Holding the travel company guilty of 'deficiency' in service, the New Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum president, K K Chopra, and members, R K Manchanda and Neeru Mittal, said "it was in fact the most horrifying experience for the tourists. The opposite party was guided only by the motive to make money".
The forum's directive came on a complaint filed by Sunil and Meera Khetrapal who alleged that the tour operator did not give them enough time for sight-seeing and skipped several tourist attractions, including Disneyland in Paris, during their tour.
The complainants alleged that in February 2005, the Cox and Kings issued large advertisements for the 10-day long European tour covering London, Brussels, Paris, Switzerland and Germany.
The duo made their booking by paying Rs 30,000 in advance along with their passports. On May 6, 2005 they were informed that the flight had been cancelled.
They then reported the next day at
the IGI Airport in New Delhi and were told that they would have to travel by a Gulf Air flight instead of Air India. On inquiry, they found that the former took 15 hours to London instead of nine hours by the latter.
They later learnt that the flight was not cancelled but the tour operator lied to them to save the air fare, the complainants alleged.
After reaching the Heathrow Airport in London, the duo was taken to a hotel by the company's representative, but they found that no booking was made there. They were then taken to another hotel where they had to wait in the lobby for nearly four hours.
The complainants alleged that the guide provided to them was "incompetent" and knew nothing about the tourist destinations and had later admitted that he had never worked as a guide earlier.
In Switzerland, a sub-standard hotel was provided to them instead of the promised four-star hotel. Many times during the tour, either the guide or the bus was missing, the complainants submitted before the forum.
They further said that in various cities, they were forced to travel in city buses instead of the tourist bus.
