I am a frequent user of online travel websites. Having read a lot of negative reviews about these websites, I never for a moment thought I would soon be the victim of one. Let me tell you my story
I wanted to buy 2 tickets for my parents for Vishakapatnam- Bangalore for the 22nd of December. Accordingly I started checking up the fares on various websites on the 20th of December. I almost decided to book the tickets directly on the airline website as all the travel websites were giving me similiar fares and airline websites are more cooperative when it comes to refunds.
However "unfortunately" I saw the ezeego1 ad for " ek pe do" offer on Air Deccan tickets. I had not read the ezeego1 reviews till then.
So dreaming about 4 free tickets, I punched in the passenger details, clicked on the payment option, put in my credit card details and CLICK.I thought the job was done.but no.payment gateway did not open at all.did a quick check though online banking.saw no charge had been made and tried again. This time I was a lil more lucky.I went upto the payment processing page.I got the message " payment is being processed" and it stayed that way for the next 15 mins.
I decided to not risk it anymore and gave them a call on their customer care line. The guy on the phone assured me that no booking had been done nor has the credit card been charged and asked me whether I would like to book the tickets over the phone. I agreed and he DID book the tickets for me .(took 30 mins) and then connected me to the IVRS to complete the booking. They even gave me the PNR number.and assured me that the promotion codes will be mailed to me by the same evening. I also got a mail from them giving me the Reference number **EZR-2007-488605/A and the AirDeccan PNR
* I did not get any mail from then that evening and decided to call them up and to my horror, got the following reply. "This is an invalid reference number, There is no booking made under this reference number, or the passenger names or the email id"
As I dont think I was dreaming the whole thing up.I THEN decided to read the mouthshut reviews.I wish I had done that earlier.I immediately started damage control.
Checked with my Bank if they had over charged my account, That was ok
Went to the Air Deccan website and checked the validity of the PNR(ezeego1 never bothered to send me the eticket). Fortunately the booking existed(lots of relief!).
Next time I called them, I was promised that there was some error with their website and that they will email me the promotion codes within a couple of hours. Its been 3 days since then. The last time I called this evening, they were back to the old reply "This is an invalid reference number, There is no booking made under this reference number, or the passenger names or the email id"
Thankfully my parents completed the journey today, I shudder to think what would have happened if I had not collected the PNR at the time of booking for the guy on the call. They still claim there is no such booking. I have sent them a couple of mails on complaints@ezeego1.com and am still waiting for a reply.
What irks me is not the lost of the 4 free tickets but their attitude when I call them up. They give one standard answer, "you dont exist on our systems and you can go jump for all we care".
I dont know what else I can do other than twiddle my thumbs and wait.
Update: After a lot of follow up and emails, I managed to get my promotion codes on the 2nd of January. I dont know if they work, have not tried them out. I would still advise others to be careful.
Update 2: They called me and resolved the issue. I did get my free tickets, so will award then an additional star, Howver I still think the service was reactive(They read the mouthshut review).