This is the first & last time I am going to use OYO . I mean, I couldn’t have had a worse experience in all my life.
Yesterday, I booked 3 rooms for my cousin+ his friends(in all 6 guests) at OYO Jaisalmer Fort(Hotel Shiv Shahi Palace) for 1 night(5th-6th March.) This is how it went.
At 19.15 hrs, we checked out the website & decided on the hotel. When we input the check in/check outdate the fancy website DID NOT INDICATE THAT ROOMS WERE NOT AVAILABLE, so we went ahead & made the payment(the "pay at hotel" button had been disabled for this hotel.) Our payment went through at 19.22 hrs. We even got a confirmation of payment success with booking number, GUHM2498, which also said that we would soon receive an email confirmation.
We did get an email at 19.28 hrs, informing us, (surprise, surprise!) that the "booking was not confirmed." So we immediately called up OYO on 9313931393 to check, only to told that "NO ROOMS WERE AVAILABLE." Can you believe that? OYO INFORMS US THAT NO ROOMS WERE AVAILABLE AFTER THEY TOOK OUR MONEY.
Simple question to OYO: WHY DID THE WEBSITE NOT TELL US THAT ROOMS WERE NOT AVAILABLE WHEN WE FIRST CHECKED FOR AVAILABILITY, WHICH IS THE NORMAL THING THAT ALL HOTELS DO WHEN WE DO AN ONLINE BOOKING.
We again called up OYO to complain & ask for a refund only to be told that we would get our refund but that IT WOULD TAKE 7 TO 14 DAYS. UNBELIEVABLE! IT TOOK OYO 7 SECONDS TO TAKE OUR MONEY BUT IT TAKES THEM 7 TO 14 DAYS TO REFUND IT?
Wow! Nice racket Oyo has working here.in 3 easy steps.
take the customer’s money, first
then, tell them sorry, guys, no rooms .tough luck!
use the interest free "float" for 7 to 14 days & then return it.
Simple question: Why does Oyo need 7-14 days to refund our money? Even IRCTC, which sees huge dynamic traffic, refunds your money in 72 hours & these guys, being just facilitators, need 7 to 14 DAYS? Maybe they need the money, huh?
The horror story continues.we then asked to speak to someone "senior" who could resolve the issue(Ha, fat chance of that! This was a call centre.after all.) As expected and no surprise here, we got the run around. the usual " senior is in a meeting" bullshit that everyone gives to an irate customer. After a heated argument with the call centre about the refund, half an hour later, we get the standard bullshit mail " we are looking to resolve the matter, shortly"
Meanwhile, NO ROOMS AND NO MONEY. OYO HAS SHAFTED US ROYALLY, WHICH LEADS US TO BELIEVE THAT OYO IS JUST ANOTHER THIRD RATE PLATFORM INDULGING IN UNETHICAL BUSINESS PRACTICES. THE OYO GUYS ARE JUST CROOKS IN SMART SUITS!
AND, KNOW WHAT? THE FEEDBACK PAGE ON THEIR FANCY WEBSITE IS HIDDEN AWAY, IN SOME CORNER OF THE "SUPPORT" TAB. TOOK A WHILE TO FIND IT.
We have written to them outlining our experience & asking them to refund our money ASAP.
Meanwhile, we wait for our money. Counting down.
A bit of advice to OYO.This is Marketing 101(which is something that the fancy business schools that you went to, probably, didn’t teach you). the customer isn’t an idiot. Stop treating him like one. And stop shafting them or you won’t last long.
THIS HAS BEEN A MOST BITTER EXPERIENCE . I AM NEVER GOING NEAR THEIR WEBSITE EVER AGAIN.
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