Location/place: MAlaysia
Name of company/service: Imperial Journey Pte Ltd
We are Malaysians and this is our first visit to the North with full of disappointment and frustration.
My husband, I and my kid travelled to Delhi on 24th May 2013 and stayed until the 2nd June 2013. (Refer to the travel plan attached)
We had appointed Mr. Karan Bansal from Imperial Journey as our tour coordinator to visit Golden Triangle and Kashmir. We had so many other options but the reason we appointed Mr. Karan was because he was efficient and fast in replying emails to us before we confirmed him with a deposit but later it was vice versa.
Kindly refer below for his details and our bad experience through this agent.
Imperial Journey Private Limited
Person in charge: Mr. Karan Bansal
Email ID : [email protected]
Office Address: H.No 45, 04th Floor, KH. No. 340/145, Near Main Road,
Shakarpur Khas, Delhi-110092
Contact Number : 0091-8802062500 / 0091-8802062501
1st day – 24th May 2013
We arrived Delhi and was transferred to The Gold Inn Hotel. Immediately after reaching hotel Mr.Karan came to our room to meet us and collected the balance payment of MYR2969. We paid him in full cash (Ringgit Malaysia). He was also supposed to furnish us with our inter- flight ticket from Delhi to Jammu and the houseboat reservation which he did not furnish us with the details instead told us that he has left it in another beg of his and will drop by later to give it to us.
As per our itinerary we are supposed to visit Old & New Delhi on the first day. However, driver said he can’t take us around as he needs to take his car to the workshop. My husband told him that it’s fine if you can come later after repairing the car but unfortunately he said he can’t come. Later when my husband spoke to Mr.Karan he wanted to change the driver but we said its fine with us as we didn’t want to make things complicated and we went around on our own.
My husband highlighted to our tour agent that he should arrange as per his itinerary and not telling us to discuss with his appointed driver (Mr. Jeevan). Karan (tour agent) promise will make sure everything in place as per discussed and no more problem. On the first day, we went around our self and hoping everything will be right on the second day.
On the second day, driver informed us that he is a freelancer driver and he was paid for drop off from airport to hotel only. Karan (tour agent) charged us for half day tour.
Jeevan (driver) was not furnished with the programme itinerary and he started to change few things in the programme with his own reason.
4th day- 27th May 2013
My husband called Karan and forced him to furnish us with the driver’s name and number in Jammu as our flight was on 28th May 2013 at 1.30pm. Mr.Karan mentioned to me over the phone that” Don’t worry Maam our driver will wait at Jammu Airport with your name on a placard.”
5th day- 28th May 2013
Our Delhi driver was supposed to come at 10.30am but only turned up at 11.00am as we had checked out and waiting for his arrival. Mr.Karan only provided the driver number and name on 28th May 2013 morning at the Hotel reception.
Shocking part was when we arrived Jammu airport there was no one waiting for us to fetch us form the airport. Thank God that my husband urged Karan to provide us with the contact person in Jammu.
My husband had to find someone that can speak English and ask him for a STD booth to call the driver. When we called the driver, it was the houseboat agent Mr.Ajiz for Shelter Houseboat and he mentioned to us that the driver is waiting at Asia Hotel which is 5km away from the airport. We had to walk out from the airport with our luggage and my child to get a cab which had cost us INR500. When we arrived the destination told the driver was not there and we waited 5 minutes to embark our journey to Sri Nagar with a driver that only speaks Hindi and don’t understand a word of English.
According to Mr.Ajiz the houseboat was only booked 2 days ago and thus by the law travel agent should apply for permission to fetch tourist from the airport 3 days prior to arrival and that is the reason why the driver had to wait in front of Asia Hotel to fetch us. This message was not relayed to us before departing New Delhi to Jammu. We had paid a deposit of MYR2000 on 20th April 2013 upon confirmation.
As per Karan, it will only take 5 hours from Jammu to Sri Nagar upon confirmation with deposit, later he mentioned 7hours when we met him in Delhi hotel but on email he mentioned 9hours. We agreed to take a drive from Jammu to Sri Nagar upon his confirmation that it will only take 5 hours but on actual it took us 13hours to arrive Sri Nagar and we reached the Houseboat at 4am. My son was so restless.
6th day- 29th May 2013
Mr.Ajiz from the houseboat was very professional, kind and helpful. He arranged a flight from Sri Nagar to Jammu for our last day travel rather than driving 13hours form Sri Nagar to Jammu. As per Karan’s confirmation he did mention that ”Shikara Ride’ complimentary but he didn’t convey the message or make arrangements with the Houseboat agent. We had to email Karan from the houseboat for each and everything for him to inform to the Houseboat agent. We also met another family from Malaysia that booked with Imperial Journey and they faced the same problem as we did.
As a tourist we would be also reluctant to recommend or come to India as we have faced numerous problems over there by this unprofessional agents that don’t keep up their words and no proper arrangements.
8th day- 31st May 2013
As per Karan’s plan we are suppose to go to Pahalgam for a day tour but unfortunately we didn’t go because his plan for the entire tour was not practical and his planned itinerary was fake. He convinced us with his itinerary and failed to brief the planned programme to his arrange driver (New Delhi & Kashmir). Infact he had also charged us for the trip to Pahalgam. When we sent him an email he said that we should have told the driver to go.
If we can do this then we don’t have to appoint him as our agent by paying so much as we can book our hotels and driver on our own. The reason we booked through a travel agent is because we are busy at work and we wanted someone to make all the arrangements as pre planned but we are really disappointed with his service and negligence towards a tourist after receiving the full cash.
Our entire trip was a shocking night mare when things didn’t turn up as promised by our tour agent Mr.Karan.
Hereby I would like to seek your assistance to investigate whether is this agent a registered travel agent or otherwise as he is tarnishing your Incredible India’s reputation to tourist. As an appointed agent he was suppose to make sure all arrangements are done according to the plan but instead we have to inform the driver on our daily plan.
Secondly we want the travel agent to refund us the amount of our damage INR 500 rupees that we paid from Jammu airport to Asia Hotel and INR11462 flight charges form Jammu to Sri Nagar for his faulty information.
Thank you for your valuable time and waiting for a response and we would be glad if an action is taken on this agency as we don’t want any other tourist that visits India to face troubles like we did.
Thanking you in advance.
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