Red Apple Travels has not only caused considerable heartburn & loss to a Mumbai based Travel Agent by cancelling their booking, at the last minute, for a small group of 9 passengers comprising of 6 Adults & 3 children who were booked on a 8 day trip to Thailand by its Thailand Subsidiary Red Apple Travel Co. Ltd. but also caused further loss to the Travel Agent by delaying the refund by almost a month. 

Mr. Shirish ( Name Changed on request ), one of the officials of the Travel Agency said, “Red Apple Travels Sales Manager Ms. Heena Dharia & Executive Ms. Twinkle Shah had approached his agency & offered to give good service as a DMC. But when they were given the query, they & their Thailand Country Manager Mr. Pankaj Sawhney took a very long time to give proper detailed quote giving lame excuses. They gave the detailed quotation & hotel availability confirmation only 2 days before the departure date of the passenger. And even after us remitting USD 3601 & giving them a copy of the Debit Advice & TT copy, they cancelled the booking at the last minute even as the passengers were boarding their flight to Thailand. Inspite of our repeated assurances that the payment was remitted they were adamant & uncooperative & cancelled the hotel booking & Airport transfers for the entire eight day period for which the booking was done without giving smallest of thought to the plight that the passengers including small children would have to suffer or what damage would the reputation of the Travel Agent suffer.” 

“Though we managed to salvage the entire booking through other sources, what further added salt to the injury was the fact that they took almost a month to issue the refund which was done only after many reminders, follow up & warnings to their Mumbai Head Office & Thailand Team. Then again the refund that we received was short by Rs. 17,119 apart from the bank charges that we had to pay for remitting the money to Thailand. When we contacted the Mumbai office, Mr. Shyam Goenka, the Red Apple Group Chairman blatantly refused to sort out the matter saying that Red Apple Travel India was not responsible for helping out & you deal directly with Red Apple Travel Thailand office even though it was pointed out to him that it was the staff of Red Apple Travels India who were soliciting the business & coordinating the bookings.” he further added. 

Mr. Shirish said, ”Red Apple Travels has been the most uncooperative DMC we have ever dealt with as a company. They did not care for the plight of the passengers & children & left them in lurch by cancelling the booking at the last minute & were least bothered about the loss of reputation & fallout that the Travel Agent would have had to face when the passengers would have landed in Thailand without any Hotel booking & airport transfers. Apart from this the staff was very uncooperative & were least bothered about immediately processing the refund & even shamelessly asked if the amount remitted can be kept as advance towards any further booking! Which Travel Agent will ever give them bookings after such behaviour? What was their reason for not processing the refund on time? Did they not have money to refund or was it harassment or plain stupidity on behalf of Mr. Pankaj Sawhney, the Country Manager of Red Apple Travel Co. Thailand to ask to keep our money as deposit towards further booking & expect business after such uncooperative attitude?” 

“Inspite of us sending a Notice to Mr. Shyam Goenka & Mr. Suneet Goenka – MD of Red Apple Travels, for refunding to us the full amount, they have not even bothered to reply back to us” he said 

“The B2B Travel Industry works on the spirit of cooperation & helps out each other keeping the passenger interests above all but Red Apple Travels has defied all this. Travel Agents should be careful about dealing with such DMCs to avoid loss of money, business & reputation.” Mr. Shirish further added.