RE: Booking ref no: YT1156953
I BOOKED THE TICKET FROM MUMBAI TO CINCINNATI, USA BY DELTA THROUGH YATRA AROUND 1ST FEB., 2008 AND I GAVE THE CREDIT CARD OF MY NEPHEW-ASHOK MADNANI. BEFORE I COULD FAX AUTHORISATION LETTER FROM HIM, AS REQUIRED, I GOT A CALL ON MY CELL FROM MS. RITIKA THAKUR, INFORMING ME THAT I AM NOT ENTITLED FOR THE CASHBACK OF RS. 10, 000, SINCE THE CREDIT CARD IS NOT IN MY NAME. I ASKED HER THAT I HAVE GOT ADD-ON AMERICAN EXPRESS DOLLAR CARD FROM MY SON, WHO IS SETTLED IN USA, WILL DO. SHE CONFIRMED AND I SENT HER THE SCANS OF MY CARD, AUTHORISATION LETTER, PASSPORT AND USA VISA ON 5TH FEB.2008, I WAS ISSUED AN E-TICKET BY YATRA, CONFIRMING MY BOOKING ON DELTA-BOMBAY TO CINCINNATI ON 9TH APRIL, 2008 AND RETURNING ON 8TH OCT., 2008. I WAS ENTITLED FOR CASH BACK OF RS.10, 000, WHICH OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN CREDITED TO MY CREDIT CARD WITHIN ONE MONTH FROM THE DATE OF THE BOOKING.
ON ARRIVAL IN CINCINNATI, MY SON CONFIRMED THAT THERE IS NO CREDIT OF CASHBACK OF RS.10, 000($250 APPROX.) IN MY ACCOUNT.

A SUM OF $1213.79 WERE DEBITED TO MY AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD WAS DEBITED. AT THE SAME TIME AN AMOUNT OF RS. 46, 901 WAS CHARGED TO THE CITIBANK CREDIT CARD OF NEPHEW-ASHOK MADNANI, WHICH WAS DISPUTED BY MY NEPHEW.

I SENT FEW E-MAILS TO MS. RITIKA THAKUR, WHO WAS REGULARLY IN CONTACT ON EMAIL. BUT THE SAME WERE RETURNED. YATRA’S WINDOW FOR ‘COMPLAINTS’ DOESN’T OPEN, NOR THERE IS ANY WINDOW TO SEND EMAIL TO THEM. I TRIED TO SEND MESSAGE THROUGH THEIR”SUGGESTIONS” WINDOW BUT THERE IS NO RESPONSE. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO?


PREM LALWANEY

A message is received from ICICI bank 14/11/2007 at 1602 hrs stating to have made a transaction of INR 20000/- using credit card xxxx0003. However, I have to intimate that I have not executed any such transaction and therefore I am not liable to make any payment in the matter. Accordingly, I forbidden you to raise any demand before ICICI bank on my behalf. It is advise to bring to my notice before raising any demand before the bank. If any demand / withdrawal is made without my consent I will be constrained to proceed for legal action.

This may be treated as notice.

I am separately filing FIR in the matter.

This is to bring to your notice that while booking 4 tickets for 4 relatives for the indigo flight from calcutta to bombay on 1st Oct'2007 (Monday) we had encountered a problem as a result of which our transaction couldn't go through. Nevertheless we were charged an amount of Rs 14336/- , we received a call from yatra on saturday (29th sept) that the amount would be refunded immediately in a space of 3-5 working days. Its been 2 weeks since then and inspite of repeated phone calls to the yatra team the amount has not been refunded. On calling HDFC they said they couldn't do anything unless the yatra guys reverted back to them. Now HDFC expects me to pay the amount, i have been a HDFC credit card holder for the last 1.5 years and inspite of having a perfect record they are meting out this kind of callous treatment. Beware!

I myself being a travel agent, send a query to yatra.com on friday 9th of june 2007 regarding amarnath yatra, next day a representative of yatra.com contacted me and confirmed me the availability of helicopter tickets to the amarnath cave ex-baltal and back... we settled everything for payment and other issues. Now i contacted my own clients who were in need of the helicopter tickets and collected payments from them for 30 tickets and since then i have been calling up yatra.com representatives and now they are saying that we don't sell tickets. The situation for me is very embarrassing as for now that representative is not even answering my calls inspite being given reminders for more than 15 times.

I would like to bring to your notice a case of severe negligence on part of Yatra.com, resulting in financial loss and unnecessary harassment to a genuine customer.

I had to travel from Mumbai to Kolkata, and was looking out for good bargains for air fares. I visited various online booking sites and airline web sites with the intention of getting the best deal. I found a few good deals some sites. After evaluation and computation, I found an offer at Yatra.com to be good. Although the ticket was priced higher than some other deals on offer at that time, Yatra.com and ICICI had a 30 per cent cash back offer for ICICI Gold Card holders. So, although I was missing out on cheaper tickets on other sites, I decided to book with Yatra.com and ICICI, in view of the 30 per cent cash-back. I did not know that a horrific surprise was in store for me!

I booked the Mumbai-Kolkata (IC- 675) ticket at www.yatra.com on May 9, 2007, at around 12 noon. After confirming availability online, the site requested for my credit card information and the ticket amount was instantaneously deducted from my card. Later, in about 5 minutes, I received a confirmation email from Yatra.com, thanking me for booking the ticket and providing the flight details. I thought I had just finished one important item on my To-Do list. But the ordeal was far from over!

Somehow, it struck me that I should reconfirm the booking with Indian Airlines. I called the Indian Airlines call centre, and was shocked to hear that there is no booking in my name. As I had received a confirmation from Yatra.com and my card account was also debited, I insisted with the airline official to check again. The airline official reconfirmed that there was no booking in my name.

I tried to get in touch with Yatra.com. Surprisingly, they don’t have local contact numbers. There is a toll-free number accessible only from MTNL/BSNL land lines, and a helping number at the Gurgaon office. This meant paying STD rates for getting help. I decided to correspond through e-mail. I sent them an e-mail informing them that Indian Airlines does not have my booking in their database. I got a prompt e-mail response informing me that my booking has been cancelled due to an error in the Indian-Airlines system. I was shocked and called their Gurgaon contact number. The official insisted that it was a technical problem with the Indian Airlines server. Their mail also said that they tried calling me several times. However, the call register in my phone does not show even a single missed call.

However, a genuine customer has suffered. I have not only lost out on good fares from other sites (These days, fares increase by the hour!), but am also having to go through unnecessary stress and tension, besides the monetary loss. The amount has not yet been credited back to my account.

I cannot understand how a booking can first be confirmed and then again be reversed due to a technical problem. Am not sure where the technical problem occurred, or whether the great deals at Yatra.com are just an eye-wash. Did they get someone who was ready to pay more for the same ticket? Such questions remain unanswered.

I would be grateful if we, through your esteemed publication, can help uncover and answer these questions. I would like to take this up at various forums including newspapers, travel publications and sites, consumer forums and government agencies such as MRTP, so that people are not misled by such advertisements, which appear very good, but are far from true. If required, I am also ready to use RTI and get more information.

Thank you
Regards,
Arkaprovo Chakrabarty