We booked SWISS FRANCE PANAROMA with SOTC. We booked in June end 2023 and the trip was slated to start mid September, 2023. Once we paid full for this trip, started the nightmarish support or rather lack of any proper communication from SOTC teams.
Issue 1:
The sales team, entered our surname incorrectly which we informed them in June end itself just few mins after they sent the receipt. However, this was carried on through teams until one day before our Visa processing which was in August mid. Inspite of many mails and WhatsApp chat and direct calls to sales team, ticket(flight booking) team and Visa team. Thankfully Mr Rajesh from Visa team was the only one who was efficient in the entire SOTC personnel and was able to fix this blunder which could have been handled in June end itself if the SOTC team members paid any attention to their calls/mails from sales and flight booking team.
Issue 2:
Though we paid in full in June itself, due to incorrect/lack of communication between sales team, flight booking team/Sales support team(again I mentioned this to Ms S when we spoke directly before they handed over to Visa team that we paid in full) and still Visa team wasn’t provided the amount from company for our visa’s as it should be as we paid already in full. We again had to pay which was later reimbursed to us by Mr Rajesh, even he wasn’t there I’m sure we would have to wait even till now for that money. All this because of another blunder from sales team and sales support team inspite of having receipts and me specifically mentioning on call to sales support team.
Issue 3:
Trip start date is Sept 13 and on September 6th, the collection and handover team sends a link saying additional payment is required for 21k, without any call and reason for this payment. When called tells me that apparently they need more insurance amount for my mom whose age is 60. Now this age was provided by us at end of June itself and I don’t understand why till now none of the teams realized it and why this amount wasn’t considered in the quotation provided by the sales team? And also when I cross questioned why they would require 21k as extra premium and what was the premium for me a 30 yr old she said it was 1500 change for me and I asked them why is so much more for my mom. That is when Ms S realizes she did a blunder and says she added an extra digit and sent payment link as well for that amount. Can you imagine the intensity of each blunder fromn“so called“ reputed travel company, which might give run for newbie travel company run for their money in mishandling and blunders?
Finally, this person sent another payment link for 2.3k for extra premium for my mom, however she or her team failed to provide any documentation proof for this extra premium. Still, they didn’t send any updated insurance copy which actually shows the premium paid for that person, so I wonder whether this was even legit especially seeing their blunders anything is possible if it is a SOTC employee I guess.
They finally released our tickets on September 8, where we saw that there was an 8hr layover in Dubai, now this was different to what we were provided while applying for Visa. If they would have provided these tickets earlier we could have applied for on transit visa in Dubai for free of cost but now we couldn’t as minimum 4 entire working days are required for this, as firstly they released the tickets sooo late due to their blunders inspite of us paying entire amount given in their quotation in June(2 months earlier itself) and secondly our surname was still incorrect on our tickets.
Also for everyone else the flight starting in india was around 9 or 10 am, there were people from same city as us who had their flight timing morning 10 am and hence layover time of everyone was lesser which is better except us. Since our flight from Hyd was morning 4:40 am(Sept 13) neither could we have slept on Sept 12 and nor did we have any time for sightseeing on Sept 13 in Paris as claimed by the itinerary. This was ridiculous booking. We then had to pay out of our pocket for sleep arrangement in Dubai airport during layover for 8hrs.
Also nobody answered any questions. We booked through tour company as this was our first international trip and we were expecting to get support in the form of answers to our questions from this company, however there was no designated point of contact for these queries and this was such a huge disappointment from “SOTC”. Just 1 day before the tour finally a WhatsApp group was created by the tour manager, who provided a list of items to be brought. This was helpful, however if this can be done atleast 5 days prior to trip it would actually be helpful to have enough time to ask questions or to get the items listed.
Finally our trip started, our tour manager was mostly nice. I informed him that my mom had allergy to tomato and mushroom and he always took care of it during Indian dinner meals by making sure there was another curry if the curry was tomato based for her.
Only 1 disappointment from tour manager, on Eiffel Tower tour day. We asked him 1 day prior if we can book tickets for top floor, as part of itinerary SOTC would only take to 2nd floor, for which he was not agreeable and said that in that case we will need to meet the tour at some other point in Paris. This was a very mislead statement, as it would have taken same time for 2nd floor or final floor. Considering there are lifts there and we could have completed top floor in same time provided for others who would be visiting 2nd floor. Also we asked him even when we were in line at Eiffel Tower if top floor is possible(we will pay for our tickets) as the rush that day was bare minimum almost negligible and yet Mr tour manager didn’t do bare minimum of checking the same in ticket counter from where he was anyways purchasing tickets for 2nd floor if top floor is open. Turns out top floor was open and we missed once in a lifetime opportunity to have view from top of Eiffel because the tour manager on whom we solely depend(as it would be in any tour company) didn’t try to do bare minimum of trying to check at ticket counter.
Anyways apart from that tour manager did best as per the itinerary provided.
Disappointed in the way the itinerary was provided for optional day “Jungfrau”, it said Interlaken. However the time provided in Interlaken was only 50 mins, which isn’t sufficient to check the “hard kulm “ point on our own or to walk to any lake. Request “SOTC” team to be more specific in your itinerary details, i.e ofcourse if anyone is there to actually take this feedback seriously.
Also, the sales team never provided us the option to pay for the optional days in India itself, this would have been very convenient, instead of us carrying euros(which we paid extra amount to currency exchange company) and to pay this to tour manager which anyways will be provided back to “SOTC” company.
All in all, will most definitely look into other travel company options next time we plan to travel.