Sam San Cheated us. Review on Sam San Travels, Mumbai

Never use Sam San's services. You will be better off with other players. They don't provide value for your money. Once they get your money, they turn into total fraudsters. They don't even hear your complaints out.

1. The hotel room at Bangalore was too small for the 4 of us, inspite of clearly telling them earlier that a minimum level of quality and comfort takes priority over cost for us.

   
   




2. The driver does not understand Hindi or English and communicating with him is very problematic. I am surprised that they did not treat this as an implicit requirement for us who do not know Kannada. I have seen many drivers here in Bangalore too who can speak good Hindi at a minimum.

   
   




3. We had asked for a Tavera as we were 4 of us, assuming that there will be 3 seats in the 2nd row, leaving the trunk for our luggage. I think any prudent person will assume that there will be a lot of luggage with 4 people going on a 9 day vacation. The Tavera though had split bucket seats in the 2nd row, so the trunk could not carry all the luggage(2 huge bags). Luckily the Tavera had a roof rack which we could use, but this Tavera did not have any plastic covering for it. The driver showed too much resistance for getting a plastic cover inspite of repeatedly telling him that the weather forecast showed rains in Ooty and Kodaikanal. I had to use threats and had to open my laptop, hook on to the internet with my wireless card, and show him the forecast to make him buy one in Mysore before starting for Ooty. If I had to manage all this, what did I pay them for?

   
   




4. The driver asked for starting to Mysore late at 11.30/12 noon because he wanted to do some maintenance on his Tavera! How can you ask for half a day to service your vehicle after commencing the tour? Do you expect us to waste half a day waiting in the hotel room and do no sightseeing in Mysore. Look at their 2nd day itinerary in their advertised package. After starting post lunch from Bangalore, how were you supposed to cover the points in Mysore? We didn’t pay them for making us sit in the hotel room waiting for a car to get serviced, did we? Moreover, we were now travelling in a unmaintained Tavera, which has a risk of break down. It did have a break down during the journey and this wasted a good 6 hours of our vacation time. This is a totally unacceptable request in the first place.

   
   




5. The Tavera does not have a heater inspite of specifically asking for it during booking the tour with them.

   
   




6. The driver and the entire Tavera smelled of alcohol in the morning on the 2nd day.

   
   




7. The driver did not even know the itinerary of our tour as advertised by them! He asked us what do you want to see? I had to open my laptop and write down the itinerary to ensure that we don’t miss the places. In such tours, the expectation is that the driver will be enthusiastic about satisfying the guests about the sightseeing tours as we are their customers. But this driver on the contrary showed clear signs of resistance citing bad roads at some places. I have owned an SUV myself and know very well that a vehicle like Tavera can easily go where other Indicas and Innovas were going. As an example, one day he told us, we cannot go to Dolphin’s nose because the road is too small and there has been a land slide there. I asked other drivers where we halted for lunch and came to know that the road is clear. I made him take us there but he showed clear signs of discontent over it.

   
   




8. One day he told us that on the way to Ooty from Mysore, at 6.10 pm that we have to cross the checkpost in Bandipur sanctuary before 6.30pm else they don’t allow and we have to stay back the whole night! If it is true, then 6.10 pm was certainly not a time to tell this. He wasted half an hour on the way earlier removing a puncture from the spare tyre!

   
   




9. The driver didn't allow us to see Palani temples which was part of the advertised tour for no apparant reason.

   
   




10. On the way back from Kodaikanal, these guys skipped the toll express way for saving a toll of Rs. 250(The package cost was well above Rs.60, 000; I woldn't have negotiated paying another Rs.250!). To save Rs. 250 they took us through very bad and lonely unsafe roads increasing the travel time by 5 hours.

    
    




11. Moreover Sam San travels does not allow you to sleep while travelling as their drivers are such idiots that they tend to fall asleep when you sleep! Wow!