A month ago, I got an invitation to speak at The Cost Effective Advertising Conference in Kuala Lumpur. The date clashed with our 9th wedding anniversary. I sensed a wonderful opportunity to spring a surprise on my wife. I decided to take her along. I wanted to wait until the tickets were booked before I broke the news to her.
My first choice was Cleartrip. Over the last few years, it’s been the only site I’ve used for my flight bookings. Mostly domestic though. Great experience, everytime. All my international tickets, however, were either booked by clients or conference organizers. This was my first experience booking an international flight ticket on ClearTrip.
As soon as I paid Rs.24K for the tickets, the first surprise I got was a message that said that the tickets are only blocked and not booked. To confirm booking, I need to present the copy of the Malaysian Visa along with the passport photocopy. This was new to me. And they gave me exactly a day to get this done.
I rush to the Malaysian Embassy to get my visa and they throw me a stump. They said they will only issue a Visa if I have confirmed ticket booking.
Huh?!
Reminded me of the chicken and egg syndrome.
I tried to convince the Malaysian embassy officials of my predicament and with the rest of the documents (like invitation letter, conference brochure with my name on the speaker list etc), it was in vain. I even fixed a meeting with a senior official the next day.
The next day, I got a call from a ClearTrip support staff who said, “Sir, your online booking is now void because it is past the deadline. Would you like me to refund your money minus cancellation charges or would you pay Rs.8000 extra for booking new tickets?” I found the casual tone of the message annoying. I did not like either of the choices she offered.
I explained to her about my embassy discussion and that no embassy issues a visa in one day and told about my desperate measures to get the visa (which was a requirement for me to get tickets from Cleartrip).
That’s when she said that visa is optional. Optional?? That was not mentioned in the email I got from Cleartip. I tell her that and she replied, “Oh, that’s standard email we send out”.
Standard?? That casual tone again. Ohh!
What I did not understand was why did she have to wait until AFTER the deadline had passed. If she had called me at least an hour before the “deadline’, I would have understood that visa was not compulsory and could easily have just given her the passport copy alone. It could have saved me tons of stress.
But she shrugged her shoulders. So did her team leader. So did the manager. Each time I had to repeat the explanation. But I must give it to them for patiently listening to me.
You know, when you pay Rs.24,000 of your money, the least I would expect is to be told in advance if the tickets was going to expire.
I accept its my mistake that I did not call them up and tell them about my visa problem. At the same time, it would have been nice for someone to have called and warned me about the impending ‘cancellation’. Calling me AFTER the tickets have been cancelled isn’t helping me at all.
After much discussion, cleartrip came up with a solution. I pay 50% ( Rs.4000) extra and they will book my tickets. I hated doing it but I really wanted to give my wife a vacation. I coughed up the money.
I get a confirmation mail from them saying that the tickets have been booked. Received the PNR.
Now, here’s when the real incident starts.
On the day of departure, I land at the Chennai Airport two hours before check-in. I hand over my passport and the online booking printout to the staff. The staff took an unusually long time to process my tickets. I sensed trouble. The staff did various rounds of discussions amongst themselves. Half hour passed.
Then the official came to me and said my wife’s ticket is ok and mine has been cancelled. Cancelled?? I told him that can’t be because we booked it together. He took out a printout and showed me the dreaded word. “VOID”.
You will realize how complicated the scene is when you listen to this. I booked my flight tickets through ClearTrip.com on a Jet Airways flight, which is operated by Malaysian Airlines and handled by an Air India Staff. And each one shrugged their shoulders and said its not their problem. I called ClearTrip but their customer service counter closed at 10 PM.
Now, there was only half hour to go for the flight to take off. I get panicky. I offered to buy a new ticket, but they refused to book a new one because they close the counter one hour before departure. An airport staff said I could still book it through a travel agency outside the airport. I run across to this agency. They said they cannot book the ticket because its just 20 minutes for take off.
I rush back and the guy at the counter gave me another idea. I could book the ticket for the next day and the airline will honour my ticket for today. And so I run like a mad man across the airport to this travel agency again and booked a new ticket. By this time, it was just 12 minutes for take off.
With the new tickets in hand, we had to wade through the immigration check and the really long security check line. You have no idea the number of “please’ and “excuse us” I had used to go past the long queue.
With just 5 minutes before take off, we were the last people to enter the flight. I was panting and awash with sweat. My wife was really hassled. This is NOT the kind of experience I wanted to give her on her vacation.
——-
I’ll update the second part soon of what took place after I reached kuala lumpur.
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Email:Kiruba @ Kiruba.com
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Unbelievable!! Customer service in India is non-existent. And Cleartrip is fully to blame. Companies like Cleartrip just exploit the travel boom and setup a website with absolutely no clue of what it takes to run a real business. I have always avoided them like the plague and go directly to the airlines to book all my tics. The extra few thou is worth the peace of mind.
@ Murugan
Pause, wait for the rest of the story.
Good Luck for the trip! I hope you have a great vacation and you may forget the unpleasant episode.
Cheers
Pinksocks
I would take cleartrip to court. These people have to be taught a lesson. It is ridiculous. They have taken a customer for a ride. Literally.
Companies in India have to be taught what customer service means.
i had booked my tickets with Yatra and then for some unforeseen reason had to cancel them, the reimbursement came only after 4 months, with repeated phone calls to customer service. It is sometimes so difficult to a point across to any customer service executive except for Just Dial services.
Huh! This is annoying. ClearTrip goes out of my list.
Well, i have had even more terrible experiences many times… i got used to these stuffs… but every time… it will be a different problem
I ve always been a gr8 fan of cleartrip site for the kinda usability they have.. but sad to see their support bein pathetic..
Yes, wait for the complete narration(second part), read the cleartrip explanation, before accusing the service provider (cleartrip in this case).
Its pathetic. Could sense the tense you must have had in the last 1-2 hours. Tch tch.
The website runs 24/7 and customer support is only till 10PM. What logic is this.. Oh god.
It’s really sad to see such pathetic customer service being doled out to paying customers. Had the run around with Yatra for double charging my credit card! It’s crazy. Hope you had a good holiday at least.
That’s a bad experience sure and I truly empathize with you Mr. Kiruba. Despite the fact that I hadn’t had any such harrowing experiences, I prefer booking my flight tickets via the actual airline site. I use cleartrip and the like, only for searching for the appropriate flight. This gives more credibility to the transaction.
And when we know that agents charge additional fee for itenary re-scheduling, I wonder how at all such agents thrive and why at all we choose to book through them.
@Piyush: You *MUST* be joking. Cleartrip is a *UBERCOOL* company being run by *UBERCOOL* people. Last heard they were *PLANNING….* to reinvent the wheel and redevelop everything because everything that was developed by their now non-existing enthusiastic and passionate programmers became *USELESS*, *NON-SCALABLE*,… suddenly. Surely, you must be joking Mr. Piyush.
You’re on their blog already – http://blog.cleartrip.com/journal/2009/6/16/the-kiruba-incident.html !! Wicked..
Unreal! Should have been a very “memorable” experience.
Interesting!! … Taking panga with Kiruba is like taking panga with Amitabh or Narayanmurthy in real world … I mean Kiruba is already a sort of celebrity here on indian blogosphere… so the defensive response from cleartrip is more than expected. (I mean they cannot dare say Kiruba you are wrong blah blah).
My sympathies with Kiruba and his wife… Keep the faith alive!
Happy wedding anniversary ..!!
Without a pinch of salt and some pepper , life will be boring. This incident you will remember for life and cherish forever..!! But it is good for me know that Cleartrip is only for booking domestic flights and not for international ones. Thnaks for info ..!
You never mentioned that you came back by Business class tickets …!! Great going boss ..! I hope that part was one that you are going to tell in “The ClearTrip Episode No 2 : My Experience “
Thank god u were able to get into d flight in time Mr. Kiruba. Some one should make a documentary on this issue I guess..
Without telling the fact that he misspelled his own name Kiruba (resulting in cancellation) again has gone for ‘sensationalism’ than truth.
Ticket would have anyway been cancelled. CT helped him halfway by booking a new ticket, but screwed up by not informing him (besides the point, as they did a favor by rebooking)
I think everyone is over reacting. Kindly wait for the second post and also read the cleartrips version here : http://blog.cleartrip.com/journal/2009/6/16/the-kiruba-incident.html
Kiruba – Trust you had an interesting evening doing the presentation at PR club of Bangalore, more importantly the @cleartrip episode. Here’s something that may be interesting to read. http://tinyurl.com/nnpt86
That casual tone is the most annoying thing with most call center run setups. Cleartrip is second to ixigo in domestic, apparently second to Kayak in the international scene as well i guess.
Number 1 advice: book directly from the airlines web page. Screw these agents.
YOu made it clear that cleartrip is dangerous to book your trips..thanks for the info..btw Do visit my home@KL…we have already met in chennai during the first blogger’s meet, hope you remember me.
Is it cleartrip or UnclearTrip????
You must be having the paper trail, the printed tickets etc.
Should make a valid and easy case in Consumer court?…
Wo thats bad. I didnt know about the expiry and customer care call side of the story till now. Thats a clear fail on cleartrip’s side
Yous should have tried Aireasia.com for the cheapest and hassle free booking
Sad to read about such incidents.
I had an episode with one LCC, with refusal to board inspite of tickets in hand and even before 30 mins, of their stipulated boarding time! Reason: over booked!
Later – they gave my family a round trip!
Bottom line is avoid Clear Trip
Kribs,
I got the following feedback from ClearTip and it is already in their blog site.
http://blog.cleartrip.com/journal/2009/6/16/the-kiruba-incident.html
http://twitter.com/kiruba/statuses/2135150442
Hey Kiruba,
just a suggestion. try and get in touch with the COO of cleartrip.com through linkedin. It works really well, and you could also get a refund for the extra 4K you spent.
A friend of mine had a similar problem with yatra, and he got in touch with the CEO through linkedin, and it worked.
–prem
Customer Service Sucks in India. Blog, write reviews on mouthshut, tweet and take them to Consumer court!
unforgettable moment in ur life!
I booked a ticket through cleartrip in Kingfisher,one month before the actual travel date. To my horror, when I tried to checkin-online through Kingfisher website, I couldn’t find the flight number at all! Kingfisher customer support informed me that,that flight schedule had been cancelled for quite sometime! cleartrip should have atleast sent an email and ask me to cancel&reschedule my flight!
cleartrip’s handling of this incident (http://blog.cleartrip.com/journal/2009/6/16/the-kiruba-incident.html) shows what is wrong with customer service in India:
Getting defensive when hearing customer complaints,attacking ‘social media’ for criticizing them, and blaming the customer for the problem.
NOT having an emergency customer service number after business hours for such a large ticket booking company is inexcusable.
If this were to happen in UK/US , the refund would have been done in hours,and the CEO would call the customer,apologise and promise to rehaul their processes.
I second the previous Anonymous saying… though, I am not sure about “the CEO calling” in UK/US.
As consumers/customers, most of us have paved our own fate of showing to the merchants that we can only think that the problem is with us and not the flunked product / service that is sold to us. Out of hundreds/thousands/millions of us there is this 1 person, Kribs, who’s trying to make a difference and he can get beaten up right in front of our eyes.
Whoever thought this in the same lanes just did not realise what Krib’s is capable of. When they face it, they are so reluctant to accept defeat and hence they sound tantrums around… (he he he)
I wouldn’t care if ClearTrip called this as “the” Kiruba Incident or “a” Kiruba Incident, as far as they grab each of the managers to the conference room and re-draw (/rehaul) the way they’ve been treating customers.
Hope you enjoy your trip atleast.. and Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Refering to Cleartrip post on their site side-by-side reveals screw-up by Kiruba that snowballed. That piece of info seems coveniently bypassed at kiruba.com.
Is this a slip or Covenient Journalism…! Readers beware!
I remember you introduced Cleartrip in your blog sometime back – Surya
Where is your 2nd part?
Harish,
I’m sure Kiruba & family enjoyed the trip back to India in Business class as free upgraded thrown in by Cleartrip. Kiruba will surely mention it in his 9th part sometime after he manages to trick in his next free upgrade.
Journalism & Use of wrong name in Cleartrip booking paid-off. Great going, Kiruba!
Friends, Read Blog post at Cleartrip to understand the twist
I have started booking tickets directly from the website of airlines. Its usually 150 Rs cheaper and the 500 Rs charge I need to pay Cleartrip for changing/cancelling my booking if needed is not there. The airline already charges 750 Rs for a change or cancellation. That makes it 1250 Rs gone for a toss when I need to change/cancel a booking through cleartrip. I can atleast save that 500 Rs by booking directly from website. On a 3000 Rs ticket, 1250 Rs for rebooking is like crazy. How much I love the trains!
@Jason: No offence, mate! I guess you haven’t tasted the essence of consumerism in our country. It is sad to say it, though.
After reading Kribs’ post, I immediately read the “Kiruba Incident” on ClearTrip’s blog. Not bad… I have gone through similar customer-redressal across products and services. I don’t think I have done the slightest screw-up myself with each of them.
In one instance, I have had one of the top officials from one of the leading mobile phone service providers, to apologies on one such occasion, where their agents don’t get updated details about a person’s payment history but start right away slandering and abusing the whole family over the phone. I was just about to cost them a whole bunch of their customer population gathered at one of their branch offices to give them what they gave me and my friend’s family. I was told that one of their agents was sacked home. Multiple people called us and apologised for the same mishap. Unfortunately, to add up to things… there were couple of more people who were screaming at the front desk people for messing up with them as well. So, it is quite evident it is just not us who can screw-up things.
However, when anybody hears me say all these, they can be quite assured that “probably there is another version of the story too… ” – Can’t help it though.
Sometimes you have to get into the gutter to clean any clogs.
Hi Kiruba,
You should defnitely sue them
Kiruba,
What is your explanation on this one ?
http://blog.cleartrip.com/journal/2009/6/16/the-kiruba-incident.html
you have not posted the second part of this ‘saga’. The online media is quite gaga over cleartrip but you still have to post second part. You should post it before it gets cold. Else it will ruin the whole purpose of it.
If it is possible to trace the IP addresses of the comments defending cleartrip ,I bet some of them clearly would be from Cleartrip employees
dei poda paduthittu irukkan kanda kuppai ellam pottu…endavathu post le clear trip really made it up..i got business class..so it is good lesson in customer service appideenu periya business lesson maathiri poduvan…ennamo poda madhava
I have no idea why you havent put up part 2. There was a mistake on both yours and their part and from what I read on their blog they did make up for it.
What is the deal of delaying the second post by so long? Is it to gain more mileage?
-DiGn