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