Worst experience!
Niruthiya Priyan Amarnathen
(India)
(Written on 27 Jan, 2020)
I personally read through heaps of reviews before taking the services of AOTT, satisfied with the number of stars & positive reviews they had. Though some aspects of AOTT like itinerary, flexibility & (Read More) staff courteousness were appreciable, the few "hiccups" by AOTT in our trip during January 2020 made our trip to the Andaman the worst experience of our lifetime. We were a group of 17 adults, 6 kids & 4 infants. Though some of us had been to the Andaman earlier, we opted to employ AOTT (Andaman Ocean Tours & Travels) as our travel agent for the sole reason that the tour be crafted professionally since there were too many toddlers in the group. Also, we needed professional help to take care of our itinerary since this was a first long journey for some of us.
Hiccups:
1. Inspite of having explained many times to AOTT that we needed a ferry after 09:00 hrs, they had crafted an itinerary with our ferry from Port Blair to Havelock leaving at 07:15 hrs; also AOTT informed us at the alst minute after our arrival at Port Blair that our ferry has been postponed to 06:30 hrs. Getting ready for a 06:30 AM ferry with 10 kids?? Come on guys.. Is this a vacation or what?!?!
2. On the first day, we were dropped at Corbyn's Cove at around 15:30 hrs & we really had a nice time there. Our return pick up was scheduled at around 18:30 hrs & we were waiting until 19:30 hrs at the entrance to the beach. Believe me, waiting at a beach in the dark (it gets dark earlier in Andaman) with 10 kids amidst mosquito bites is really hard! At last, we had to hire 7 autos for our entire group to return to the hotel.
3. On arrival at Port Blair, were notified by AOTT that our visit to the cellular jail light show had been postponed due to unavailability of the show in the language preferred by us.
So, after hiccups 1, 2 & 3, Mr. Vicky, the owner, came down to our hotel & assured us that everything else was in order & such blunders would not be repeated. He even mentioned that our group was so polite so as not having made a fuss about such problems. He & his sub-ordinate assured us that early check-in will be provided at Seashell resort the next morning.
4. So we boarded the ferry & reached Seashell resort at Havelock at around 08:30 AM. In spite of the assurance provided by Mr. Vicky & his sub-ordinate, we were not provided early check-in at Seashell resort, Havelock and were made to wait at the hotel lobby & the private beach until noon. The hotel reception mentioned that they had never received any request for our agent AOTT reg. early check-in. With kids weeping due to lack of sleep & infants who couldn't be fed, we were really at a loss & couldn't enjoy one minute of that day!
Despite all these problems, we had paid 80% of the total bill to AOTT earlier. Mr. Vicky came down again to our hotel 2 days before our departure from Andaman & requested for the entire 20% payment to be made. After explaining our perils, he offered a discount of Rs 3700 over the few lakh rupees we had paid AOTT. Nevertheless, we paid AOTT mostly out of fear that our airport pickup maybe delayed if we don't pay & promised ourselves never to recommend AOTT to anyone!
So folks.. Please don't believe only the earlier positive reviews & be careful in choosing your travel partner, because it may be a lifetime trip for us, whereas we are just one among thousands for such tours & travels companies. Better book everything yourselves or book through a reputed agent from your own neighborhood.
On summarising, the positive aspects of AOTT were over-shadowed by the small problems they created in our tour, thereby making our experience with them one of the worst. The worst part was they were not ready for any kind of compensation for the havoc caused by them.
Thanks for reading!
