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. I had a really bad experience, which I will not want others to have.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
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.
from "CustomerService@goindigo.in"
to rajbir.bhattacharjee@gmail.com
date Apr 2, 2008 9:07 AM
subject DOM-RF PNR G8V7EC
mailed-by goindigo.in
Dear Cardholder,
Your card was used to make bookings under PNR G8V7EC which was cancelled and amount transferred to CS account. We had to cancel the amount in credit shell as we could not get a satisfactory reply, when contacted. The amount of the booking is credited back to your account. For further details please contact customer.relations@goindigo.in for refund of the original booking.
Regards
Revenue Department
Fax: 0124-4312633
E-mail: fcu@goindigo.in
"IndiGo: named “Best Low Fare Carrier - Domestic 2007” by the Air Passengers Association of India."
_________________________________________________________
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"IndiGo: named "Best Low Fare Carrier - Domestic 2007" by the Air Passengers Association of India."
_________________________________________________________
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER
The contents of this e-mail are confidential to the ordinary user of the e-mail address to which it was addressed and may also be privileged. If you are not the addressee of this e-mail you may not copy, forward, disclose or otherwise use it or any part of it in any form whatsoever. If you have received this e-mail in error please e-mail the sender by replying to this message. The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. InterGlobe accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email.
from Rajbir Bhattacharjee
to
"CustomerService@goindigo.in"
customer.relations@goindigo.in
date Apr 2, 2008 12:07 PM
subject Re: DOM-RF PNR G8V7EC
mailed-by gmail.com
Hi,
Regarding PNR G8V7EC, I talked to your customer care executive and she told me that the amount would be CREDITED BACK TO MY CREDIT CARD within 7 to 9 working days. She also asked me to send a reminder mail to you for this. Please treat this as the reminder mail as requested. Also, please send me a confirmation mail when the process of the money being credited back to my credit card starts and stops.
Thanks and regards,
Rajbir Bhattacharjee
from IndiGo Customer Relations
to Rajbir Bhattacharjee
date Apr 2, 2008 12:25 PM
subject RE: DOM-RF PNR G8V7EC
mailed-by goindigo.in
Dear Mr.Bhattacharjee,
Thank you for choosing Indigo.
We have a process that alerts us when unusual activity appears on a credit card. For example, when a card is used to buy a lot of tickets or when it is used to buy tickets for different people. When that happens we freeze the credit to ensure that the activity is genuine and is not a misused or stolen card. This is to protect credit card owners. As sometimes unscrupulous individuals may steal credit cards, use them to buy tickets and then resell these tickets to people who want to travel, passengers need to be sure to buy tickets from authorized outlets of IndiGo.
We will be happy to release your amount of Rs.2074 upon receiving the scanned credit card(front copy) at our mailing address - customer.relations@goindigo.in. which you could use for your future bookings and it wont be refunded back to your credit card.
Once again we thank you for choosing IndiGo. In case of any further assistance, please feel free to contact us. Not withstanding the above we hope to serve you in near future.
Sincere Regards,
Mohit Arora
Customer Relations
Interglobe Aviation Limited ("IndiGo")
Tower C, 3rd floor, Global Business Park
Mehrauli Gurgaon Road
Gurgaon - 122002, Haryana
Fax:- � 124 406 8536
Web:- www.goindigo.in
from Rajbir Bhattacharjee
to IndiGo Customer Relations
date Apr 2, 2008 1:20 PM
subject Re: DOM-RF PNR G8V7EC
mailed-by gmail.com
Dear Mr. Mohit Arora,
I see no reason why you should suspect that there has been any unusual activity on my credit card. You are not my credit card company, my credit card company will take care of that. Moreover, as far as you are concerned, there has been only one transaction on my credit card with INDIGO. That, is the booking of this ticket.
Also, I see no reason why I should give you a scanned copy of my credit card. If you want, you can verify with my credit card company whether the credit card is genuine or not (which it must be, since the ticket was bought with it in the first place)
Also, I see no reason why you should withhold the credit back to this card. As far as you are concerned, you are sending the money back to the credit card where you took it from.
Moreover, I see this as a gimmic on your part to cause further hassle to the customer, and causing pain to the customer, so that he may get frustrated and abandon the idea of claiming the money back, and that you may have the money for yourself.
Please be advised that I will not have much patience in this regard. Also, I will not hesitate to employ the services of a lawyer to send you a legal notice, or drag you to the consumer court.
Furthermore, the initial mail you sent to me was erroneous. I will also hold this as misinformation on your part, and I will hold you guilty of spreading misinformation. The mail had a clause which read:
> We had to cancel the amount in credit shell as we could not get a satisfactory reply, when contacted.
For the first account, I was never contacted by you, so there was no question of a satisfactory or unsatisfactory reply. Secondly, in case my cellphone was unreachable due to network problems (which it was not), you could have reached me on my landline.
Regards,
Rajbir Bhattacharjee
from Rajbir Bhattacharjee
to IndiGo Customer Relations
date Apr 2, 2008 1:24 PM
subject Re: DOM-RF PNR G8V7EC
mailed-by gmail.com
Dear Mr. Mohit Arora,
Furthermore, not only will I not hesitate to take legal action, but also I will make sure that I publicize this particular incident on the internet by publishing this entire mail chain in my blog and making sure that all other passengers who might consider travelling by indigo are aware of what they are stepping into, before they buy a ticket with indigo.
Regards,
Rajbir Bhattacharjee
from IndiGo Customer Relations
to Rajbir Bhattacharjee
date Apr 2, 2008 1:50 PM
subject RE: DOM-RF PNR G8V7EC
mailed-by goindigo.in
Dear Mr.Bhattacharjee,
Thanks for your mail.We regret the inconvenience caused.
We follow this policy in interest of credit card holders.We believe in making customers satisfied.
As per agreed terms n conditions of carriage mentioned on our website,credit card copy(only front side) is required :
Important Information: Besides valid photo identification, please note the following additional requirements for bookings made using credit cards:
A) Indian Credit Cards: Customers are required to present the credit card or a photocopy of the credit card used to pay for the booking, at the time of check-in. Any failure to do so, for any reason whatsoever, shall result in IndiGo denying boarding privileges to the customer/passengers(s).
B) International (Non-Indian) Credit Cards: Credit Card holders are required to be a part of the travelling party and present the physical card at the time of check-in. Any failure to do so, for any reason whatsoever, shall result in IndiGo denying boarding privileges to the customer/passengers(s).
Also would like to clarify,a refund is done only in case wherever we cancel the flight due to operational reasons or flight is delayed more than 3 hrs as mentioned in our website.
If a normal cancellation is done by the passenger,minus the cancellation charge of Rs.750 per person per sector,rest of the money lies in a credit shell Under same PNR NO.which is valid for 12 months from the date of booking and can be utilised for future bookings.
Trust this clarifies.
In case of any further assistance, please feel free to contact our 24 X 7 call centre - 9910 383838 / 1800 180 3838 (toll free).
Sincere Regards,
Mohit Arora
Customer Relations
Interglobe Aviation Limited ("IndiGo")
Tower C, 3rd floor, Global Business Park
Mehrauli Gurgaon Road
Gurgaon - 122002, Haryana
Fax:- � 124 406 8536
Web:- www.goindigo.in
from Rajbir Bhattacharjee
to IndiGo Customer Relations
date Apr 2, 2008 2:42 PM
subject Re: DOM-RF PNR G8V7EC
mailed-by gmail.com
Dear Mr. Mohit Arora,
Please don't test my patience. You believe in making your customers satisfied, is it not? If so, please don't complicate the matter any more.
You have already verified my credit card details when you booked the ticket. I believe that that verification will be more than enough. Please credit the money back TO THE SAME CREDIT CARD THROUGH WHICH THE ORIGINAL BOOKING WAS MADE.
Also, the requirement that the passenger has to carry the photocopy of the credit card at the time of check-in has no bearance to this issue. This issue is not about checkin. This issue is about refund of a cancelled ticket.
> If a normal cancellation is done by the passenger,minus the cancellation charge of Rs.750 per person per sector,rest of the money lies in a credit shell Under same PNR
> NO.which is valid for 12 months from the date of booking and can be utilised for future bookings.
Also, I would further like to add that when I cancelled my ticket, your customer care officer told me that since the cancellation was made within 6 hours of the booking, as per company policy, the money will not be credit shelved for me, rather the amount (less Rs. 750) would be credited back to my credit card through which the booking was made. In fact, I made another booking (albeit with a different credit card for a different route) yesterday, and I could have used the same credit shelf for that booking. However, your customer care CONFIRMED that there was no way I could use the money reverted in this cancellation for another booking, since it was cancelled within 6 hours.
Please do not complicate the matter further. Mr Arora, you are testing my patience.
My next mail will have a link to the blog post with the proceedings of this issue.
Hopefully you will realize that you are on the wrong foot this time, and start the process of reverting the money back to my credit card. Please send me a note when this is done.
from Rajbir Bhattacharjee
to IndiGo Customer Relations
date Apr 2, 2008 8:06 PM
subject Re: DOM-RF PNR G8V7EC
mailed-by gmail.com
Dear Mr. Mohit Arora,
I am sending you a scanned copy of the credit card used to book this ticket. This, as per your mail, will confirm that there is no fraud about the booking of the ticket.
However I differ with you on the following point:
> We will be happy to release your amount of Rs.2074 upon receiving the scanned credit card(front copy) at our mailing address -
> customer.relations@goindigo.in. which you could use for your future bookings and it wont be refunded back to your credit card.
You see, when I was cancelling the ticket, I had actually asked the customer care executive if he could book a different flight for me with the remaining account. He replied that since the cancellation was made within 6 working hours of the booking, the credit shelf cannot be used. I asked him what will be come of the money. To this, he CONFIRMED that this amount will be credited back to my credit card. When I asked him how much time it will take for this to happen, he said that it will take 7 to 9 working days. He also confirmed that this is the COMPANY POLICY.
In fact, yesterday, with a different credit card, I had booked two tickets (after cancelling this ticket and making sure that the amount in the credit shelf cannot be used for another booking) on Indigo airlines on a different route. If you doubt this fact, I can very well give you the booking number.
Hence, since it is a company policy to refund any money if the cancellation is made within 6 hours of the booking, please refund the money.
Please send me a mail when the process starts and when it completes.
I believe the credit card will be enough to prove that there is no fraud. If you do not refund the money back to my credit card, I will be compelled to try other means of getting my money back.
Thanks and regards,
Rajbir Bhattacharjee
from IndiGo Customer Relations
to Rajbir Bhattacharjee
date Apr 3, 2008 12:04 PM
subject RE: DOM-RF PNR G8V7EC
mailed-by goindigo.in
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your mail.
We regret the inconvenience caused due in this regard.
The amount of Rs.2074 have been processed and refunded to the card used in reservation and this will reflect in the card account with in next seven working days.
Trust this clarifies. In case of any further assistance, please feel free to contact me.
Once again, we regret the inconvenience caused. Not withstanding the above we hope to serve you in near future.
Best regards,
Abhinav Maharishi
Customer Relations
Interglobe Aviation Limitd ("IndiGo")
Tower C, 3rd floor, Global Business Park
Mehrauli Gurgaon Road
Gurgaon - 122002, Haryana
Fax:- +91 124 406 8536
Web:- www.goindigo.in
from IndiGo Customer Relations
to Rajbir Bhattacharjee
date Apr 3, 2008 5:07 PM
subject RE: DOM-RF PNR G8V7EC
mailed-by goindigo.in
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your mail.
Your refund amount of Rs.2074 have been processed and will reflect in your card account within next seven working days.
Trust this clarifies. In case of any further assistance, please feel free to contact me.
Once again, we regret the inconvenience caused. Not withstanding the above we hope to serve you in near future.
Best regards,
Abhinav Maharishi
Customer Relations
Interglobe Aviation Limitd ("IndiGo")
Tower C, 3rd floor, Global Business Park
Mehrauli Gurgaon Road
Gurgaon - 122002, Haryana
Fax:- � 124 406 8536
Web:- www.goindigo.in
from IndiGo Customer Relations
to Rajbir Bhattacharjee
date Apr 4, 2008 7:14 PM
subject RE: DOM-RF PNR G8V7EC
mailed-by goindigo.in
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your mail.
Your refund amount of Rs.2074 have been processed vide transaction id advised by our bank for the reversal of the amount is 503390. May I request you to kindly quote the reference number provided to the bank and they should be able to trace the payment.
Trust this clarifies. In case of any further assistance, please feel free to contact me.
Once again, we regret the inconvenience caused. Not withstanding the above we hope to serve you in near future.
Best regards,
Abhinav Maharishi
Customer Relations
Interglobe Aviation Limitd ("IndiGo")
Tower C, 3rd floor, Global Business Park
Mehrauli Gurgaon Road
Gurgaon - 122002, Haryana
Fax:- � 124 406 8536
Web:- www.goindigo.in
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