I was very unfortunate to be pitted against this cheat and fraud company called Heritage Holidays Pvt Ltd. through Plat5 Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. My mistake was of giving my consent to the premium Circle offer of HSBC banking upon the goodwill of HSBC. The bank debited me Rupees 6, 055/ against offers of 5% cash back, limited to Rs. 500/, a Polo Club watch and other other recreational offers. I got the Rs. 334/ cash back as promised, the cheap Polo Club watch(worth not more than Rs. 800/). But my fortune ended here.
I sent the vouchers for Air Tickets and Hotel on 25th March and kept waiting for the confirmation from Heritage Holidays, the company at the helm of affairs.
After a good two and half month of waiting I called the company to just be informed that my voucher was discrepant so they did not take action on the same. In fact I had given open dates to their discretion instead of giving specific dates. Instead of pointing out the discrepancy, the company opted to sit on the voucher until I called them to know the status. An arrogant “Sorry” was their reply to my question that if there was a discrepancy, why did they not inform me over phone or email about the said discrepancy. They asked me to send fresh dates and destinations. This time destinations were changed by them and my first preference of Jagannath Puri was removed from the destinations offered now. Same thing happened to air tickets offer. Initially they confirmed booking to and fro Mumbai with Go Air and Go Indigo but the return date was very next day to departure date. When I requested them to extend the return date by one day, they asked for a fresh schedule and this time they changed the destination from Mumbai to Jaipur. The taxes and charges were more than those charged by some popular travel portals. It could be assumed that the base fare was adjusted from the taxes and charges enabling the company to recover almost entire air fair from the customer. I declined there offer by writing that since they were not able to offer air ticket at competitive rate, I am forgoing my right to the same.
Now come to the Hotel offer. The company confirmed on 18th June the booking at Hotel Vishnupriya, Udaipur, being my last choice for 6-8 Sept’10, which I accepted.
On 3rd of September, a close relative of mine, real sister of my daughter in law aged just 26 years succumbed of liver failure jeopardising my chances to leave for the travel. The same day I informed Heritage and requested to postpone the booking for about a week as a special case and rebook any day in September. But as if they have been looking for such an opportunity, they did not accede to my request. I had already checked from the hotel and they were agreeable to shift the dates provided Heritage confirms the same as they would be getting paid by Heritage only. When I contacted Heritage again on Monday, they disconnected the phone and switched it off just after knowing who was calling. Again when I called, the executive on the other hand was very rude, uncooperative and not ready to listen to me neither ready to give reasons for not extending the booking dates while the hotel did not have any problem in rescheduling the booking. Simply the company is run by inefficient, rude, unprofessional and fraudsters with a single objective in mind, to deliver minimum possible and to not to leave remotest opportunity to deny the offer at flimsy grounds.
The way the company set on my coupons for two and half months, changing the destinations at their whim, disconnecting and switching off phones put the company in the category of fly by night cheat and fraudsters. Such companies are badly spoiling the name of banks like HSBC(off course that of other banks too). So the banks must take due care in checking credentials of such companies.
Even if one looks otherwise and every thing goes well, there is nothing to get tempted with such offers. You can get hotel booking at much cheaper rates in the off season on the dates and destination of your choice. In that case you are not bound by the dates and place decided by someone else. Fifty percent discount is a norm in hotels in off season and you can bargain even further. Then you have the flexibility to change the schedule at your wish. You will seldom loose entire booking amount in case of rescheduling the booking. Contrarily under such offers you end up getting booking at cheapest hotels in the leanest season.
Same is true for Air Tickets. Who will like to go on a flight for which you do not have control over date, place and fare. You end up paying fare more than the prevailing market rates. Rest of the offers namely, Sport, Cruse and Amusement park are applicable to overseas Sport, Cruse and Amusement, limited to reimbursement of ticket cost only up to Rs. 10, 000 each.
I was duped of my hard earned around five thousand Rupees, others can take a lesson from my episode. Everybody is advised to keep away from such offers.
Regards
VK
==UPDATE ==:
I have been contacted by HSBC Premium Circle executive over phone and asked to furnish hotel booking request afresh, which I sent by email.
Now Heritage have confirmed booking of hotel at Puri over email and phone and informed me of sending the booking confirmation by courier.
I am of the view now that entire problem occurred at operation level at Heritage as they did neither hear me patiently nor let me get in touch with their higher ones.
HSBC came out be as profession and supportive as ever.
No direct interaction with Plat5 therefore can’t comment.
Regards
VK Tyagi