HYDERABAD: After battling it out with an overseas requirement company(travel agent) for spilling water on their plans to travel aborad, a techie from city was awarded justice by a Hyderabad district consumer forum which directed the firm to pay up a refund along with a compensation.Ameerpet-based Signin Soft was asked to refund a sum of Rs 32,000 along with a compensation of Rs 30,000 for the mess up. It all started in October 2016, Ashwith Pai, a software professional planned to spend holidays with his wife and parents in Malaysia and Singapore. He approached Signin Soft for processing of visa and had booked air tickets as well as accommodation for the family’s seven-day visit to the two countries.
However, before their travel, only Pai’s visa was processed. While Pai travelled to Malaysia, his wife was forced to travel alone to Singapore and secure a transit visa to Malaysia. A few months later, in December 2016, Pai took the agency to forum. During the trial, the agency argued that the delay in visa was due to poor resolution of Pai’s wife’s photograph.
“After reaching the Hyderabad airport, except for my wife, we (Pai and his parents) were asked to go to Malaysia as we had our visas but they advised my wife to go to Singapore, obtain a transit visa, and then travel to Malaysia. She had to travel from Singapore to Malaysia by flight and then take a bus from the airport to the hotel where we were staying,” Pai explained as the family had to incur additional expenses for the detour.
However, the court took a serious note on the deficiency of services on the part of the company by terming their attitude to be “childish”. “This sounds rather silly and farfetched. They claim to be in this field and should know what to accept at the time of taking the documents like passport and payments for the services. How can they complain that photos were taken on the mobile and were thus rejected?” the order copy read.
The company, Signin Soft was directed to refund the amount of about `32,000 that was charged for processing the visa, besides ordering it to pay a compensation of `30,000 by a district consumer forum for failing to provide visa in time.