I booked a North Sikkim trip for 2N and 3 Days for Lachen and Lachung from this travel agency and paid around 30000+ to them for pickup from njp to Gangtok, a day travel to Lachen, a day travel to Lachung and next day back to Gangtok.I paid full amount in advance.
I am thoroughly and utterly disappointed at the service provided, both in terms of resources supplied and also the behaviour of the representative Mr. Bikram Godiyala.
I finalised the trip after repeatedly confirming if he would arrange a scorpio for my travel, and also that I need to travel within the mentioned dates and thus no issues with respect to permit or car should arise. He repeatedly assured me that nothing of this sought will happen and that I will be provided with a Scorpio and no permit issues will arise.
After reaching the point, I get to know that a BOLERO was arranged, which looked in a really bad condition. I called him up and asked him about this mismatch and he told me that he was unable to arrange one. This was not communicated earlier and i got to know only when I reached the site after traveling from Guwahati to NewJalpaiguri and reaching Gangtok, the car looked in such a bad shape and I have a back problem that's why I specified the car. Despite of reaching Gangtok from Guwahati, I still wanted to cancel my trip but Mr. Bikram gave me no definite answer, even after my waiting there for half an hour, he just kept me stranded and gave no solution to the issue.
I told him that I will continue with the trip and if it is uncomfortable, he would refund my full money and he agreed to the that.
After some time, and extreme discomfort, I realized that the car had no seats at all but benches with pipes and wood planks and some foam, covered with seat covers. I have the pictures in my phone. We wanted to return from there only but the driver suggested that the weather is not suitable and it will be dark and not advisable to travel back now. I called Mr. Bikram, explained him and told him that I will not pay for this car which has benches, he asked me to send pictures, which I somehow managed to send, and I asked him to refund my full amount, to which he agreed saying "Sure Mam, Yes Mam".
I had to spend the night in Lachen, and had to leave for gangtok the next morning, aborting my plan and compromising my leave, in that vehicle with benches and have a severe back problem now because of it. After that Mr. Bikram suddenly turns from "Yes Mam Sure Mam" to Sorry, I suggest you to carry on with the trip and we will not refund any of your amount, only some 1000 Rs because the car was not SUV category.
On following up, the siliguri office branch manager, Mr. Atendra questioned me that Ma'am why did you start the trip if you wanted full refund? Without realizing, when someone has travelled from Guwahati to Gangtok, managing somehow, a few holidays for a trip and finds out that the travel agency has betrayed them, and are not even committing refund, the person does think that let me try, probably it's not that bad. That's what we did, but it turned out even worse in some time as the seats were not even company fitted Bolero seats, they were benches.
And before questioning that why did I start my travel, the agency must answer , why did your employee promised someone travelling from Guwahati that he will provide the desired car and then provide not just a different car but a moving van with benches. They claim to be ISO 9001:2008 certified, and in reality these are the standards to which the management agrees and even defends.
I was not willing to pay for this trip as for me it has turned out to be a headache where as I had planned for a relaxing trip after a long time, instead, I had to travel in a car with benches when i was promised a scorpio, a verbal contract is equally important as is a written one. I requested the management team at Kolkata office to kindly look into this issue and also monitor wha employees are promising to customers.
After all this chasing, they decided to refund a mere 9000 Rs of my amount without any explanations, despite of my repeated emails. We were earlier thinking that it could have been an honest mistake but looking at the response and behaviour of management, it now is very clear that their objective was to cheat us and rob us of our money by providing extremely low standards of service and minimise their cost.
Regards,
Guneet Kaur
I am thoroughly and utterly disappointed at the service provided, both in terms of resources supplied and also the behaviour of the representative Mr. Bikram Godiyala.
I finalised the trip after repeatedly confirming if he would arrange a scorpio for my travel, and also that I need to travel within the mentioned dates and thus no issues with respect to permit or car should arise. He repeatedly assured me that nothing of this sought will happen and that I will be provided with a Scorpio and no permit issues will arise.
After reaching the point, I get to know that a BOLERO was arranged, which looked in a really bad condition. I called him up and asked him about this mismatch and he told me that he was unable to arrange one. This was not communicated earlier and i got to know only when I reached the site after traveling from Guwahati to NewJalpaiguri and reaching Gangtok, the car looked in such a bad shape and I have a back problem that's why I specified the car. Despite of reaching Gangtok from Guwahati, I still wanted to cancel my trip but Mr. Bikram gave me no definite answer, even after my waiting there for half an hour, he just kept me stranded and gave no solution to the issue.
I told him that I will continue with the trip and if it is uncomfortable, he would refund my full money and he agreed to the that.
After some time, and extreme discomfort, I realized that the car had no seats at all but benches with pipes and wood planks and some foam, covered with seat covers. I have the pictures in my phone. We wanted to return from there only but the driver suggested that the weather is not suitable and it will be dark and not advisable to travel back now. I called Mr. Bikram, explained him and told him that I will not pay for this car which has benches, he asked me to send pictures, which I somehow managed to send, and I asked him to refund my full amount, to which he agreed saying "Sure Mam, Yes Mam".
I had to spend the night in Lachen, and had to leave for gangtok the next morning, aborting my plan and compromising my leave, in that vehicle with benches and have a severe back problem now because of it. After that Mr. Bikram suddenly turns from "Yes Mam Sure Mam" to Sorry, I suggest you to carry on with the trip and we will not refund any of your amount, only some 1000 Rs because the car was not SUV category.
On following up, the siliguri office branch manager, Mr. Atendra questioned me that Ma'am why did you start the trip if you wanted full refund? Without realizing, when someone has travelled from Guwahati to Gangtok, managing somehow, a few holidays for a trip and finds out that the travel agency has betrayed them, and are not even committing refund, the person does think that let me try, probably it's not that bad. That's what we did, but it turned out even worse in some time as the seats were not even company fitted Bolero seats, they were benches.
And before questioning that why did I start my travel, the agency must answer , why did your employee promised someone travelling from Guwahati that he will provide the desired car and then provide not just a different car but a moving van with benches. They claim to be ISO 9001:2008 certified, and in reality these are the standards to which the management agrees and even defends.
I was not willing to pay for this trip as for me it has turned out to be a headache where as I had planned for a relaxing trip after a long time, instead, I had to travel in a car with benches when i was promised a scorpio, a verbal contract is equally important as is a written one. I requested the management team at Kolkata office to kindly look into this issue and also monitor wha employees are promising to customers.
After all this chasing, they decided to refund a mere 9000 Rs of my amount without any explanations, despite of my repeated emails. We were earlier thinking that it could have been an honest mistake but looking at the response and behaviour of management, it now is very clear that their objective was to cheat us and rob us of our money by providing extremely low standards of service and minimise their cost.
Regards,
Guneet Kaur
