Ibibo Group / Goibibo — Refund and poor service

Dear Sir / Madam,

I wish to submit a complaint against Goibibo for fraudulently retaining my convenience fee and for the poor service they have rendered.

I had booked an air ticket from Chennai to Srinagar Via Mumbai on 5th of Sept 2020 for the travel date 11th of Sept 2020. The PNR of this flight is CGMRNH.

On 6th of Sept, while I was checking the flight status I came to know that airline has cancelled the flight because of Covid-19 restrictions and didnt give me an option to reschedule the booking though I was eligible for that. (I will write separately on that).

Following the information recieved from the airline, I tried to reach Goibibo through different modes like phone, whatsapp, self support but all in vain.

There was no information from Goibibo about the cancellation of my flight. The funniest part is that even after the cancellation of flight by airline on 6th of sept, Goibibo kept sending me updates on my forthcoming travel and also about the completion of this travel from Chennai to Srinagar. It was very disturbing to know that Goibibo does not have an update and kept sending me update and post travel feedback request for sevral days. I have all the messages.

I tried a lot to get in touch with Goibibo to inform them about the flight cancellation and about the full refund that I am eligible for but in vain. There IVR does not have an option to connect customer service.

Meanwhile I booked an another ticket and called Spice jet (Airline) for refund which they informed me that they already processed based on my previous call and same has been sent to agency Goibibo account on 7th of sept 2020.

Goibibo on their part has been lazy and didnt process the refund which resulted in have my credit card charged for the statement date 16th Aug.

I have been trying to get in touch with Goibibo since then but in vain. I have sent an e mail on 22nd of Sept 2020 to goibibo on [protected]@goibibo asking for refund but again got a generic reply. I have tried sending e mail to CEO and management team of Goibibo (emails found on internet) but it seems the e mail IDs are wrongly updated.

Finally on 1st Oct 2020, I was able to log on to Goibibo and request a refund based on airline cancelling the flight (this option was not enabled till 1st of Oct). Goibibo has now acknowledged the request and initiated a refund minus convenience fee.

Since, the flight was cancelled by airline I am eligible for full refund including the convenience fee that Goibibo has charged.

I am still not able to reach Goibibo on customer service number and this has put me in a lot of mental agony. I would request that Goibibo be asked to make a refund of full money and also be penalized for the poor service.

Awaiting a response.
Umer.