I bought three return tickets from Abu Dhabi to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from Cleartrip on January 18, 2018. On February 27, I received an email and SMS informing me that the return flights on August 3 and August 31 were cancelled and rescheduled by the airline.
I didn’t agree with the proposed alternate flights from Vietnam Airline and that’s why, I contacted Cleartrip many times to ask them to change the flights to another day.
Every time I called them, I spent between one to three hours explaining the issue and waiting for my call to be transferred. I received feedback to wait for their call, but nobody called me back. I also contacted the airline for a rescheduling option, but I was asked to contact Cleartrip for this issue, because my tickets were booked via Cleartrip, and only they hold the rights to the tickets.
I contacted Cleartrip again and they asked me to work directly with the airline. Finally, I was forced to cancel all the tickets, so that I would be able to buy new tickets. Upon cancellation, I received a confirmation email from Cleartrip and it mentioned clearly that they would take five days for the cancellation process, followed by another five to seven working days for the bank’s credit procedure. But, I have not received any, neither the refund nor feedback from Cleartrip.
Again, I contacted Vietnam Airlines and was informed that my ticket cancellation was free of charge, since it was the airline’s fault. As per them, I will receive my full amount and Cleartrip is responsible for processing the refund.
I called Cleartrip and expressed all this information to them. They asked me to give them 48 hours to get the outcome, but I never received any feedback from them, as promised.
I have been waiting for 16 days since cancellation, but there hasn’t been any development with regards to the refund and there has been no action from them. Vietnam Airlines confirmed to me that Cleartrip hasn’t taken any action for reversal of the transaction but Cleartrip explained to me that they had already sent a reversal request to Vietnam Airlines. I don’t know what to do next!
I hope going Gulf News will help me.
From Mr Vo Le Hoang Huan
Abu Dhabi
The management of Cleartrip responds:
Regarding Mr Huan’s complaint, we have investigated and closed the complaint on May 15. The refund has been processed back to Mr Huan’s card. The delay was caused due to awaiting approval from the airlines, however we have gone ahead and processed the amount back to the customer.
We have spoken to Mr Huan and informed him that the refund has been processed. He has received the refund amount, but was upset about the delay. We assured him that the amount has been refunded and regained his trust in Cleartrip.
Please be advised that the complaint has been closed from our side and the customer is now satisfied with the resolution.
(Process initiation: May 7. Response from organisation: May 24. Process completion: May 28.)
Editor’s note: Do you have similar issues that you would like to raise with us? You can write to us at readers@gulfnews.com.
