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Unfair Policy by a Travel Portal “MUSTSEEINDIA”

Dear Friends,

 

This blog talks about one of my horrible experience with a travel portal (www.mustseeindia.com). I would also like to have others opinion as to what could be done.

 

Me and my wife were planning for a Kerala trip. We had got in touch with mustseeindia and we were sent many mails and followups with different options of packages. In the month of Jan we finalized one package and made the payment. They had asked for 100% of payment in advance, which we on good faith did.

 

The travel was supposed to happen in the first week of February. Unfortunately in the last week of January my father had some health complications and was admitted to ICU, and i had to rush to my hometown.

 

Since we could not go for the trip we wanted to cancel the trip and therefore we sent a mail to them for cancellation and then

 

 

mustseeindiaunfairpolicy2

mustseeindiaunfairpolicy

 

Even though we had informed 3 days before the travel and we were entitled to get 50% of the refund, but once we asked for the refund we were told that we had to inform 3 WORKING days in advance atleast. No travel portal or website or IRCTC have these kind of policies. What is more interesting is that on their website its clearly mentioned 2- 6 days before the travel (AND NOT WORKING DAYS).

 

I even had mailed their top bosses (co-founders Sanjay and Vikas) but did not get back any reply or update from their end. It seems decision to follow this unethical policy flows from the top.

 

mustseeindiaunfairpolicy3

 

I don’t think this is at all ethical what they are doing. What can be done in cases like this? Being a startup and a small company (with less marketing budget) its extremely important that we understand that these unethical practices can give us some quick money but can lead to a very bad name in the market. I would request if anyone out here in the community knows people in MustSeeIndia and can help us in our case it could be very helpful to me.

 

Thanks
Nikhilesh
Cofounder, Helical IT
DW and BI Company
www.helicaltech.com

 

Twitter : nikitiwari

 

******

 

 

UPDATE:  17/March/2015
Within a day of posting this, we have got update from MustSeeIndia. I have got a mail from their team saying they will refund the money (hoping to receive the same soon). Long live Rodinhood community. Below a snapshot of my mail to Asha and Alok. A special thanks to Rohit.

mustseeindia5

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5 Comments

  1. nikhilesh,

    rodinhooder rohit will be sharing this link with the co-founders. let’s hope for the best.

  2. Thankyou so much Asha and Rohit. Fingers crossed

  3. nikhilesh – there is great news! i’ve got word from rohit but i’ve requested him to share it with you here 🙂 he’s just boarded a flight but will comment here later on!

    the co-founder has responded on trhs fb link – pls check this fb thread – https://www.facebook.com/TheRodinhoods/posts/863624537034641?comment_id=864079793655782&offset=0&total_comments=7&notif_t=share_comment

  4. posting the comments trail for everyone!

    • Rohit Thomas Koshy Sanjay is looking into it. Will reply asap.


    • Sanjay Goel Dear Mr Nikhilesh, sorry for the trouble. I never received your mail, it probably went into spam.


    • Sanjay Goel Please note that you request cancellation on Feb 23rd, which is 2 days from your journey date of Feb 25th, hence it comes under no refund slab.


    • Asha Chaudhry thanks Sanjay Goel for the quick response. really appreciate it!!! would be lovely if you could respond on the thread itself. i’m sharing this comment there for sure  thanks Rohit for being an awesome enabler!!

      Like · Reply · 1 · 13 mins

      •  

    • Sanjay Goel Hence I don’t see anything unethical here. We are all doing our jobs as per policy only. 
      However, since this is a borderline case, I would get you in the 50% slab and get the refund processed accordingly.

      Unlike · Reply · 1 · 11 mins

    • Sanjay Goel I would also like to mention that just like we take money in advance from customers, we pay the hotels and cabs in advance also so that customers do not face any trouble during travel. 
      In case of cancellation, the hotel charges at similar policy only to us, and we only pass on the charges. 
      Either ways, it is our job to ensure that our customers are happy and we are willing to go the extra length for that.

      Unlike · Reply · 1 · 8 mins

    • Sanjay Goel Thanks and let me know if there are anything further concerns

      Unlike · Reply · 1 · 8 mins

  5. Hi Sanjay,
    Thankyou for your help.

    Regarding your 2 days policy, just to let you know we were well ahead of the 48 hours policy. Trip was supposed to start from Feb 26th evening time and on Feb 23rd 9.30 AM we had mailed for cancellation.

    On the below link we had requested for cancellation.
    https://www.mustseeindia.com/request/239002

    (content of the above posting) “Hi, There has been a family emergency and I will not be able to make it for this trip as my family needs me at this time. I have been trying to reach you on phone since yesterday morning, but to no avail: either all reps are ‘busy’ and cannot be reached, or the phone simply keeps ringing forever.

    Kindly cancel this trip for me. I shall get in touch when we are through and ready for the trip on some later date.

    Thanks”

    We did not hear back from your team on the above. Then on the next day we sent another mail (content below)
    “Hi,

    May I know the proceed on my request please?
    The team said they will get back but there is no word on it yet.

    My request to cancel was placed around 9:30am on Monday (23 Feb) after futile calls over Sunday and through morning on Monday. This is well away from the 48 hour no-refund guideline for cancellations listed in your refund policy as my first booking done by MustSeeIndia for me is the hotel service booked from 8:00pm on 25 February. Even considering the hotel policy for 12AM check-in, I am within limits, which warrants a 50% refund as per your policy of 2 days.

    The reason for cancellation, as explained, is an emergency in the family and I would deeply appreciate support and quick response from the team.

    Thank you”

    Please note that from our end it was always on time, we did not get any reply/communication from your team and this resulted in delays. Hope this information clarifies the matter more to you.

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