Avoid this agency
Trip to Jammu and Kashmir
(Written on 17 Jun, 2024)
Title: Avoid this agency at all costs - Worst travel experience ever!
Rating: 1/5
Tour Operator & Sales Person: Bisma - Unprofessional
Tour Captain: Sameer - Sweet, Safe Cab Driver, but need to (Read More) learn more about his role of being guide and tourism business.
Tour Manager: Umar - Big time Crook, Mannerless, Careless, Unprofessional, Arrogant and i can add many more to this.
I'm writing this review as a warning to others after experiencing a disastrous trip with Umifar Tours (Srinagar). What was supposed to be a memorable family vacation turned into a nightmare due to their incompetence.
The itinerary was poorly planned, and we faced constant demands for extra money for trivial reasons throughout our 5-day stay. The agency's greed knew no bounds, even on the last day, when they cancelled our hotel booking, leaving us stranded at midnight with no choice but to book a room on our own because what they booked was a really Shady place where a genuine family will not even peek.
Incident-1: 3 Months in advance certain expectations were set along with booking amount, but Bisma and her team failed to comply. She was been told that i have elderly parents and they cannot climb stairs so either book a room on ground floor or have a hotel which has lift. Despite setting this expectations numerous times, we were been shifted to very first day on 3rd floor. Imagine this was discussed.
Incident 2:
Bisma was been informed that Family of 4 would stay in same room so arrange accomodations accordingly but she left a deaf ear to all this and booked a room which cannot comply accomodations. Food in hotel is definitely below average so when they promise you of variety and taste, please & i say please don't get fooled.
Incident 3: For BoatStay, they took 1k extra from said amount, and to refund same it took more than a month by Bisma and her team. They expect all the payments from you to be done on immediate basis, however when it comes to refund they will take ages.
Incident 4: Being a tour operator, you expect someone to talk on your behalf with locals, Bargain or have some consideration over rates. Nothing and I tell you Nothing at all. They ll make you feel helpless and you have to end up either avoiding the place due to rates or fight. We had fights and arguments too. One such incident was at Gondola ride day. You reach a point and then you get another cab, driver and so called guide. These rates are pre-decided and well planned by locals so no point arguing. "They'll keep repeating that don't waste time or else it will get close. Your booking would be wasted". When you reach the spot, the ride is at least 2-3 kms away from parking spot. You have to travel all the way to the spot through wooden sledge or any other means. Mind it sledge pullers are real crooks. They ll charge 3k-5k pp.They will argue with rate card (a 5rs printout) and they have their so called majority and union. The sledge pullers throughout the way keep complaining on your weight, will ask you to get an extra person for pulling that is additional 1.5k to 2k or will ask for more money. They have no courtesy, no manners, no humanity left. They are so hungry for money that they even don't consider senior citizens.
Ask for a guide which has a permit. Mostly locals try to become guide which they don't have entry near Gondola gate forget about actual entrance. We were fooled and later we understood about permit.
To add insult to injury, they withheld the refund from the Gondola ride and never apologized for the inconvenience they caused. Their lack of accountability and customer care is appalling. They failed to provide complaint no/ reference no for Gondola ride refund by just making some or the other excuses and kept ignoring msgs and calls.
Horrific Incident 5: Our last day Pahalgam hotel booking were cancelled without our intimation. They made us travel within Pahalgam unnecessary when we ask them to take back to Pahalgam hotel as we need to rest. But booking was never ever done.