MakeMyTrip Unforgettable :(

As the title shows it's all about my first and probably the last experience with MakeMyTrip.com the so called Superbrand India 2009-10.

On hell's recommendation I used this website to book domestic flight tickets for my father, who is a heart patient and travel to Chennai often to meet his doctor. Again my hard luck I made to cancel this booking as my father changed the dates. If I take dates by records I booked tickets on Tue, Sep 8th 2009. You would hesitate then why I am writing blog today on Mar 15th...... Guess why.... because still I am fighting (literally) to get my refund money back.

I think this is a better way to keep a record of incidents in this matter because they don't keep records properly for the customer.

So from the very beginning as I mentioned earlier I booked tickets on 8th Sep 2009 and then cancelled on 29th Sep 2009. The travel date was 30th Sep and return was on 2nd Oct. My refund amount was not so much as we usually travel kettle class it was a mere amount of INR 5,549 in all. There were two tickets one from Delhi to Chennai and then back to Delhi. So far so good I forgot about the refund and as I expect from any bank or financial refund, it should have been credited to my bank account in 10-12 days at most.

Yes I got the good news and got my part refund of INR 2579.80 in my bank account on 2nd Oct 2009....... Jai ho Baapu ji ki.

Now the real story of my frustration starts.

I got an E-Mail on 13th Jan 2010, to revert with my Account details (I don't know how they credited earlier amount to my bank account without details :) ), I replied back with my account details very next day in pursuit of Happiness. After this, on 21st Jan got a mail from CCAvenue, the mediator company that the refund has been forwarded to my bank and I'll get refund amount in some time. I contacted Makemytrip to know the status of refund and they informed that my refund has been processed so I should wait for a few days. I contacted them 5-6 times and the same was the reply.

After all, one day I talked in a frustrated tone and they told me that the refund should be in my bank account, but it was not so they advised me to send them my bank statement for that period, without mentioning the file format of the statement. I sent account statement in reply on 23rd of Feb. From that day I am talking with them endlessly with one or the other reply from the customer care. On 8th Mar'10 support executive told me that the matter has been escalated to the concerned department and a new refund of the remaining amount has been made on 6th of March, so again I should kind'a wait.

Today I called up again and the executive denied that there was any refund made on 6th Mar'10. My refund was made on 21st Jan and I should send my bank account statement in PDF format because my earlier statement file was in XLS format so it was rejected by their Accounts team.

I have sent them a mail with my account statement in PDF format now, let's see what happens now. But for the very fact of the incident I have called them 15-20 times since January, which on an average of 10-15 minutes of duration comes to 255 minutes (~4 Hrs). In India individual or companies are charged for making local charge, if they don't know. Their toll free number is unreachable or not replying every time.

If Makemytrip require my details like my email ID, mobile number etc. then can't they call me or write me or it it is just my duty to get my money back? I receive a lot of deals or newsletter mails from Makemytrip but replying a simple mail is very tough for them you know...how many people they have to make it Superbrand of India .....750....yes really ! I assure you its hard to escalate the matter to their (other-than-call-center-executive) owners/ Managers/ In charges because you could not easily find any contact information.

I'll keep all of you updated till I get my money back (so much hard earned). Please do write comments to let me know any wrong thing I did in the process of trying to get my refund. God only knows I'll quit flying or quit booking with MakeMyTrip.