singapore City tour, it was sharing tour with bus coach full of people. As already explained, the attractions of City Tour can be changed or modified and they only have photo-stops. We have checked with supplier also. The City Tour could not consist of only Singapore Flyer or River Cruise only. And we have received no other complaint for any member of the SIN City Tour on that day. Singapore Flyer is the last point where the coach stops for the people to enjoy flyer which was again a photo-stop during the tour.
Furthermore, we have initiated an elaborated investigation for one more time for this specific issue which would take 7-10 days and we shall get back to you on
This specific point.
Our Response:
First of all, there were no photo-stops during the entire city tour except at Singapore flyer and River Boat cruise for which we were charged SGD 55 per person, and a Chocolate shop so as to enable the tourists to buy chocolates. The last stop was at Little India where we had lunch and after lunch our pickup for Sentosa Island was from Little India. The bus did not stop at any other point apart from these mentioned stops. This was also pointed out to Mr Anand through whatsapp chat. Are we supposed to take photographs from a moving bus? If we just wanted photographs we could have downloaded them from the internet. Why spend so much money to go to Singapore and not being able to visit the places in person?
5. . Luge and Sky ride team accepted their miss and offered actual ticket refund and compensation and regarding Madamme Tussads + IOS live with Universal Studios our team offered you the refund as it was difficult to cover places in one day but same was denied.
Reply by Yatra dated 22/10/2018:
This was already accepted and we have approved the refund for Luge & Skyride. It was already advised to the guests that Madamme Tussads can not be covered with Full Day Universal Studios. But since the guest was very insistent that they need tickets, we shared it with them. All these conversations happened at the end of the day. Had we been informed regarding the same during the trip, we would have given the tickets during their tour. The date mentioned by the guest to prove our intentional error is an Open Dated Ticket. It was booked the same day same time when guests asked for the tickets for the next day, opposite to advise given by Anand as the time was not adequate enough to cover both the places. Later on when guest reached there and could not cover activities, the guest realized that Anand was right and the refund was a better option which unfortunately had become null and void now since the tickets were already given to the guests. The refund was offered due to professional courtesy in order to avoid more wastage of time. However, for Luge & Skyride, we will refund the amount of 22 SGD per person.
According to the last conference call with Yatra, Anand and Mr Mehtani, Mr Mehtani repeatedly insisted that major concern was the delay in Visa only and nothing apart from that was important to him. Since VISA was delivered on time and it did not hamper the holiday in any way, this issue is resolved and the guest was happy and satisfied after receiving the VISA. So this is resolved already.
According to us, the only concern which needs to be addressed is point no 4 and will revert according to the time frame given above.
As per now, the approved refund is of SGD 22 X 4 = SGD 88 which will be refunded once Mr Mehtani share his bank account details
We all know there is nothing anyone did intentionally to hamper the experience of the customer and even the customer was been happy until he returned home. Please share the resolution with him and advise the further course of action for us.
Our Response:
You had already accepted that the tickets of Luge & Sky ride are a miss even before my complaint was lodged with the Consumer Forum. I disagree with the contention given in the reply that I realized that Mr Anand was right and the refund was a better option. This is totally wrong as no refund was offered during conversation. If that was so, even then I would refuse the same. I need specific answer from Yatra Care on the followings:
a) Does a tourist plan a vacation to get refund of all activities which are not provided by the tour operator? If a tourist has spent so much money on visiting a foreign country he will try to visit all the attractions he was promised at the time of booking as possible as it is unlikely that he will visit the same country again. It's wrong to put the blame on the customer that he was advised against visiting Madame Tussauds due to shortage of time. Yatra and Reasonable check-in are responsible for landing us in such a situation where we have to chose between visiting a once in a lifetime tourist attraction or taking back the refund for the activity which was deliberately not provided by the tour operator.
b) Can this small amount compensate us for the huge expenditure incurred by us out of our hard earned money by depriving us from these attractions during the Holiday Trip?
c) Do you expect all your tourists to visit a foreign country again and spend huge money to see these left out attractions for the fault of the Tour operator?
d) Why were the tickets of Madame Tussauds not sent to us in advance and whose fault is there in the delay due to which we were ultimately unable to visit the attraction? Is it not obligatory on the part of Tour Operator to send all the tickets as promised in the itinerary before start of the trip from India? This behaviour of the tour operator depicts their intention to save money by not sending all the tickets before the start of the trip as few of their customers might not point out the lapse in services.
e) The ticket of Madame Tussauds sent to us has a purchase date mentioned on it as 27/06/2018 while you are saying the ticket was booked on 13/07/2018 after we pointed out that we haven’t received the ticket. In either case, the fault lies with the tour operator. If the ticket was booked on 27/06/2018 the ticket should have been sent to us well in advance of our tour and if the ticket was booked on 13/07/2018 why the same date is not mentioned on the ticket and was the tour operator not responsible for the delay even after explicitly mentioning tickets of Madame Tussauds in the inclusions package of our trip? The ticket has a validity of 6 months and the ticket is still valid. It’s reasonable to say that the tour operator would not have incurred a loss with respect to these tickets as they would have utilised it with some other guest as we have not used the tickets till now.
f) Is there no delay on your part in sending us the formalities which caused mental stress and agony to us and also is there no delay on your part in providing the tickets of activities which were received by us after reaching Singapore while the same was promised to be sent to us “3-5 days before the start of our trip”?
I don’t understand how you can say that we were happy until we returned home. The bad experiences faced by us abroad can only be overcome by visiting the places which were intentionally deprived to us on our trip by the tour operator.
Regards,
Parmod Kumar Mehtani
Verified Support
Nov 13, 2018
Yatra Online / YatraTrip.in Customer Care's response Dear Parmod,
This issue has been discussed over the call, kindly advise if a call back is required, we will arrange a call back for you.
Regards,
Yatra Care
Nov 13, 2018
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
I am sorry to say that Yatra care has been unable to resolve my issues till date. There have been numerous emails and telephonic conversations with Mr. Anand but till now there has been no solution for my issues. My claim is for compensation for the financial losses incurred by us along with the mental agony faced by us due to the negligence of Reasonable check in. The details have already been mentioned in my previous emails and through this forum. If you are willing to resolve the issues this time you may contact me, otherwise there is no need from a further call from your side.
Regards,
Parmod Kumar Mehtani
Nov 25, 2018
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
Please refer to my reply dated 13th Nov 2018 whereby I informed to contact me if Yatra care is willing to resolve the issues. Till date, I have not received any response. This shows that Yatra Care is not inclined to resolve the matter.
Regards,
Parmod Kumar Mehtani
Dec 06, 2018
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
I am sorry to say that Yatra Care is not interested to satisfy my grievances through this Forum. It is now the time to go for another mode to get my hard earned money which I have lost for choosing Yatra.com for our Holiday Trip to Singapore and Bali.
parmod Kumar Mehtani
Dec 10, 2018
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
I have not received any response so far. My complaint is still pending.
parmod Kumar Mehtan
Dec 24, 2018
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
I have not received any response so far. My complaint is still pending.
parmod Kumar Mehtani
Jan 02, 2019
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
I have not received any response so far. My complaint is still pending.
parmod Kumar Mehtani
Jan 18, 2019
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
Complaint yet to be resolved.
Regards
Feb 14, 2019
Updated by parmo002 Dear Sir,
My grievance for the loss incurred by Yatra and its partner not resolved as yet.
Regards
Request to please get it solved at the earliest.