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I've always wanted to start a blog but never came around writing one. It all started with one horrendous experience of doing business with MakeMyTrip.com & whomsoever I complained to, suggested I write about it on my blog, publish it to various consumer forums & put enough social pressure to get the job done! Guess what, it worked! Though I did not have my blog then, I decided that this was as good a time as any & the MakeMyTrip.com fiasco - however inappropriate, makes as a good conversation as any! Wish I'd something positive to start with; on the other hand, I believe this all could positively help a lot of travellers! So, here goes the first email/post dt. Aug 04, 12:03 AM, that got the desired response:
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Hello,
My name is Nitin Sawant & I am one of those in the long-list of miserables who've used a Credit Card on MakeMyTrip.com & PAID TWICE. On 16th June, I tried booking a ticket on Mumbai-Riyadh-Mumbai sector on makemytrip.com for 18th June travel date. I was happy at the fares shown on makemytrip.com website as they were the cheapest. I was using a friend's (Mr Virendra K.) credit card trying to complete the booking. However, the site wouldn't take my booking citing problems with the credit card.
Naturally, I gave up, But, soon as I received a call from their call centre (they must've gotten my details from the form I filled on their page). One Mr Avi Jain asked me why I abandoned purchase of the ticket & offered help. When I complained that the site was turning down the credit card, he asked us to try again. When that failed, I requested him to send me the ticket offline; I was willing to pay cash. He blocked the ticket & I was directed to their MIDC, Andheri office to pay in cash & collect the ticket the next day. I repeatedly enquired whether they'd still charged the Credit Card & he denied saying the transaction has not gone through.
Since the fare was cheap, I dashed to their Andheri office the next day morning. I met one Ms Sangeeta Jadhav who completed the transaction by accepting cash & gave me my ticket for 18th June. Their booking ID is IN0906B04541. I was so enamored that I offered to send them a complimentary email for their good service, which I did. But, little did I know that my nightmare had just begun.
When I came back from Riyadh, my friend called me to inform that makemytrip.com still charged the Credit Card with the full ticket amount. I was aghast. When I called Ms Sangeeta Jadhav in their Andheri office, she pointed out that this was routine system error & all I needed to do was send them a fax of the statement to reverse the charges. And then makemytrip.com's true colours started unfolding. I must've send 10 faxes, but on every call after that they claimed that no fax was received, inspite of we having a Fax sent confirmation. Then we sent the scan of the Credit Card statement. Again, none was received & whenever they received it, it was not opening.
After too much pestering, their Gurgoan call centre asked to send the details now to their Gurgaon office. Again all the faxes sent were not received & their telephones just kept ringing away. I kept blasting away emails threatening to complain to consumer forums but nothing worked. All I kept getting was canned service emails repeatedly asking to send the statement scans again.
Just on curiosity, I googled Makemytrip.com for consumer complaints & what do I find? They are notorious for this double-charging, snagging credit card details, cheating on refunds & what not! No wonder the consumer forum complaint threat did not work on them; this is their business model - double charge & loot whichever unsuspecting guy happens to give them their Credit Card details.
Honestly, I don't know if I'll ever get back my money. The next credit card statement has come in with interest levied on their previous amount. I hope to get justice & money back. I hope nobody loses their money & valuable credit card details on sites like makemytrip.com. It's people like them who've made e-commerce impossible to succeed in India.
I request you to forward this email to all our friends, colleagues & associates and prevent others from being duped under the garb of cheap fares.
Best regards,
Nitin Sawant
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