DO NOT BE LURED AND CHEATED BY TOUR OPERATORS LIKE RIYA TRAVELS AND TOURS
Now a days a number of Tour Operators are mushrooming with Great Deals offering Conducted Tours within India and abroad. Chose the right operators collecting opinions from forums appearing in Internet Sites and avoid getting yourself cheated The following is a true story as narrated by one of my fellow travelers during our recent tour under the name "Maharastra Wonders" conducted by RIYA TOURS TRAVELS during the last Onam season. It was very disappointing causing great inconvenience and hardships to the traveling team.. RIYA is keeping silent without any response so far.
Please read the story in full: .........................................................................................................................
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing this mail to address a very disappointing experience I had with your company. I had availed your tour package "Maharashtra Wonders", which was a 4 days/3 nights package extending from 26th to 29th August 2015 for visit of Nasik and Mumbai from Kerala. Let me say that for a reputed company like yours, the package was extermely ill executed and very disappointing. The gravity of the failure of the tour program can only be understood if a day to day narration of the experiences are given. So here goes: Day 1 On 26th, we arrived at Mumbai Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport before noon and as per the itinerary, we should have been transported to Beyond Resorts, Nashik by a/c mini coach in time for lunch and after that there was supposed to be a tour of the wineyards and an open air amphi theatre. As it happened, we reached the resort only late at night. No lunch/snacks/drinking water was provided en route without strong demand from the tour party and no stops for using restrooms were planned. When the tour party protested only did they stop at a road side dhaba or someplace to get some water and snacks and to use the restroom. The place was not at all hygenic and people used the unhygenic restrooms only because they had no alternative. After this, we again started toward the destination. However, after travelling some distance, people from another vehicle were shouting something and we came to understand that there was a disel leak from the bus. When we got down to inspect, we could feel the intense smell of diesel and see smoke as well, there was a major diesel leak from the bus. It has to be said at this point, that couple of people in the bus had already smelt the diesel and another person and brought into the attention of the driver that some sort of alarm was sounding but the driver did not heed any notice. Even after spotting the leak, the driver was of the mind to start the bus somehow and get going but the tour party refused to get in since the bus was in such a dangerous condition. After continous requests, the replacement bus came at around 7 PM. It has to be said again at this point that the entire tour party was forced to spent the time of more than 4 hours that it took for the replacement bus to arrive, on the road side in extremely hot conditions and it was already dark when the replacement bus arrived and the group consisting of many ladies and elderly people were forced to spend many hours without a hygenic restroom facility. Anyone would think that this is enough trouble during a tour program. But our troubles had only started. We were again on the way to the resort and by the time we reached Nasik, most of the people were fast asleep due to hunger and fatigue.
What more, neither the driver nor the cleaner nor our tour guide knew the way to the resort. We could see that we were going round in circles trying to find the way. In this era of modern technology, it is appaling that they could not find the way to a resort, especially such a famous one as they claim it to be. Has anyone heard of the GPS??. By nearly 10 PM, we finally reached the resort had dinner and retired for the day. In short, for the first day, let us thank god for our narrow escape from a very dangerous situation caused by the diesel leak. It should be said at this point that the highlights of the day- the tour of the vinery and the open air amphi theatre visit did not happen this day and nor were we provided any lunch and the cost of snacks we had at the roadside dhaba had to be taken from our own pockets. Also, from this day, we were transported in a 40+ seater bus instead of an a/c mini coach. Providing a 40+ seater bus when there were only around 18 people caused a lot of inconvenience in terms of the time taken to travel by this bus and the difficulty in maneuvering it through the heavy traffic. Also, the bus was in a pathetic condition with no music system or mike and the air conditioner was not working properly either. Day 2: So we all tried to put the bad experiences of the previous day behind us and were looking forward to the rest of the tour to make up for it. But we really were in for a huge disappointment. The program for the day was a Nasik City tour – Pandavleni Caves, Trimbakeshwari Siva Temple, Asia's largest Artillery Centre, Muktidham Temple etc. We started after 8 AM and were on the way to Trimbakeshwari Siva Temple. We are appaled to find out that again nobody knew the way. A lot of time was spent stopping the bus asking every person on the way how to get to the place. Finally we got to the place and saw a procession related to the Kumbhamela there. We lighted the bus and went onfoot to the temple, where we found that the place was very croweded and it was difficult to get in. Hence we were not able to actually visit the temple, we only saw it from outside. We then went to Panchvadi. Again we lost so much time asking how to get there. And finally after noon, we reached there and they told the general direction of the tourist spot. We again lighted the bus and by now, everybody was hungry and tired after sitting so long in the bus. We walked up to a river side and had no idea what there was to see. We were told that we had to go beyond the river to the location but there was no one to show us where to go nor anyone to tell us the importance of the place. So about half an hour after standing under the scroching sun, we were in the bus again and on the way to a hotel for lunch. The hotel again did not provide any restroom facility, the space was very small and the food was just good enough because we were all hungry.
Then we set upon the way to Pandavleni Caves. I should say that they did stop at a place with good restroom facility this time for those who needed. But again a huge amount of time was lost trying to find such a place. We reached Pandavleni Caves near around 4.30 PM and were told that we had to hike to see the actual caves. We were told that we had an hour there. Again there was nobody capable of telling us the importance of the place. When enquired with the locals, we were informed that it will take an hour to hike one way alone. Since it was already getting dark, we were sure that we would not make it back in reasonable time. Hence we could not visit this location either. Then we went to Sula Wineyards for the vinery visit and wine tasting. It was a change to experience the planning and organisation from those people of the winery. They alloted our party a slot and kept the time while giving us a good tour of the winery and the tasting session went well too. We then went back to Beyond Resort. Had dinner and retired for the night. The highlights of this day?...Well I will say it was sitting in the bus the whole day, of which three quarters of the time was spent going the wrong way or asking for directions and then going the right way. The vinery tour was the only thing that went according to the itinerary and that too on the wrong day. But again we went to bed with the expectation that the Mumbai City tour next day won't disappoint. Day 3: As per the itinerary, this day we would travel to Mumbai, then have a local sightseeing covering Nariman point area, India gate, Elephantana cave boating, Juhu beach etc. So in the morning we started for Mumbai, by 1 PM we reached Mumbai and reached the hotel where lunch was arranged (again after spenting sometime trying to find the way). The food was again average, it was a sadhya, being onam. The hotel was again very congested and the tour party was forced to sit here and there and many people were not served all the items. After this, we reached India Gate, where we spent sometime and here we, as well as the tour organisers came to know that the boating has closed for the day and we could not visit elephantana caves. To avoid the day ending in total disappointment, an alternative boating arrangement was made, and we just went on a namesake boating, but we could not even spot elephantana caves. After this, we proceeded to Juhu beach by bus. There was nobody to locate and show us any significant spots on the way. The people among the tour party who had previously visited Mumbai and the internet were the only sources to gain any information about the significance of the locations, we were passing through. When we boarded from India Gate, we were told that it would only be half an hour to Juhu Beach. In the end it took more than 2 hours for us to reach there (again, the driver/cleaner did not know the suitable routes). By the time we reached the beach, it was after 7 PM and it was already dark. We then headed to the hotel where accomodation was provided. I am getting tired of writing that the concerned people again did not know how to get there, but it is the fact and you can only imagine how tired we must have been to go through it. We finally got to the hotel and had dinner and retired for the night. Well this time, there was nothing more to look forward to. came with expectations of seeing atleast the places that were told in the iterinary. But we were let down hugely. It is an embarrasing fact that we were not even given anytime or taken anyplace for shopping in a tour program of Mumbai City. Day 4: We had breakfast, which was very shabby. We were told that we were given 5 star accomodation. But at this hotel, we did not feel it at all and the food was not at all up to the mark. After the breakfast, there was only time enough to pack and get going to the airport. We returned home without further events (if we exclude the fact that a couple of people were missed out and later recovered when boarding the flight). I should say that it was such a shock that a tour program conducted by a reputed company which has it's presence internationally could be such a miserable failure. Even school tours are conducted in a much more organised and well planned fashion. After the tour, we felt that if we had gone on the tour by ourselves, we could have organised things in a much better way and at a much cheaper rate. We paid Rs 33,000/- for the whole package, which was comparitively a high amount even if the tour was conducted well. However, we had booked only considering that we would not have the troubles of organising, that the program would be well studied and conducted smoothly without any inconvinience. Immediately on return, we had informed the company through the agent of our disappointment and had informed that we need a refund of a fair amount since the tour program did not turn out as promised at all. Four valuable days of ours were wasted because of the incompetence shown by the company.
Till now the company has not given any positive response to our demand. Initially they told us that they were not given any refund from their Mumbai agents. But this is not acceptable to us since our dealing was directly with Riya Travels and not with anyone else, nor were we even aware that they were appointing sub agents. The company's next response was that they are planning to offer some sort of adjustment if we avail another tour program. However, no specific amount/details were given. Now there is no response at all to our calls by the agent of Riya Travels. It is in such a situation that I am writing this mail. The company failed to deliver the promised service totally, however, we have shown decency on our part and have not asked for a full refund, even though that is what we really deserve. This was done only considering the flight charges etc. We have waited this long only since we still trusted the reputation of your firm and in the hope that you will show the minimum decency of giving us refund of a fair amount that we deserve after such an experience. We are not ready to risk valuable time and money on another package in which you say you will adjust some amount as compensation. If a full and properly paid package went like this, how will a compensatory package go. We have waited long enough – nearly two months and are not ready to wait any longer.
I request that you give due importance to the issue and refund at least Rs 18,000/- per person to us immediately failing which we will be forced to seek the help of the system of law in the country, in which we have full belief.
Hoping for your response and the refund at the earliest. Thanking You.
Yours Sincerely,
Salini S Menon
www.keralites.net          |
Posted by: "M. Nandakumar" <nandm_kumar@yahoo.com>
| Reply via web post | • | Reply to sender | • | Reply to group | • | Start a New Topic | • | Messages in this topic (1) |
To subscribe send a mail to Keralites-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Send your posts to Keralites@yahoogroups.com.
Send your suggestions to Keralites-owner@yahoogroups.com.
To unsubscribe send a mail to Keralites-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Homepage: http://www.keralites.net
No comments:
Post a Comment