I had a nightmarish experience with Omer Travels A/C Sleeper service from Hyderabad to Bangalore. Please read on for details.
I booked Omer travels A/C sleeper service from Hyderabad to Bangalore on Sunday 27/11/2011, paying Rs. 1500 for the ticket. It’s already an overpriced ticket, but I had no choice because I wanted a sleeper service and this was the only one available.
The travels provided a small pick-up vehicle at S.R. Nagar (Maitrivanam). There were about 10 seats, and we were about 20 people. We had to stand all the way to Afzal Gunj, the main bus start-point. The pick-up vehicle was very hazardous, it’s roof panels were caving in and was a hazard to standing passengers like us. There was no railing for people standing in the front, we were wobbling inside all the way through our travel. I called up the Omar travel agency contact number regarding this, and he said ’Adjust and come here to board the bus’. Omar Travels didn’t adjust for money, they charged me Rs. 1500/- for the ticket, so why should passengers like us adjust ?
Our nightmare didn’t end there. The A/C Sleeper bus was filthy. The seat I reserved was indicated as single occupancy, lower berth. To my surprise, the last row of berths were double-occupancy, and the berth I selected (F4) was an upper berth. The berth was filthy. I had to adjust and travel in the bus since I had to go to work in Bangalore next morning. The bus left Afzalgunj office around 10.45 pm.
The nightmare continued. We were woken up at 2.50 am in the night, saying that the bus had an engine breakdown, and they had arranged an alternate bus (Volvo Semi-Sleeper). We were about 60 kms out of Hyderabad city as indicated by my phone’s GPS system, so the bus hardly travelled for 1 hour, and we slept for 3 hours before the replacement bus came. The replacement bus was filthy as well, and somehow we had to adjust and come to Bangalore. We reached 3 hours 15 mins late at Bangalore.
When I called Omar travels Hyderabad office for refund (since we booked for Sleeper bus and we finally travelled in Semi-sleeper bus), he asked to go to Omar travels main office in Kalasipalyam and ask for refund. How can they expect us to go so far in a city like Bangalore, for refund (the amount is also not known). I called up Kalasipalyam office, the guy says refund should be given by head office in Hyderabad, simply passing the buck. Anyway I have no hopes that these guys will give any refund.
My sincere advice: Never ever travel with OMER travels...