We booked a tour to Europe with M/s Leapfrog Holiday on 5 April for three persons (Myself, my wife & my daughter) for an all-inclusive total amount of Rs. 395, 000/- . We paid a deposit of Rs. 80, 000/- as down payment for the same tour by NEFT through our bank. As per our contract we were to obtain visa for UK ourselves and Schengen Visa was to be procured for us by M/s Leapfrog Holidays. Fifty percent of total amount was to be paid once the tour operator had procured Schengen visa for us and balance was to be paid 25 days prior to departure.
As per our agreement we were supposed to send our passports to M/s leapfrog Holiday by around 10 May. However a week before Mr. Vishesh Agarwal informed us that we needed to apply for UK Visa first as obtaining UK visa was taking unusually longer time of about 30-45 days owing to the summer rush, school holiday and lots of people travelling to UK. Furthermore he advised it was in our interest to obtain it first, should anyone from said group have any problems obtaining it, they might need to make changes in itinerary or cancel the program. Same time we were informed that keeping since many of their customers were not getting UK visa easily and in time they had changed the date to 12 July instead of 19 June as agreed. He also told us that everyone in group had been advised to get UK visa first and Schengen visa later as Schengen visa would take only 7-10 days.
He offered to help us in preparing UK visa documents and sent us email on 14th May with list of documents required, a copy of receipt of payment made and itinerary for submission to UK consulate for visa processing.
Upon his advice, since we were to obtain UK visa ourselves, we kept our passports & relevant papers with us and scheduled an appointment with UK visa section. We were allotted an interview for 21st May by VFS UK. We received our passports back on 16th June with UK visa, and gave our passports to 18 June to leapfrog for further processing of Schengen Visa.
We were to originally leave for Europe on 19th June as per our agreement but sometime during first week of June, Mr. Vishesh informed us that they have changed the date of travel to 12 July although it was explicitly agreed in the beginning that there will be no change in date of travel once a date was confirmed. However in good faith we agreed to go ahead and did not ask for a refund as we had already paid money towards UK Visa and it was too late to book elsewhere due to rising cost at the last moment.
Further since we were to leave by 12th July we kept asking about our Schengen visa and we were told that we would get it in time. The passports were given to them for visa processing on 18th June after receiving it back from UK consulate (clear 25 days before leaving for Europe trip). We had ample time for visa processing as it takes about 7 to 10 days to get visas considering that consulate normally ask for additional papers or call for interviews at times.
However, as expected we were asked for several more papers which we submitted as and when we were informed. However visa did not come in till 12th July and they informed us that the group has left without us and we would be given an option to join them elsewhere.
The papers additionally asked by consulate were my personal bank statements. Although banks statements of my proprietorship company were submitted along with application and it was explicitly mentioned on covering letter that my tax returns and bank statements of my company and myself are same as per Indian law due to proprietorship nature of company. (I have travelled to 40 countries over number of years and I have had no problems in getting a visa for any country. I have had no personal account until 2010 which I opened specifically for share investment business and only a nominal amount was kept in that account). I suspect that the travel agent did not submit my covering letter and changed it with their own not citing the reason & explanation of account & tax statements. However when we were informed about the consulate’s request for submission of bank statement of personal account we submitted a copy of the same along with another covering letter citing again the reason of proprietorship nature of company & low balance in personal account etc., it is to be noted that balance of that day was about Rs.1200 in my personal account as I was not using it. Again on 11th they informed me that consulate has noted that by personal account statement shows a balance of Rs.1200 only so I was advised to make a bigger balance in personal account and submit a fresh copy which we did with a balance of Rs.290, 000 odd in addition to my proprietorship company’s account.
I was informed on 11th by Mr. Vishesh Agarwal that we will get visa anyway next day so we could join the group in Paris on 13/14th July and later they will take care of 2 missed days of London. After severe insistence only, Mr. Vishesh Agarwal agreed to give us the visa application no. We enquired directly with visa section of Swiss consulate & VFS to check the status of visa and they informed us that application for visa itself was submitted on 3rd July instead of June third week as assured to us by Leapfrog holiday. We further asked for phone nos. of some of our fellow passengers to check with them whether they were aware of any such delay etc., which Leapfrog people refused to give.
However on 13th July they sent us an email asking for an addition Rs. 165, 000/- towards fresh ticket charges and an extra Rs. 165, 000/- towards rebooking charges over & above 315, 000/- which was pending in case the tour happened. Their intentions were not clear as how overnight we were supposed to pay an additional sum of Rs. 330, 000 over & above balance Rs. 315, 000 for no reason. Clearly due to increase in Rates of Euro & Pound they did not want to fulfill their commitment and thought of it as their way out.
Obviously we could not have gone further by paying double the cost with few days shaved off from the original itinerary. However we did not argue and asked them to return our passport & deposit paid to them as they had not made the tour happen which was clearly a case of cheating since the prices of currency had gone up in the meantime.
Finally they collected our visas & passports from consulate on 16th July morning upon which we asked them to return our passports and refund us the deposit paid to them.
Now to our horror they explicitly refused to return our passports and demanded full balance amount of Rs. 315, 000/- to be paid. We reasoned since the trip has not happened we were not liable to pay any amount and rather we were supposed to get our entire deposit amount back as it was lapse in service on their part as they had failed to submit visa application in time. Rather they said that Visa had not happened in time because of us and we were liable to pay full amount as they had made payment to hotels & airlines, which obviously is surprising as we were not supposed to process Schengen visa and it was not our liability to pay up anything in case of any delay. We had obtained UK visa easily on our own as was agreed and send paper on 18th June to them. They had many day to process visa abut they chose to wait until last week before travel for submission for some hidden reason.
Despite our repeated requests and after sending our person several times they have detained our passports illegally and refuse to return them to us unless we pay them Rs. 315, 000 without taking the trip.
On 17 July 12, we have filed an FIR (NC) with Sakinaka police station for the same. However when Inspector Shivaji V. Patil spoke to them, they refused to return our passports.
I am working in textile machinery imports sector and I need to travel to different countries very frequently on business. Now I am unable to conduct my business duties as well for want of my passport leave alone the alternative leisure trip for my family.
As of today they have our 3 passport (total 9 Booklets) of me (4), my wife (3) & daughter (2).
All related documents/ papers are in our possesion for verification of the said complaint. We have no option but to file a complaint with the concerend authorities for getting our passports & money back.
Tour operator’s name address & office nos. are as stated below. they have formed multiple companies to dupe customers of their hard earned money.
Mr. Sandeep Khandelwal (Owner)- Mobile No. 9975595121
Mr. Vaibhav Fatdare (Co-owner)- Mobile No. 7738146360
Mr. Vishesh Agarwal (Manager)-Mobile No. 8898580114
Leap frog Holidays Pvt. Ltd.
360 degrees himalaya Pvt. Ltd.
Backcountry Caravan Safaris Pvt. ltd., and
AQ Active Travels
809, IJMIMA Complex, Raheja Metroplex
Behind Goregaon Sports Club
Near Infinity Mall (Malad)
Link Road, Malad West
Mumbai-400064
Ph: 42140606/42140699
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