On the first of April, I had booked a ticket with Indogo for mhy sister. The ticket was booked through my VISA credit card. However, a few minutes after booking the ticket, I realized that I had booked the ticket for a flight at a very inconvenient time. I had to cancel the ticket and book another one in its place.
When I called up the Indigo customer care to cancel the ticket, the customer care officer (for the rest of this post, I will use the abbreviation CCO) informed that Rs. 750 would be deducted from the original amount and a credit shell will be created. However, he said, that since I was making the cancellation within 6 hours of the booking, I will not be able to use the credit shell to make further bookings. I asked him what is the use of a credit shell if I cannot use it? He put me on hold for a couple of minutes and returned saying that as per company policy the money will be returned to my credit card in 7 to 9 working days.
The next morning I received a mail from Indigo airlines saying that they could not get a satisfactory answer when they contacted me, and hence, they were freezing the credit shell. Furthermore, the mail instructed me to get in touch to unfreeze the credit shell. This was an utter lie and they had never got in touch with me, so the question of satisfactory or unsatisfactory reply never arose inthe first place. I called up the customer care again, and the CCO explained that they tried to reach me but I was unreachable. I pointed out to her that I should have received an SMS if they had tried to reach me and I was unreachable. Furthermore, if I was indeed unreachable, they could have called me up on my landline, which they never did. She told me not to worry and to send a reminder mail to Indigo.
I did as she instructed, and got a reply that they had reasons to belive that my card was misused and they required a scanned frontal copy of my credit card to un-freeze the credit shell. However, he clarified tha they will not refund the money and only create a credit shell. By then, I was frustrated. After I had cancelled the first ticket, I had booked another ticket with Indigo. If they were not returning my money to me, they could have told me so then. I could have used the credit shell to buy the other ticket.
I replied to the mail saying that the reasons they cited for suspecting misuse of my card were unfound. Moreover I explained to them that whether or not my card was misused was none of their business; rather it was a business between me and my credit card company. Also I pointed out that the transaction must have been genuine since they had charged my credit card in the first place, and they must have verified before chargine. I told them to return the money whence it came from (and to no other source), failing which I will be forced to take legal action.
For a long time there was no reply from Indigo. I called them up again and the CCO advised me to send "both the front and back copy" of the credit card. When I told him that the reasons they had cited in the mail for suspecting misuse of my card were unfound, he comfortably said that "that is a generic mail we send every time." I explained to him that my card must have been genuine because while making the purchase Indigo would have verified with VISA the authenticity of my card. He replied that Indigo did not check the authenticity of the card when the purchase was made (Ridiculous!!). I explained to him that I knew how it worked, that they would have verified the details of the card with VISA through their payment gateway. He rudely replied, "If you know so much, sir, why do you have to make this call?"
I asked him what they sought to achieve from the scanned copy of the card, he explained a scenario:
1. X steals Rajbir Bhattacharjee's card
2. X books a ticket with the card
3. X cancels the ticket
4. Indigo returns the amount minus Rs. 750 to the card
5. Rajbir Bhattacharjee gets his credit card statement and wonders where the Rs. 750 went
However, he explained, if before releasing the money, they had something in black and white, they would have ensured that Rajbir Bhattacharjee knew about the transacion.
I made two points.
A. It was none of Indigo's business and was a matter between the card company and Rajbir Bhattacharjee.
B. Even if the procedure is followed, it will achieve nothing. I proposed another scenario.
1. Y steals Rajbir Bhattacharjee's card
2. Y creates an account rajbir@xyz.com
3. Y books a ticket with Indigo airlines and cites the above email address
4. Y cancels the ticket
5. Indigo sends a mail to rajbir@xyz.com asking for his credit card
6. Y scans it and sends it through rajbir@xyz.com
7. Indigo refunds the money to the card minus Rs. 750
8. When Rajbir gets the statement he still wonders what happened to the Rs. 750 inspite of Indigo's procedure.
I asked him what they were achieving. He repeated the first scenario again and said that they would have something in black and white. He just could not get the point I was trying to make (or was deliberately trying not to get it), and he also could not understand that not everything in black and white is legally valid.
I had had enough of this rude and incompetent CCO. When I asked him to connect me to his senior he refused to do so. He also refused to arrange a call back. When I told him that I'll take legal action against Indigo, he said that I could do what I pleased.
Later that day I received a mail from Indigo explaining that as per their policy, at the time of check in, they required the traveller to carry a frontal copy of the credit card used to make the reservation and they were asking for the same. I replied pointing out that the policy was for check in and not for refund. I got no reply to that mail.
By now I had made up my mind to draw Indigo to court. My dad happens to be a lawyer. He advised me to send them a copy of the credit card, so that later on, in the court, we could prove that we had tried everything in our hands. He also asked me to find out the address to which the legal notice is to be served. I did as he advised. Not surprisingly, I received no reply for Indigo inspite of sending them the scanned copy of my credit card.
I called up the customer care and asked them for a postal address to which a legal notice is to be served. She gave me an email address. When I said that a legal notice cannot be served on email, she said that I could send a mail to that address to get the mailing address. Also, on my enquire, she confirmed that all the conversations were recorded, and if required they could be produced on court.
I sent a one liner to the address the CCO provided asking for the address to which the legal notice was to be served. Within 16 minutes, I got a reply saying that they have initiated the process of refund of the money.
I would strongly advice everyone against flying Indigo airlines. They have the worst customer care I have ever seen. The customer care executives are rude and stupid.
Also, they are a part of a big fraud. They create hassles in returning money to customers, in the hope that the customers will get frustrated and stop pursuing the matter and leave the money with Indigo.