debray@sbcs.UUCP (Saumya Debray) (02/09/85)
I had an unpleasant experience with a travel agent in NYC that I'd like to
warn others about (this agent seems to do a lot of business with Indians
travelling to the Middle East and India, which is why I'm posting it to
net.nlang.india). They seem to be called, variously, "Zeenath Travels",
"Malik Travels" and "Prince Travels", and are based somewhere on 5th. Ave,
NYC. The person running the place is an Indian woman named Arifa.
Last summer, I decided to take a trip to India in December 1984. A friend
of mine referred me to this agent, and sometime in June 1984 I paid her the
money for the tickets (about $1400 for travel to, from and within India).
I also asked her to make some hotel reservations for me.
My first surprise was her reluctance to make the hotel reservations ("Don't
you know anyone you could stay with?" My reaction was, "If I did I
wouldn't be asking you to make a hotel reservation for me."). Then, I
found that while my check had been promptly cashed, my tickets weren't
forthcoming. A rather irritating series of phone calls followed over the
next five months, with me calling her (long distance!) every other week,
and she making various excuses and promising to call back later - calls
that somehow never materialized.
When the tickets hadn't arrived two weeks before my departure date, I began
to lose my patience ... the tickets finally arrived a week before I left.
By then, she'd screwed up my travel plans somewhat (I'd wanted to fly out
of Delhi, but she booked me on a flight out of Bombay). At this time,
she also gave me the gem that my hotel reservation request had somehow
"gotten deleted" from the computer (she had to have cheek, this one,
giving me that crap knowing that I was in Computer Science!), and when
I asked her to re-enter the request, I was told that (drum roll) the
computer was down. So much for being helpful!
All my phone conversations were with "Zeenath Travels", she asked me to
make my checks out to one "Malik Travels", and I found my tickets issued by
some "Prince Travels" ... a setup that sounds damned suspicious to me!
What really pisses me off are (i) the crap I got about the hotel reservation;
(ii) the mess she made of my flight plans without telling me; and (iii) the
fact that she cashed my checks and hogged the interest for five months (I
suspect this sort of thing is illegal). Another friend of mine had a
similar experience with these people, so I know my experience wasn't
unique. If you should happen to deal with these people, I'd suggest you
keep my experience in mind.
--
Saumya Debray
SUNY at Stony Brook
uucp: {allegra, hocsd, philabs, ogcvax} !sbcs!debray
CSNet: debray@sbcsshaprkg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Bob Shapiro) (02/11/85)
re your experience with the Indian travel agent.
There is an excellent possibility that this was not a travel agent but
rather a ticket broker. I suspect the reason you went to her in the first
place is that she offered a lower price than you could get at a standard
agency. In the Indian and Far East market there are many ethnic brokers who
will get you tickets at a discount. They are usually not travel agents.
There are many ways of arranging these discounts but it is illegal for an
authorized travel agent to do it. e.g. They may get the tickets written by
someone overseas who is not restricted by American law or they may get
enormous override commissions because of their volume and rebate part of this
commission. (These tickets are usually marked non-refundable)
When you deal with someone who gives you a price that is too good to be
true it is caveat preemptor. I would suspect that you should never deal by
mail and by credit card whenever possible. In my experience as a travel
agent I would offer the following:
1. You were pretty lucky - after all you eventually got your tickets. In
many cases people never see them.
2. Have a little talk with the airline. (But probably they will do nothing)
3. If this is a legitimate travel agency write to IATA. Any honest travel
travel agency will give you the address.
4. Have a little talk with your local bunko squad. It is illegal to keep
your money like that in my state (California) and I suspect it is also
in New York.sohail@terak.UUCP (Sohail M. Hussain) (02/11/85)
> I had an unpleasant experience with a travel agent in NYC that I'd like to > warn others about I think that this happens too often to people from our part of the world, a friend of mine here in phoenix, was traveling to karachi, and went through a travel agent in chicago, and when he got to new york he found that the travel agent had booked him on a flight that did not exist. I personally make all my bookings my self with the airlines, and then call the travel agent to get the tickets. (I use to save some more money that way because all they had to do was write a ticket) but the travel agent I used has gone out of business. Perhaps we can use this news group to share the names of good travel agents as well as warn people about bad/flaky travel agents sohail -- Sohail Hussain uucp: ...{decvax,hao,ihnp4,seismo}!noao!terak!sohail phone: 602 998 4800 us mail: Terak Corporation, 14151 N 76th street, Scottsdale, AZ 85260
jis1@ahuta.UUCP (j.mukerji) (02/11/85)
REFERENCES: <138@sbcs.UUCP> My experience with Indian travel agents in NY have generally been less than satisfactory too. In general, unless you know the travel agent personally, it is advisible not to deal with them. This opinion is entirely mine based on my experience and does not reflect the views of either my employer or my fellow countrymen! Jishnu.
percy@amdcad.UUCP (Percy Irani) (02/11/85)
> I had an unpleasant experience with a travel agent in NYC that I'd like to > warn others about (this agent seems to do a lot of business with Indians > travelling to the Middle East and India, which is why I'm posting it to > net.nlang.india). They seem to be called, variously, "Zeenath Travels", > "Malik Travels" and "Prince Travels", and are based somewhere on 5th. Ave, > NYC. The person running the place is an Indian woman named Arifa. > > Last summer, I decided to take a trip to India in December 1984. A friend > of mine referred me to this agent, and sometime in June 1984 I paid her the > money for the tickets (about $1400 for travel to, from and within India). > I also asked her to make some hotel reservations for me. > > My first surprise was her reluctance to make the hotel reservations ("Don't > you know anyone you could stay with?" My reaction was, "If I did I > wouldn't be asking you to make a hotel reservation for me."). Then, I > found that while my check had been promptly cashed, my tickets weren't > forthcoming. A rather irritating series of phone calls followed over the > next five months, with me calling her (long distance!) every other week, > and she making various excuses and promising to call back later - calls > that somehow never materialized. > > When the tickets hadn't arrived two weeks before my departure date, I began > to lose my patience ... the tickets finally arrived a week before I left. > By then, she'd screwed up my travel plans somewhat (I'd wanted to fly out > of Delhi, but she booked me on a flight out of Bombay). At this time, > she also gave me the gem that my hotel reservation request had somehow > "gotten deleted" from the computer (she had to have cheek, this one, > giving me that crap knowing that I was in Computer Science!), and when > I asked her to re-enter the request, I was told that (drum roll) the > computer was down. So much for being helpful! > > All my phone conversations were with "Zeenath Travels", she asked me to > make my checks out to one "Malik Travels", and I found my tickets issued by > some "Prince Travels" ... a setup that sounds damned suspicious to me! > > What really pisses me off are (i) the crap I got about the hotel reservation; > (ii) the mess she made of my flight plans without telling me; and (iii) the > fact that she cashed my checks and hogged the interest for five months (I > suspect this sort of thing is illegal). Another friend of mine had a > similar experience with these people, so I know my experience wasn't > unique. If you should happen to deal with these people, I'd suggest you > keep my experience in mind. > -- > Saumya Debray > SUNY at Stony Brook > > uucp: {allegra, hocsd, philabs, ogcvax} !sbcs!debray > CSNet: debray@sbcs First of all ITS GREAT TO HAVE THE NEWS GROUP (sorry this is my first posting on this group) Did you inform the IRS about the experience or threaten Ms * Travels that youd do that. The cheque that was made to company X, Company X has to deliver the goods and not Company Y. E.g. You make a cheque to Foobar and if some strange company made a delivery to you without a) Foobar informing you b) Not being a Foobar OEM could be bad business practise trying to misuse the law.