Location/place: Bangalore
Name of company/service: Cleartrip
Respected,
My name is Saurabh from Bangalore and this with reference to my flight booking processed through online travel agency – Cleartrip.
I booked my flight for my travel on 24-Jan-2013 from Bangalore to Indore scheduled to depart on 06-Feb-2013. It was a connecting flight which starts from Bangalore and changes at Mumbai, to proceed to Indore. Both the flights were operated by Jet Airways.
Sometime later I was notified that the first one of the two has been rescheduled, which now has a delayed departure. This makes it impossible to board the second flight on my journey to Indore. I then contacted Cleartrip and informed them of the situation.They mentioned that this will be normal cancellation and charges will be applicable and importantly and ENDORSEMENT copy needs to be procured by the customer from the airline. I was not convinced with their theory as it made very little sense.
I then contacted the airline and they quickly acknowledged that since it was a misconnection and the flight was delayed by the airline, therefore no cancellation charges will be applicable and full refund shall be processed by the airline. In continuation they mentioned that no endorsement copy shall be required in such scenario.
Now with this information I contacted again to Cleartrip and they confirmed that my refund shall be processed within 10 working days.Today after 2 months time, I haven’t received my refunds from the company. I have contacted them through email several times but I either don’t get any response or in all probablities it will be negative.To add to the plight of the customer, the company has again started pestering me for the endorsement copy for the refunds to be processed. In my initial communication with the agency , after my discussion with the airline, it was confirmed by Cleartrip that no endorsement copy shall be required and even if it is required, it shall be procured by the agency on behalf of the customer, directly from the airline.
My Concerns
1) The company is purposefully delaying the refunds with the clear intention of non-payment
2) Even if the endorsement copy was required , why has the company agreed to do away with it and then out of nowhere started chasing the customer to obtain the copy?
3) Whenever asked about the standard response time and service level agreement status of the cancellation request, why no information is ever provided?
4) Even after repeated requests the company customer care executives have repeatedly denied to provide the contacts of the supervisor/regional officer for grievance redressal.
Requested Actions.
1) The refund should be processed within next 24 hours.
2) Since the refund amount has been withheld by the company on purpose, I expect a payment amount which should include the standard bank interest rate related compensations.
3) The entire episode has not seen any progress in the last 2 months and this is a harrowing ordeal for the customers, therefore the company should be imposed strictest penalties for violationg customer redressal conduct.
4) The company should answre questions when asked specially the standard SLA and cancellation procedures.
5) A dedicated investigation should be conducted by a third party agency to identify the system faluts and prevent any new customers to be affected.
Reuqesting your assistance
Saurabh Vyas
Bangalore
Leave a Reply