Online travel portal Make My Trip India Private Limited will have to pay up Rs 20,000 as compensation besides refunding Rs 50,000 with an interest of 9% for messing up the family vacation of a Phase 4, SAS Nagar, resident.
Disposing of a complaint filed by Davinder Singh, SAS Nagar district consumer disputes redressal forum found the online firm guilty of providing deficient services.
Davinder Singh, in March 2014, had purchased a holiday package named Swiss Paris Delight for two adults. The five-night-and-six-day package for travel between June and September, 2014, cost him Rs 1 lakh.
Singh alleged that when he went to the Swiss embassy on July 24, 2014, to procure the visa, he was asked to furnish details about the hotel booked and copy of the air tickets. Since both details were not provided by the travel portal to him, he failed to satisfy the embassy officials that led to the cancellation of his visa.
Following this, when Singh sought refund, he got a delayed reply stating that the tickets were non-refundable and the visa cost had been paid to the embassy.
Denying any deficiency in services, Make My Trip India Private Limited said it acted as a facilitator for booking the international trip and the issuance or rejection of the visa was the absolute prerogative of the embassy concerned and they had no role to play in this regard. The firm submitted that the complainant was not entitled to any refund as per the cancellation policy.
{{/usCountry}}Denying any deficiency in services, Make My Trip India Private Limited said it acted as a facilitator for booking the international trip and the issuance or rejection of the visa was the absolute prerogative of the embassy concerned and they had no role to play in this regard. The firm submitted that the complainant was not entitled to any refund as per the cancellation policy.
{{/usCountry}}The consumer forum, presided over by Madhu P Singh, held: "We feel that the act of the Make My Trip India Private Limited for retaining the amount of Rs 1 lakh deposited by the complainant without providing him any services in lieu thereof is an act of deficiency in service and unfair trade practice."