Sep 08, 2010 06:34 PM
11031 Views
(Updated Dec 22, 2010 12:31 PM)
UPDATE (December 2010):
Although the review below still holds for the bad experience we had to go through while booking with Cox and Kings, I should add that this matter has now been amicably resolved. I should thank Cox and Kings and their Pune Aundh branch in particular for that.
After I complained many times and finally sent a consumer notice (as mentioned in original review) - within a week, they decided to send us on the tour without charging anything extra :-). Mom and sis went on the Europe tour in November and enjoyed it. I only hope that other people should not have to go through as much trouble as I had to.
ORIGINAL REVIEW (October 2010):
I had booked the European Experience tour package with Cox and Kings, Aundh, Pune on 30th March 2010 with scheduled departure date of 9th May, for my mother and sister. The tour cost amount was more than 2 lakh rupees. As asked by them, we paid the tour cost amount in full within two days of booking. We were promised that we would be guided to complete all the requirements of the tour (e.g. visa) on time and that we would be leaving for the tour on the scheduled date.
We were asked to begin UK visa processing on 19th April 2010 and my mom and sister appeared for the UK visa interview at VFS, Kalyani Nagar, Pune on 21st April. We received the UK visa on 11th May – two days after the scheduled tour departure date :-(. Because of this, we missed the tour on our scheduled date. Note here that we did not cause this delay in visa or missing of the tour - we had done everything that was asked by them. They could have asked us to appear for visa interview earlier - but they did not do anything in first two weeks of April. They assumed that we would get visa within 10 days, but it got delayed because of rush at UK embassy. For about a month after this, we kept requesting them for a new date of the tour and they kept delaying the matter for some reason or another.
And then the worst part of this whole episode happened - on June 30, we were told that we will have to pay additional “cancellation charges” of 40, 000 rupees per person!! We were shocked! They were asking for 50% more!! They said this was because our flight tickets and hotel rooms had been booked and then had to be canceled (because of the delay in getting UK visa). Note here that, we had never asked for any cancellation – they booked and canceled the tickets on their own without informing or asking us. We refused to pay any additional money.
After that, we kept requesting them to take us on tour and they kept refusing and asking us only for the additional money. We constantly followed up with their Aundh Pune branch, and every time they refused to heed our requests. We also escalated the matter with their Koregaon Park Pune office and also their Mumbai office many times, but to no avail - they kept singing the same tune - pay up the additional "cancellation" charges! They seem to be only interested in extracting that money out of us. It’s been more than 5 months since we booked and we still haven’t been sent on tour. We have already lost interest on the whole amount and also Euro cost difference - this amount itself would be 10% of the tour cost.
Finally, we decided that enough was enough. We served them a consumer notice and have given them time till end of this month to send us on tour (or refund the entire amount).
