| Name of Complainant | |
| Date of Complaint | November 28, 2022 |
| Name(s) of companies complained against | Samarth Holidays |
| Category of complaint | Tours & Travels |
| Permanent link of complaint | Right click to copy link |
| Share your complaint on social media for wider reach | |
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Abhishek Kotwal a self proclaimed tour manager/MD of Samarth Holidays, took full tour money including Visa, Hotel bookings, Airfares in 2 months advance still we had to face the below problem just because of his lathargic behaviour, pathetic service and management.
Day 0 – One day prior leaving for trip Abhishek meets and informs the change in visa process that it’s visa on arrival where we will have to pay 2000 baht on Phuket airport for two person(Where we already gave money for visa 2months before). Here he didnt paid back the visa money in Baht currency to pay on Phuket airport which he took 2months back from us.
Day 1 – On arriving at Phuket airport we are asked to pay 4400 Baht for two persons instead of 2000 Baht what Abhishek told us. This visa amount we had to pay with our personal money we had to use on trip as we didn’t had any other option but to pay in cash. We informed this to Abhishek that he provided wrong information and himself didn’t knew the visa process but instead of sending us money immediately he ignored his mistake and just promised he will transfer to our Google account which was of no use in Phuket.
On reaching our hotel Ramada we are being told at reception that payment for booking has not been done by our tour manager Abhishek. On multiple times calling him he then spoke to Ramada team and we had to bear inconvenience of waiting and then got checkin to our room. He promised to send visa money next morning at any cost.
Day 2 – In morning before leaving for island tour at reception we are asked to pay the booking amount in front of other guests, we called Abhishek multiple times but he was unresponsive we told reception desk that Abhishek will pay in sometime, as we came back in evening till that time Abhishek promised the Visa money will reach us he said he informed his team and it’s clear from his end, when I checked with team myself they said we got no such information. Hotel payment was done by him as they were chasing constantly and he had no option but to pay. He again promised to pay visa money next morning at any cost.
Day 3 – We were running short on money, unable to buy or spend at our convenience we went to city tour phuket from half day came back to hotel but we wanted cash to spend money but still we had not received money we chased Abhishek’s associates vendor Suraj and Vikas they didn’t got any message to transfer the visa money from Abhishek. Abhishek was constantly lying and was avoiding the calls and was speaking limited delaying payment and kept lying it will be sorted in 10-15mins and will receive cash.
Day 4 – We had transfer from Phuket to Krabi where Abhishek promised by hook or crook he will transfer money through driver who came for transfer but neither driver knew about any money nor vendors confirmed anything about money. Abhishek was just delaying the payment from his side.
We reached Krabi Hotel – Deevana Plaza, where during checking in we got to know from reception our booking was cancelled by booking.com as money was not paid for the booking done by Abhishek. This was the big blunder at his end now, after contacting Abhishek he didn’t even apologised but asked us to wait and he did new booking for room which was different than what we choose, luckily we had one room available at hotel or else we would have been told to leave the hotel. Still we kept patience as we didn’t wanted to ruin our pending trip but still didn’t got the visa money which we were supposed to get on Day 1.
Day 5 – We had our 4 island tour krabi full day, after coming from tour at 5.30pm we get a call from hotel reception that we had checkout at 12 noon and we are late, after confirming they told us our booking done by Abhishek was only for 1 day and not for 2 days as per itenary. Again we had to chase Abhishek multiple times still he cudnt make payment online after trying multiple times now he thought to send the hotel booking money via Vikas Sharma for and also visa money along with it on last day last minute as he didn’t had any choice but to pay for hotel. Thanks to the vendor Vikas Sharma to provide the money quickly via his personal contact at Taj Palace restaurant (The above problems faced can be confirmed by Vikas Sharma from Trave Terra Holidays). We could finally use our money and buy some things for our family on last day from whatever option available nearby and paid the hotel booking the same night.
Knowing how much blunder he did on our trip and how upset and furious we were he got anxious and offered us one night stay in phuket at his expense he insisted alot but we didn’t confirmed on it after all these blunders, we were depressed and disappointed.
Day 6 – We left for the airport through transport from hotel deevana plaza in morning at 10.50am and later on while in cab Abhishek calls and asks for confirmation on his offer but we denied and told him to do web check-in for our 4pm flight(Thai Airways). After 5-10mins he calls back and says he rescheduled the 4pm flight on his assumption of us accepting his offer. We warned him to stop screwing our trip anymore and told him to book same flight but the flight must not be available then so he gave a pathetic excuse that flight we booked gets delayed daily and people miss their connecting flight from Bangalore to Mumbai hence vendor(Suraj) himself cancelled the flight by their side only without informing us.
Guess what the new flight booked now was at 5pm from Phuket to Mumbai via Bangalore with layover of 4hours at Bangalore airport. So we now reached Mumbai at late night with hours of delays and waiting just because of an idiot who doesn’t know how to manage. We just had it enough already but he screwed our journey back home as well.
This was our last trip through this unstable and unreliable person Abhishek Kotwal from Samarth Holidays / Pushpam Tours, as its risk to our families if you get stuck in unknown place with no money in hand.
Kindly check below complaints links as well if have any doubt due to his friendly behaviour.
Request to cancel the license of Abhishek Kotwal company Samarth Holidays as it’s risk to people’s life.
