Tour operator to pay compensation

CANCELLED TRIP

A Bandra consumer forum on Tuesday directed a tour operator to pay a compensation of Rs50,000 to a customer for cancelling a foreign trip he had planned with his family, causing them disappointment.

Forum members Shivcharan Shere, SV Kalal and RG Wankhede said in their judgment that cancelling the Bhutan trip the customer had paid for three months in advance amounted to deficiency in service.

It added the cancelling the trip would have spoilt the family’s happiness, causing them disappointment and from a psychological point of view, would have hurt them. It is the forum’s opinion, it said, the complainant’s feelings must be respected.

The Mulund firm was also directed to refund Rs1,05,000 the customer had paid with 12% interest from March 2018 onwards, as the payment was made in February. It directed the firm to pay litigation cost of Rs5,000 too.

According to the complaint, the firm India Dekho Tours and Travels had not only cancelled the Bhutan trip scheduled for May 2018, but it also did not refund the amount the Borivili resident Nanaji Durge had paid it in February by cheque.

Durge had expected to receive the tickets for the trip in March or April, but when he did not, he enquired with the company only to find out that the trip had been cancelled. When he asked him to return the money, the operator gave him postdated cheques for July, August and September of that year. The cheques, to Durge’s dismay, bounced. When follow ups did not yield results, he approached the consumer forum.

The firm did not appear before the consumer forum when a notice was sent to it. The forum relied on the copies of the post-dated cheques produced by the complainant to conclude that the trip was indeed cancelled.