CONSUMER IS KING
Petlee.Peter@timesgroup.com
Bengaluru:15.01.2021
Two Bengalureans who approached a consumer court with separate complaints against two travel firms have won refund and compensation.
In the first case, a woman sued a travel agency for getting a Singaporean visa issued to her with her sex printed as male, which spoilt her plans. The second complaint was against a ticketing website for not letting a man enter his family members’ surname, resulting in cancellation of tickets.
Bharathi T of Sringar in Bengaluru was excited about the trip she had planned to Singapore, Malyasia and Thailand in mid-2017. She contacted Soonangi Travel & Tours Private Limited in Jai Bharath Nagar and paid a total of Rs 96,000 towards the trip expenses and visa procedures. Her Singapore visa arrived a few days later; it mentioned her sex as male. She immediately informed the agency representatives about the error and was promised the issue would be rectified before her scheduled travel date.
But till the last minute, Soonangi Travel representatives failed to get Bharathi an amended visa, resulting in the 45-year-old having to drop her travel plans. She demanded a refund from the agency, which only agreed to repay Rs 32,000. The infuriated Bengalurean sent a legal notice to the agency and approached the Bangalore 2nd additional urban district consumer disputes redressal forum on January 5, 2018 with a complaint against it.
At the end of proceedings that lasted over 34 months, the judges heavily criticised the travel agency for upsetting the complainant’s travel plans. The court pointed out the attempt to offer the complainant Rs 32,000 instead of a full refund itself showed something was amiss. It was clear that the first leg of the journey was to Singapore and Bharathi couldn’t take the trip as her visa showed her sex as male, which the travel agency didn’t bother to rectify despite being contacted by the complainant, the judges said.
In their verdict pronounced on November 25, 2020, the judges ordered that Soonangi pay the customer a full refund of Rs 96,000 with interest, apart from Rs 10,000 as compensation and Rs 5,000 towards her litigation expenses.
The same court heard a complaint filed by BK Ravi Shankar, 52, an insurance company manager, against Make My Trip India Private Limited, in which he stated the ticketing portal didn’t allow him to enter full names of four of his family members. As a result, Shankar was forced to cancel all the return tickets from Bengaluru to Port Blair — which he had booked by spending nearly Rs 1.3 lakh — for January 2017.
As per the rules, the firm refunded Rs 18,041, but allegedly withheld Rs 38,643, which Shankar claimed it was legally bound to repay.
After three years and six months of proceedings, the consumer court ruled in favour of the complainant on December 14, 2020 and ordered Make My Trip to refund him Rs 28,423 and pay him Rs 3,000 towards litigation expenses.
In the first case, a woman sued a travel agency for getting a Singaporean visa issued to her with her sex printed as male. The second complainant was forced to cancel tickets after he couldn’t enter his family members’ surname on a ticketing website