Oct 18, 2024 03:30 PM
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Had the worst experience booking through Travel Triangle. They assigned a driver who hadn’t been briefed on any schedule, location, or itinerary, which I expected the Travel Triangle agent to handle. Since no one guided us, we ended up searching for and planning our own stops for meals and sightseeing around the city.
Our cab driver, Tony Ajay(PB 06 BH 0027) from Naina Travels, picked us up from Amritsar, and from that moment, our nightmare began. We immediately informed our travel agent(Travel On Ease) about the driver's behavior, but no action was taken. Instead, the vehicle owner from Naina Travels began calling us, speaking rudely because we had complained about his driver.
After checking out from our Amritsar hotel, we were stopped by the hotel owner because the agent had not cleared the payment. This caused us to wait 30 minutes outside in the Amritsar heat with our kids. After multiple calls and a lot of frustration, the payment issue was finally resolved, and we continued our journey to Dharamshala. We had been promised a new driver, but instead, we were halted mid-way in the scorching sun for 45 minutes to switch vehicles, which was highly inconvenient as we had three children with us. Despite the vehicle change, the driver remained the same, and this switch was never communicated to us.
We also realized that the driver was dishonest, giving different stories to his vehicle owner, the travel agent, and us, with his primary goal being to extort money from us. The Travel Triangle agent received false information from the driver and was neither cooperative nor supportive.
When we arrived in Dharamshala, it was nighttime. The road to our camping site was narrow, something we were never informed about. The driver refused to take us down, claiming the vehicle was too large, forcing us to carry our luggage and walk down the road(thankfully, the camping staff helped with some of the luggage). To our shock, later we saw large vehicles passing through the same road.
Though we faced multiple issues during our stay in Dharamshala, the most horrific part was the return journey to Amritsar. The driver threatened not to drive us or release our luggage until the agent cleared his payment. This led to a series of stressful and panicked phone calls. Throughout the trip back, he kept us in suspense about whether he would leave us stranded with our luggage and kids, especially since it was already late, around 10 pm, and the children were hungry. We had asked him to stop at Dharamkot for dinner, but he ignored us, later stopping at a shabby roadside eatery.
Somehow, we managed to reach Amritsar, but the ordeal didn’t end there. Our flight times were different, as discussed during the booking process. After loading our luggage and leaving the hotel to catch the first flight, the driver announced that he would not take us to the airport because the agent hadn’t cleared the payment. At this point, we were beyond panicked and furious. My husband, who wasn’t with us, called Travel Triangle and recounted the entire ordeal, but none from Travel Triangle or Travel On Ease have taken any action against the driver, Tony Ajay, or Naina Travels, nor have they responded to us.
This entire experience was traumatic and unacceptable.
