Vinayak Vasant Govitrikar I shall be happy if someone is saved from similar headache & loss after knowing this : BEWARE Of S.O.T.C. (Cheater Travel Company) SOTC = Hostility ,NOT Hospitality !!! I selected S.O.T.C. for Europe Tour during May & June 2013. I booked 3 tickets In February itself at SOTC Thane Office .As we wanted to visit our relatives in Netherlands after the tour, we told to book return tickets from Amsterdam. As our route was different, we paid Rs 10000 Per Person Extra as Deviation Charges & Rs 1500 Per Person as Hub Change Charges well in advance. S.O.T.C. brochure says " .....On arrival you will be met by SOTC tour Manager/Local Representative outside the customs area , who will welcome you and take you to the hotel for check-in. " We were verbally told by Thane Office “Please wait for 2 hours at Paris Airport, as a group of passengers will arrive by Emirates flight.” . We arrived at Paris Airport at 8 a.m. We walked for 25 minutes with our luggage to Emirates Arrival Terminal . We wore SOTC Caps on our heads so that co passengers/ SOTC personnel would recognize us. (In the Paris Airport cap was not at all required ). Even after Emirates Flight arrival we waited for about one hour, but in vain. We did not come across any co passenger/SOTC personnel. We used our International Calling Card and called Tour Manger Ms Smita Chinoy. She did NOT TAKE the call at all ! We therefore called SOTC Thane office (Thank GOD it was working day & call reached within working hours ) & told that we are stranded at Paris Airport & Tour Manager in not answering calls. After SOTC Thane office contacted Ms Chinoy, she called us & told that she WILL NOT come to Paris Airport to take us. She told us to take a cab & submit receipt to Thane Office . We incurred EURO 75.60 for the cab from Paris Airport to Hotel. At current price of Rs 85 =1 EURO, it comes to Rs 6426. ! We did not get any Breakfast in the morning. Lunch was NOT provided in the tour (It was declared beforehand, so no issues). Dinner was provided at 10.30 p.m. ! How can I call it as HOSPITALITY ? It deserves to be describes as HOSTILITY . After returning to Thane, I submitted Receipt of Euros 75.60 & obtained their acknowledgement. SOTC Thane Office forwarded it to appropriate Department of SOTC. After about a dozen phonecalls , SOTC acknowledged the same . After more follow up , SOTC Sent reply that Taxi fare cannot be reimbursed. I am not able to understand why they required 2 months for rejection ? Perhaps they think, INDIANS are not much educated, they will easily accept whatever SOTC says . They had NO COURTSEY to express apology about whatever happened , how much trouble & humiliation we faced . It is a mystery why NOBODY IN SOTC told me earlier about the rules EVEN AFTER BOOKING ?? I visited SOTC Thane office 5 times or more with my wife. I made at least 20 phonecalls to SOTC BEFORE Departure for various reasons related to our tour . EVERYBODY KEPT MUM ON ALL OCASSIONS . After 2 months SOTC wrote an essay stating why reimbursement is not possible ! They were “searching” for excuse to refuse reimbursement ! They wrote “thanks for joining USA Tour.. “ ,We never uttered USA With SOTC . This is 100 % proof that my complaints were neither read correctly, nor understood correctly by SOTC ! I intend to initiate Legal Action for all humiliation faced by us . I request you to avoid SOTC in order to avoid own insult & loss of money, loss of mental peace. Vinayak Govitrikar vimanasee@gmail
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 06:10:25 +0000
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