We were travelling from Shirdi to Hyderabad on 1 May 2023. It was an A/C Sleeper Bus! The bus broke down in the middle of the road — Highway (in a No man area) between 12:45 AM — 1:30 AM (Midnight). (Someone said that it's for the third time the bus broke down — Subject to correction), Later I heard many other similar stories about Orange Travels.
The highway patrol (police) stopped by and warned us of the risk to halt in the area as it was a dacoit-prone area and it is extremely unsafe to be there.— They immediately called for more support - 2 Police Vans and parked on either side of the bus. You can imagine how unsafe it was. Thanks to the police for giving us protection throughout.
You can imagine the kind of stress, tension that we might have gone through(Especially being with Family — Women & Senior Citizens) in a situation like this.
Orange Travels absolutely gave us no support proactively. They did not try to even arrange for an alternate option ( Same A/C Sleeper Bus ) When called the support team, they said that there are other Orange Buses going by that route which are all full (after 3–4 Hours of keeping us in that situation), they suggested that we stand “Adjust beside the driver in the driver's cabin" and travel to Hyderabad as there is not even 1 seat available in any of those buses (Do you call this a resolution?) They have asked all the 41 (Approx) passengers to stand or sit on the walk area - On the floor and travel till Hyderabad. (This is how badly they treat their customers)
As the area was unsafe, we had to take that option (Given the risk of staying there in the middle of the night with Family — Especially with 2 Senior Citizens).
We got down near Solapur (Mid Way) in the alternate bus standing (As it is impossible to stand and travel till Hyderabad — Nearly another 400 Kms), we took a hotel room — Costed us around 6K (As there are no buses available immediately) and booked another bus to Hyderabad which costed us another 6K.
Now, Orange Travels said that they will refund only 50% of the ticket amount as we have travelled some 180 Odd kilometres out of some 600 Odd Kilometres (Charging 50% for dropping us in the middle of the highway in a no man area…that too in the middle of the night keeping us in such panic situation and helpless condition).
I've taken this time out of my busy schedule to write this as I don't want any other person to suffer like we did.
