Hi,
It had happened with me during last Diwali.(I suppose around last week ofOct 08.)
I had booked 3 tickets to Kumta in Seabird Volvo through "Redbus"portal. I even got the confirmation from both "Redbus" as wellas Seabird Tourist office in Gandhinagar about the route as well as the travel timings. I double checked it since I was booking in Seabird for the first time.(Even booking in Redbus portal was first time).
Even though I got confirmations from both the parties, still I had a doubt onthe route the bus will take to reach to Kumta.(Those who have travelled will know that route to Kumta is not so good, it may be ’Sagar - Honnavar’or through Sirsi.) KSRTC Volvo’s to Goa take "Hubli - Ankola" route and dont go to Kumta. Since I got the confirmation from both the parties, I was thinking Seabird may be ready to take risk by going through different route.
However, our worst fears became true when the bus stopped near Tumkur around1.30AM. Drivers told that, they got instructions to take "Hubli-Ankola" route and those passengers who have taken Kumta and Sirsi tickets need to get down at Ankola or Haveri.(Ankola is around 40 KMs from Kumta andaround 80KMs from Sirsi). Most of the people in bus are going to either Karwar or Goa and only 6 have taken tickets to Sirsi/Kumta. Calls to Seabird office in Bangalore did not made any difference. One person from Seabird, Nagaraj or Nagarajaiah, was very rude during the talk and told us to do whatever we want and they can make changes to routes whenever they want. They dropped all of us in Ankola and told us to make our own arrangements to respective places.
I contacted both "Redbus" and "Seabird" once I came back to Bangalore(in first week of November). Seabird told that, bus route has been changed permanently during mid of Oct(However, even today you can book ticket to Sirsi and Kumta in "Seabird" Volvo through "https://redbus.in" and "https://seabirdtourists.com".If you book it, then be ready to face the situation). They don’t have any answer when we asked why not they informed us before leaving Bangalore. "Redbus" was even worse than"Seabird" in customer care. Their customer care person did not reply to my questions and just passed the blame to "Seabird".
My advice here is, "Seabird" may be useful to go to Karwar/Goa.however DON’T ever take "Seabird" if you are going to Sirsi or Kumta. You can have better service from KSRTC/Sugama/VRL.
"Redbus" may be good to book tickets. but they do not take any responsibility if things like this happen. They just pass the blame to operator. At the end you will be the one loosing money, peace of mind and time.