Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site sbcs.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!cmcl2!philabs!sbcs!debray From: debray@sbcs.UUCP (Saumya Debray) Newsgroups: net.nlang.india,net.travel Subject: travel agent in NYC: CAVEAT Message-ID: <138@sbcs.UUCP> Date: Fri, 8-Feb-85 21:12:55 EST Article-I.D.: sbcs.138 Posted: Fri Feb 8 21:12:55 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 10-Feb-85 14:59:04 EST Distribution: na Organization: Computer Science Dept, SUNY@Stony Brook Lines: 48 I had an unpleasant experience with a travel agent in NYC that I'd like to warn others about (this agent seems to do a lot of business with Indians travelling to the Middle East and India, which is why I'm posting it to net.nlang.india). They seem to be called, variously, "Zeenath Travels", "Malik Travels" and "Prince Travels", and are based somewhere on 5th. Ave, NYC. The person running the place is an Indian woman named Arifa. Last summer, I decided to take a trip to India in December 1984. A friend of mine referred me to this agent, and sometime in June 1984 I paid her the money for the tickets (about $1400 for travel to, from and within India). I also asked her to make some hotel reservations for me. My first surprise was her reluctance to make the hotel reservations ("Don't you know anyone you could stay with?" My reaction was, "If I did I wouldn't be asking you to make a hotel reservation for me."). Then, I found that while my check had been promptly cashed, my tickets weren't forthcoming. A rather irritating series of phone calls followed over the next five months, with me calling her (long distance!) every other week, and she making various excuses and promising to call back later - calls that somehow never materialized. When the tickets hadn't arrived two weeks before my departure date, I began to lose my patience ... the tickets finally arrived a week before I left. By then, she'd screwed up my travel plans somewhat (I'd wanted to fly out of Delhi, but she booked me on a flight out of Bombay). At this time, she also gave me the gem that my hotel reservation request had somehow "gotten deleted" from the computer (she had to have cheek, this one, giving me that crap knowing that I was in Computer Science!), and when I asked her to re-enter the request, I was told that (drum roll) the computer was down. So much for being helpful! All my phone conversations were with "Zeenath Travels", she asked me to make my checks out to one "Malik Travels", and I found my tickets issued by some "Prince Travels" ... a setup that sounds damned suspicious to me! What really pisses me off are (i) the crap I got about the hotel reservation; (ii) the mess she made of my flight plans without telling me; and (iii) the fact that she cashed my checks and hogged the interest for five months (I suspect this sort of thing is illegal). Another friend of mine had a similar experience with these people, so I know my experience wasn't unique. If you should happen to deal with these people, I'd suggest you keep my experience in mind. -- Saumya Debray SUNY at Stony Brook uucp: {allegra, hocsd, philabs, ogcvax} !sbcs!debray CSNet: debray@sbcs