I booked flight tickets for my onward & return journey from Mumbai to Bagdogra & return through paytm. Following are the details:
Date of booking: 08 May 2017.
No. of passengers: 4.
Paytm order ID: 3206746277.
Journey dates:
onward - 15 Aug, 2017 (by Indigo);
return - 20 Aug, 2017 (by Jet airways, flight no 9W-972).
However, on 1st August Jet airways intimated me that due to their operational reasons they cancelled the flight 9W-972 and wanted to route me through a hopping flight whereas my original booking was on a non stop flight.
On 2nd August, while I had a conversation with Jet Airways customer support, they gave me an option for ticket cancellation with full refund. I opted for that for my return journey. They said the amount (Rs. 23308/-) will be credited back to the travel site from which I booked the ticket. On that same day I intimated the same to paytm. Paytm customer care told me that I will get the (refund - the cashback I got from that trip) credited to my paytm wallet which was quite logical.
After a certain waiting period, I kept on following up repeatedly with paytm customer care. Following are some of the conversations / updates given by paytm customer care:
On 21/8/2017: I was informed by paytm customer care (by Mr. Anshul at around 9.45 pm) that the refund process is already in process and I will get the refund credited to my wallet within 24 hours.
On 22/8/2017: At around 10.10 pm I was told (by Mr. Sourav) that the exact refund status could not be tracked, neither they could commit any timeline within which I would get the refund. I was told to call again next day.
On 23/8/2017: At around 8.45 pm I contacted paytm customer care (talked to Mr. Akshay), still no conclusive update.
On 25/8/2017 morning: At around 11 am I was told by Mr. Tushar that I will get the refund by the same day evening.
On 25/8/2017: In the evening I was told by Mr. Kamran that refund will be credited next day morning by 10 AM
On 26/8/2017: Till 11:25 am the refund is not yet credited to my paytm wallet.
Every time they are saying your case is being accelerated, it is under process and all these cliche jargons.
I dropped my feedback through the paytm app with reference to the particular order ID. I wrote mail to
[email protected] on 23/8/2017. It bounced. I dropped mail to
[email protected] on the same day. That had no effect.
I contacted Jet Airways for the refund status; they said they have initiated the process from their end on 8/8/2017 (around 1:30 pm). On the other hand paytm arranged a call-back for me to give status from the channel partner for this booking. On getting the call I came to know that easemytrip is the channel partner; they said that they have already initiated the refund process from their end; now it is held up on paytm only.
It's been 24 days since the ticket was cancelled, but I did not get the refund. I do not have any idea how long I have to wait further. Neither I have any idea about its exact status. The experience is really pathetic. Customer care people are simply providing fake baseless promises. I don't know whom to approach and when would I get my money back to my paytm wallet.
A. Chowdhury.
