Complaint Details

Status	:	Closed
Complaint No	:	0054959/2015
Category	:	Travel
Date	:	18-11-2015
Subject Line	:	Refund, defective online system, malpractice
Complainant	:	KANDARPA KUMAR SARMA
Address	:	Department of Electronics and Communication Technology, Gauhati University, Guwahati-781014, Assam, India.
Complainee	:	www.cleartrip.com
Address	:	Mumbai

Complaint Details
Before describing my grievance, let me inform you that I am very much familiar with IT, computer and related technologies. I have been using online booking system for flights and train for the last even-eight years.
I booked a flight ticket on 15 October, 2015 for two persons for travel between Guwahati-Hyderabad using online system with www.cleartrip.com. Travel date from Guwahati was 11 Nov., 2015 and return date from Hyderabad was 18 November, 2015. The trip id is trip ID is 15101538526. Then I had a change of plan due to corresponding flight changes announced by respective airlines.
1. I cancelled the flight on 6 Nov., 2015. I received confirmation on 6th November, 2015. I checked and found that only the return flight (Hyderabad-Guwahati) has been cancelled and the onward journey (Guwahati- Hyderabad) has not been cancelled. I found that for this flight, the cancellation button has been disabled in the online system. I have the screen shot.
2. On 7th Nov., 2015 using email, I reported the issue to cleartrip. I immediately didn’t get any confirmation of the email. This is sign of some hidden agenda. On 8th Nov., 2015 after receiving the breakup of refund (of Rs. 12, 898 in place of paid amount of Rs. 27,412/-), I send another email demanding the breakup. This email was given a case id as below.
Case # 14232360: Trip ID 15101538526 Date of travel 11 Nov. 2015, cancellation date- 6 Nov. 2015. Paid amount- Rs. 27, 412/- refunded amount- Rs. 12,898/- Give me the breakup.
3. The response to this email was given on 11 Nov., 2015. In all cases, a previously prepared reply came and nothing addressing the concerns. In the mean time I rang up customer care multiple times from 8 to 11 Nov., 2015. Despite waiting for hours on all occasions (none can do this for the entire day), I could not speak to the customer care people. I could speak to the customer care executive (Tara) on 12 Nov. 2015. I informed her all these issues. After she noted all issues, customer care took two days further to cancel the ticket (on 14 Nov., 2015 after somebody called from the number 2066860500). By that time, my planned travelled date (Guwahati-Hyderabad) passed and I was put into no-show category. For it, I was refunded nothing for the Guwahati-Hyderabad sector despite I had cancelled the entire ticket with the same trip id on 6 Nov, 2015 five days prior departure.
4. Please see in the cleartrip.com online system for user that there is no button for complaints and no record of the complaints are maintained. Only when they respond to emails, the complaints are recorded and case ids assiged. This proves clearly that this online booking agency is resorting to malpractice. I have the screen shot.
Now the following are the issues for which I should get back the amount I paid for the Guwahati-Hyderabad sector.
1. Cancellation button of the ticket of the Guwahati Hyderabad sector remaining disabled all throughout hence allowing partial cancellation using the online system. This is deliberately done by cleartrip.com. This was accepted by the customer care person calling from the number 2066860500. He promised to raise the issue with the technical department. I gave him the screen shots.
2. Insufficient number of customer care people available.
3. Inability to reply to emails on same day immediately. Why an email requires two to four or even six days to respond?
It is the systems fault done deliberately and is a malpractice. This amounts to cheating, Why will I loose my money? This should be stopped and my remaining amount be refunded.

Replies