I travelled on Paulo travels Goa-Bangalore on 2nd Nov 2008 and my journey was made unbearably difficult for no fault of mine after paying Rs. 1000 for a ticket.
I booked the return journey ticket from Goa->Bangalore, from a Travels in Bangalore. The ticket was booked as AC volvo window, "ladies seat" from Goa to Bangalore paying Rs.1000.
Since it was season(read as best time for looting, cheating and making unscrupulous money), and the "chart" of the bus was not yet put out for reserving, I did not know the seat number until my Bangalore travels person told me at Goa.
On Nov 2nd, Conveniently the AC Volvo was "Cancelled" .
At the time of journey, I was told that I would have to travel n a sleeper bus, as the AC Volvo was cancelled.
Until the bus arrived at Margao, I was not told what seat I was going to get until I boarded. As my ticket was booked in Bangalore, the Goan Paulo travels officers had absolutely no concern for my seat, nor any clue of customer service - not even the least courtesy to answer politely.
To my horror, I found out that I was given a non-window, upper berth seat, when I had asked for a window seat in Volvo. There was one vertical bar to keep the sleeping person from falling off and no stairs or places to climb. The bus was rusted and 2 mm of dust on the seats. Initially I was put next to a lady.
When I found that I could not sleep, I requested the lady next to me whether I could sit, and she obliged. As I get nauseous, I never ever go for a sleeping seat and prefer to sitting seat even in sleeper bus.
When I reuested a seat, the bus conductor gave me a seat next to a man! worse, the man sitting next to me was a local illegal passenger brought in by the conductor. I am a very ferquent bus traveller as my job takes me to several small villages, and this was the first time in all my trips that a single lady was unscrupulously and enthically put next to a male stranger, when I am supposed to be given a ladies seat(meaning when no lady has reserved the seat next to mine, the seat should be kept empty and never filled by a male). This was unacceptable at any cost!
Throughout the journey there were at least 3 "checks" conducted by random people and they found these anomalies and that the conductor was making a quick buck, taking local passengers for short distances on seat that were accounted on Paulo travels sheet as "empty".
The rickety bus finally reached bangalore at 11 am, when the actual arrival time was supposed to be 9 am.
Overall, I’d say never take Paulo from Blr-> Goa or Goa-> Blr, if you do, rest assured that you will be cheated and treated miserably.
So far I have travelled on VRL, KSRTC, Sugama, Durgamba and Indian Railways - but have never ever faced such a disgusting situation when a single lady is given such unethical treatment as Paulo has given me.
Paulo has no clue of business ethics nor anything called values or morals!
Resident of Bangalore