May 22, 2022 12:25 PM
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I am a frequent and widely travelled senior citizen, who had to suffer the misfortune of doing a trip to Kashmir recently with Veena World(VW).
Easily one of the most incompetent and unprofessional tour operators in business today, I would like to outline below some of the grossly unacceptable practices being adopted by Veena World, for the cautionary benefit of the tourists who wish to patronize this tour operator:
1. Once you have paid up for an upcoming trip, in case your travel plans change due to an unforeseen family or medical emergency, you can forget getting a refund. You are likely to be stuck with VW, and forced to travel on one of their other tours, whether you like it or not. I know of several cases among my friends who have paid up Rs. 1, 00, 000/- – Rs. 5, 00, 000/-, and who are entrapped in the ‘No Refund on Cancellation’ policy since several months, doomed to travel with VW as an when a suitable opportunity or tour presents itself.
2. No amount of convincing or protesting, even during the recent covid pandemic, when cancellations due to the precarious prevailing conditions within the country and abroad were justified, would make them refund your hard earned money. This unsympathetic and unreasonable practice is appalling, to say the least.
3. During day long travel, especially when our travel involved change of aircraft and a long layover, food was offered to us only after we protested loudly demanding that food packets be distributed between our connecting flights.
4. Forget being welcomed with a chilled welcome drink upon arrival in Srinagar, we weren’t even offered a small bottle of mineral water.
5. The buses engaged by VW throughout the sightseeing tours on all the days, were extremely badly maintained NON – AC BUSES, with cramped seating arrangement and virtually no leg room.
6. The rash bus drivers drove the buses with absolute no consideration for traffic rules or speed limits, making these bus rides near traumatic.
7. The hotel rooms allotted to us in Srinagar were absolutely pathetic 8 ft X 8 ft dingy affairs, with NO AC, unwashed linen and poor room service eg. My request for a couple of clothes hangers or a cup of tea took nearly two hours to be attended to.
8. The quality of the food served left a lot to be desired. It was alternating between extremely spicy and completely bland.
9. Snacks like mini Cadbury Perks chocolate bars, Maggie noodles and popcorn were served ever so unimaginatively during travel.
10. The general itinerary comprised of several inconsequential places of little or no significance that could have been easily avoided.
These are only a few of the rather long list of inconveniences we had to put up with.
A word of caution to anyone even remotely contemplating taking tours with Veena World…just avoid VW like plague.
Trust me, you’ll never regret it!
