Dear Mr. Kapoor and Team,
Hope you are doing well.
We are back from our trip of Thailand and to be honest we are very much unhappy with the entire experience from your side.
We and our family are your loyal customers for quite a few years now and I would have preferred MHM over any other agent whenever we think of holidays, but this time the entire experience was bitter.
To start with below are couple of pointers:
- The amount of Rs. 70, 000/-( out of Rs. 1.1L approx) was transferred to you on or before 6th of November 2017, as advised by you and the urgency was created for blocking the flight tickets and hotels immediately for the quoted price.
The amount was transferred and was acknowledged by you but post that there was complete silence from your end, for every 5 followups you guys would respond once saying "Will get back to you at the earliest"
That earliest happened only one month later on 8th December 2017, just 2 days before the departure.
Could I please know why it had to be done at that last moment? Were the flights not booked, hotels not confirmed, what went wrong? And if something is going wrong do I not have the right to get to know about the same, as we have paid money for that.
- The suggested and confirmed airlines were
BLR-DMK 23.05-04.10 AIR ASIA 10TH DEC
DMK-HKT 07.45-8.55AM AIR ASIA 11TH DEC
HKT-DMK 1315-14.40 PM AIR ASIA 14TH DEC
BKK-BLR 21.35-23.55 PM THAI AIRWAYS 16TH DEC
FARE AS OF NOW: INR 24126 per person
Fares are subject to availability
No seats are on hold or blocked
Please re confirm the same with full payment for the ticket
(copy paste from your mail itself)
Then why at the last moment the return flight from BKK to BLR was changed to stupid Air India and that too via BBI( bhubaneshwar) . It was horrible.
The flight was at 5.40 am, we were picked up and dropped at airport by 11pm the night before, we had to be awake all night long, as the checkin would start only by 2.40 am. When the flight landed at BBI, the Air India authorities were clueless about our check in luggage, there was complete fiasco at the airport. After an hour long ordeal passengers travelling to BLR got their luggage and had to rush to catch the connecting flight 15min before the departure.
Last moment change in the flight was totally uncalled for, when I was sitting in Dubai and you knew coordinating for the same back and forth was difficult.
Moreover all of you were completely non-responsive to my calls which I was making from Dubai to get a status. The only sensible person in your team was Paritosh, who had the courtesy of calling back.
The last moment change of Flight was also added by the change in Hotel at Bangkok, from Ecotel it was changed to some Woraburi. The changes came at such a short notice and we were asked to confirm it sounded to us like take it or leave it offer. We didnt have much choice with 24 hrs left for departure and moreover when you guys deny to take any calls from our side. Come on I was the one making the international call spending money, for you guys it didnt cost a dime.
The Aspery hotel, wasnt great but still manageable but the location of the specific building where we were booked was next to the garbage dump and community laundry( attached is the pic of the same). The Woraburi hotel was also below average with pathetic chaotic location. There were definitely better hotels in the same vicinity and the budget. Why was the hotel changed when we had agreed on Ecotel?
The Overseas agency/coordinator was pretty mysterious who we never saw in person, only drivers came from time to time with not so great vehicles. There was no personal touch. Out of the arrival someone stands with a list of passenger and mechanically allots to various drivers from time to time. One of the contacts who we tried to reach to understand the schedule was pretty rude to say Drivers will come as per schedule, there was no need to call him. Wow! thats something really interesting to hear from someone in the travel and hospitality industry.
On our way to Aspery hotel after being picked up from HKT airport, we get a call from one lady who claimed to be our tour coordinator, told next day we will be picked up in the morning for Phi Phi island tour, but that will be by a Big boat which will only only show the island from a distance, for a better experience she suggested that we pay 1000THB more per head and take speed boat. It was pretty shocking to us as we would not understand what was meaning of Island tour if we had to see it from miles away from the boat. As it was our honeymoon we didnt want to take chance and miss out, so we agreed to pay more.
Next day some other driver comes to pick us up at 10.30 am for the Phuket City tour, which he clearly insisted should be over by 1.30pm dropping us back at hotel before 2pm. When we asked what all we are going to see( there was one more couple who were tagged along), the guide says he will take us to some Go-karting place followed by some souvenir shop and if time permits he will show us a temple. It sounded like he was doing us a favour by giving that tour. When we asked about Prom Thep Cape which was actually there on both(the other couple) itinerary, he said thats not possible because its a long drive and cannot be completed by 1.30pm. I mean is that really our problem, who fixed the 1.30 timeline for him? If it was not possible why was it even promised. We started exploring with him what else we can see as none of us were interested to do Go-Karting in the scorching heat or to walk around any lame gift shop. Then he suggested we can perhaps go to Tiger Kingdom, where we need to buy tickets of again around 1000 THB per head for which we the guide says we cannot have more than 30 mins as it will disturb his schedule.
We had to really beg him to take us to a near by temple and view point where he kept pushing us to wrap up quickly as he couldnt compromise on his 2pm deadline. And you know what sharp by 2pm we were back to our hotel lobby.
Next morning we were picked up for airport by a shabby vehicle again. and left on our own. On reaching BKK, same routine, search of the guy with the list and be lucky to find your name on it and then wait for you to get alloted to a driver. Here the driver made us wait like ever.
The look of the Woraburi hotel was quite disappointing, somehow found a lot of Indians have been duped in there. Pathetic bed with spring mattress which gives you a thai massage of its own kind. The surrounding of the hotel was messed up, it was more like some ghetto, you wouldnt feel quite safe in that ambiance.
Oh before I forget could you please tell me that "at what point of time we had
agreed that you will not get us luggage allowance for our flight from BLR to DMK and we need to pay extra at the airport"? or as replied by Sreeparna that it was not part of the cost of the package. I really spent quite sometime through our mails to find out where you had mentioned the exclusion of baggage while going but again being included while coming back. We had to pay Rs. 2500/- for the same.
Could I have some clarity on that?
Next morning at BKK we were suppose to go for Safari world and marine park. The van came to pick us up was terrible, the seats and suspension were that of the local buses you see on village roads and to make the experience even more intense we got the last seats. Imagine the fun we had.
Next evening as agreed by 11 pm the van came to pick us up for the airport where we were suppose to board the legendary Air India to have an experience of our lifetime.
Mr. Kapoor, Sreeparna and team thanks for making this trip memorable for us.
Thanks for the radio silence on 90% of the time we tried to reach after we committed the majority of the money.
Thanks for last minute surprises which really made us feel like being conned, to make us wait till the remaining 24 hrs and make us agree to whatever terms you wanted us to go by.