For our holidays in mumbai, we opted for Holiday Links Private Ltd. I booked a 5nights 6 days PRIVATE tour for 6pax. This PRIVATE tour includes accommodation, transport, driver & guide for the entire period of our stay in Mumbai. The beginning few days of our arrival in mumbai was a nightmare!! The details of the incidents are as follows :
(1) Upon arrival at mumbai airport on 3rd April, we have to wait for half an hour before we see the person who's attending to us. We have to make a few phone calls to the telephone numbers given. After we met up with the person named Suresh, we have to wait another 20 minutes for the van to arrive!! Obviously, we are very mad to be put in this situation after a long flight. When we questioned Suresh, he was very curt and told us it was his office's decision and nothing to do with him.
(2) The van that arrived is an Innova van - we have a party of 6 pax - with the driver and guide, there are 8 of us - how are we going to fit into an Innova Van who only have 6 seats? Our luggage could not fit into the van and they have to get another smaller car to transport our luggage to the hotel. We brought this up with Suresh and asked for a change to a bigger vehicle. We were told that tomorrow we will have a bigger vehicle.
(3) We have booked everything with Holiday Links Pvt. Ltd. through a lady, Ruhi Dua. When I reached our hotel, I tried to call her but she didn't take my call and she is no where to be found. Suresh said that she will call me back but till the day I left, (6 days later) I have not got any call from her. DO NOT DEAL with this person as she is most unreliable. We were told later by Pradeep that she has left the company. WHATEVER COMPANY SHE'S JOINED, DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS UNRELIABLE PERSON!!
(4) Inspite of all the complaints about the vehicle, they provided us with the same Innova van and another smaller car the next day, 4th April. They had a freelance guide who was just as cross as us. How is she going to explain anything to us when we are in different cars? I had to call up the boss, Mr. Pradeep Kataria. After a lengthy heated arguement, he tried to get out of the situation by saying that the Innova is the biggest car India has!! This is really shocking. There was more shouting and after a while when we refused to get into the two cars, he relented and said that he will arrange for a bigger vehicle the next day. Finally, we made our own decision to use only the Innova in order that the tour guide can be with us all the time. There were 8 pax together with the guide and driver and we had to squeezed into 6 seats!! By this time, we had wasted half a day!! We were really angry and told Suresh that he needn't come with us as there was no space for him.
(5) By evening, our driver Babu, told us that he received a call from Suresh telling him that we will get a tempo traveller the next day, 5th April but there will be no guide as we do not need a guide since we are not doing monuments!! Obviously we are all very angry with this news and when I returned to the hotel, I called up Mr. Pradeep again. He confirmed that we do not need a guide. Another shouting battle began! We paid for a PRIVATE tour together with transport, driver and guide for 5 nights and 6 days. This is very clearly stated in our Tour Itinerary. Ultimately after many phone calls, he relented and said that the tour guide will be meeting us at the Haji Ali Dargah mosque in the morning.
(6) I do not really know whether the guide provided to us is really a guide!! - he does not seem to know anything, even opening and show times of planetarium etc. All he does is accompanying us to various destinations with hardly any explanation.
By this time, I think we are all too tired and stressed up to even complain. I have started planning this holiday and have been in contact with Ruhi Dua of Holiday Links Pvt. Ltd. months before our actual departure date. Everything, to the smallest details, have been brought up and confirmed in writing. Yet, we have to be put through all this nightmare. All the haggling and shouting have spoilt what seems to be a memorable holiday for us, not to mention the fact that it has caused me much embarassment as I was the person responsible for planning the whole holiday.
I sincerely hope that you will take this complain seriously as I do not want other people to be put through what we have just gone through especially when we have paid a lot of money for this private tour. To put it bluntly, Holiday Links Pvt. Ltd. should not be in the tour business at all. The people in the company are not honest and neither are they responsible.
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