Name of Complainant	Priya Gopalraj
Date of Complaint	February 4, 2022
Name(s) of companies complained against	Redbus
Category of complaint	Tours & Travels
Permanent link of complaint	Right click to copy link
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I booked tickets for my Grandmother (65 age), Mother (48 age), and my brother (29 age) from Chidambaram to Madurai through Redbus app. The bus operator name was Sri Vaari travels.
As usual on the journey date I received the whatsapp message of upcoming journey details 1 hour prior to the boarding time. The boarding time was 11:15pm on 12-Jan-2022. The total ticket fare was 4,725 INR. I booked the seat number L7, L8, L9 which are all sleeper berth. This is an AC bus service and the journey duration would take around 6.30 hours. When I opened the upcoming journey details via whatsapp there was driver number missing, which will be there always. But I wasn’t suspicious since during festivals there are special case new bus operators would come in this way, hence it wasn’t provided. There was only one contact number which was boarding point. So I have taken them to the boarding point by 11.00pm, until then we didn’t receive any calls from the bus operator/driver. It was then suspicious to me, I am regular user of Redbus app, I have known the bus operators protocols they carry out. They always check 15-20 minutes before boarding that we are on the boarding point or not. But no calls until 11:15. I started calling the number given in the whatsapp. I even checked their travels office at Chidambaram, it was not there it was only at Pondicherry. I was convinced that they might be a new bus operator taking this route for Pongal festival. And the only number in their website and whatsapp message seems to be switched off. I was nervous since it was curfew after 10.00pm in Tamil Nadu, we have been investigated by police as well who were in charge of duty by that time. Since it was Pongal festival by 14 Jan, there were passengers travelling to and fro. We showed the ticket of our journey and waited at the road in the cold night. Until 11:45 the number was not reachable. By 11:50 I get to connect my call with the bus operator, but at the other end he says the bus was already cancelled we have already refunded the customers. I was frustrated to listen to that, I told him I didn’t receive any messages regarding the cancellation nor about the refund initiated. But he was firm and told me we have already refunded all the customers and disconnected the call. I left clueless, I didn’t immediately called Redbus because I have to somehow arrange my family to travel back. My grandmother’s left hand is fractured, despite they all travelled to visit me to gift for Pongal festival. My grandfather is there at my native waiting for my grandmother to arrive, since she planned for single day travel and going back. She even cooked food to manage for one day only. My grandfather cannot walk, he is an injured person. Sad part is they don’t live with my mother. They are in a remote village. So nobody can help him for a day. We waited at the bus stand for another 1.30 hours i.e., 1.00 am (13 Jan 2022). It was very sad to keep my oldaged grandmom to keep on waiting in that cold weather. Because they desperately had to go back. We checked all the other travels that were going back and forth but none was travelling to Madurai. We dont even had SETC buses from Chidambaram to Madurai. Then we asked a government bus scheduler about the bus timing he told us that by 1.00 clock there will be a bus travelling to Pazhani, so we thought they can board the bus and get down at Madurai. We waited until 1:15 am there were no buses moving as such. So many buses came into the bus stand, but they were all halted for the night. Since Curfew was there between 10.00pm to 6.00 am I dont want them to get stuck anywhere during travel by taking any connected bus to Madurai. After 1:15am we decided to go back home and come by early morning since buses will surely run after 5:30-6.00 am as per curfew. I was so helpless because neither they couldn’t travel not they couldn’t sleep atleast. Then next day Morning 6:00 we reached the bus stand and looking for straight buses to Madurai, again there were none of the government buses from Chidambaram to Madurai. Then they decided to take bus to Kumbakonam, from there they can get buses to Madurai since it is comparatively big town than Chidambaram. They just had their tea and got bus for Kumbakonam. The bus was private one operating between Chidambaram to Kumbakonam. It was so rush, since so many people waited for the whole night due to curfew, the bus was full within 2 minutes. Somehow in the rush managed to get seats for the ladies atleast. My brother was standing he couldn’t get any seat. The travel duration would take around 2 hours to reach Kumbakonam. So after getting down they had their breakfast and got bus for Trichy only not for Madurai. They don’t want to waste time by waiting for buses because nobody was telling us the right schedule. So they got Trichy bus from Kumbakonam by 8.30 am. This travel would take 5 hours, they reached Trichy by 1.30 pm. From there they took bus for Madurai, didn’t had lunch since people were rushing to get buses for Madurai, so they afraid of not getting seats. They reached Madurai after 2.30 hours. Then at Madurai had lunch that is by 3:45pm. Our journey doesn’t end there. We have to then travel to Kovilpatti, from there my Grandmother has to take another bus to her Village near Villathikulam. Usually there will be only one bus operator from Chidambaram to Kovilpatti, but due to festival season he was also full, so I chose the other option that they will travel from Chidambaram to Madurai, and then from Madurai they will take a route bus to Kovilpatti. But this long and tiring journey has spoiled their health, my grandmother was having leg pain and hand pain due to the tiring journey.

I henceforth claiming that I need a compensation from Redbus for making them suffer due to their carelessness of not conveying the message properly. Atleast if they could have informed by evening on that same day of journey, we could have arranged a taxi or something else for them to travel till Madurai. But I wasn’t informed post the boarding time, infact I had to find it out my calling the operator close to 50 times. The next day I called Redbus and informed about the incident happened, they simply said the refund has been already initiated. I mentioned them that refund is what I paid, but I need a compensation for their recklessness and sufferings a 65 year old has to go through. They didn’t care about anything, keep on repeating that we receive this as a feedback. Please take action on this and get justice. This doesn’t stop there my grandmom unable to sleep for next two days due to the body pain, fractured hand pain. My grandpa was telling this to my mom. I really had tears listening to this. Please take a strict action on this.

Image Uploaded by Priya Gopalraj: