Review 3 - final part..
On the last call, she brought in KUNAL. This guy was epically rude and the worst person to deal with clients.
At one point, KUNAL blamed me for the bad experiences and said, “ (Read More)Kuch baaki hai kya complain karne ke liye?”
When I asked for a ferry change, he said, “Ferry kharid nahi rakhi hai jo tumhari upgrade kar dunga.”
I mean, seriously—who talks to clients like this?
He said, “Pehle kyun nahi bola ki upar ki class chahiye?” and I was like—how would I know what’s the deal with ferries? I live in Gurgaon. I’ve never been on a ferry. Shouldn’t they have informed me?
And Riya responded that budget was an issue.
Rs. 200 per ticket! We paid Rs. 2.3 lakh for the trip. Had they asked, I would’ve paid Rs. 10k more for comfort, had I been informed!
Kunal kept being epically rude, and I could tell Riya brought him to be the bad cop. I outright told her I didn’t want to hear Kunal’s voice again. Words like ‘bakch*di’ were used between them.
Later, when Kunal was kicked out of the call, I asked Riya for the owner’s number of Abhac Group. She outright denied.
These people don’t know how to handle clients and won’t even share details of their owners. I asked for my booking ID—they never shared one. I was told the booking wasn’t done via MMT, though they are MMT affiliated—so I can’t even raise a concern about misbehavior with the MMT team.
Day 4 – Riya upgraded our ferry to Neil at her own cost as compensation. Finally!
It was a mere Rs. 225 per person (as printed on our boarding pass), though I was told she paid Rs. 550+ per person.
I mean, come on—people always exaggerate. Fine.
We arrived at Neil and checked into Aquays Beach Resort—so-called 4-star hotel, but horrible.
Please don’t go there. The service is pathetic. Food is bad. It took them 30 minutes to bring 8 tandoori rotis (which were ordered in the beginning). First, they brought 5 rotis, and we waited 20 more minutes for the rest.
At breakfast, birds were nipping at plates, and ants were crawling all over the buffet. Absolutely unhygienic. I went with my son to grab food and came back to find a sparrow nipping at his dal. Yuck!
There were limited issues with drivers in Neil, so I won’t elaborate much.
Day 5 – All was okay, and I found 6 seats available in the upgraded ferry class at Rs. 200 per person. We thought at least 6 people could sit.
Riya, instead of Rs. 1,200, asked for Rs. 3,800.
Luckily, no Airtel network in Neil, so my sister spoke to her instead. I was in no mood anymore. My sister agreed to pay Rs. 1,200, but they insisted on Rs. 3,800, citing offline cost only—they don’t believe in online bookings. Seriously? Who do they think they’re talking to?
My husband agreed to pay Rs. 3,800 only on the condition that Riya/Naseema would give us a receipt from Nautika (the ferry company) and not from Abhac Group. To which they replied, “We don’t want to argue last minute. This is the rate for the upgrade.”
Day 6 – We came back to Port Blair. Bad ferry experience.
The driver was 30 minutes late again!
They knew our ferry time and still didn’t come on time. We waited in the heat, and when they came, they forced us to directly go to the Ross Island. We refused. Lots of rude arguments followed.
I spoke to Naseema, and she agreed we could return to the hotel since the kids were unwell.
We had a hasty lunch at the hotel—they came late, and we had to swallow our bites whole. Then we left for Ross Island.
On the way back to the hotel, the cab was late again! The second cab didn’t even come. Eight of us squeezed into one car because the heat was unbearable.
It is an amazing place. But the drivers are rude, and the coordinators don’t care about customer experience.
We were told there are limited drivers there, so they throw tantrums.
But then—why do we pay so much to these organizers if they can’t make the experience better? If drivers have such autonomy, I strongly feel it’s better to self-book the trip at a much lower cost, get cabs through hotels, and bear all this.
At least then, these tantrums will cost you less.
Now you know...