Bengaluru: From food to clothing, from transport to stays, from connecting with the world to learning anything new, we are living in the times when technology has allowed us to have everything on our fingertips, quite literally.
However, this era of internet is not free from downsides. The more the cyber space available, the more is the scope for swindles under the garb of cyber tricks. Online cheating has become an ugly reality with more and more people falling prey to it.
Many online hospitality short-term service providers are duping customers either by cancelling their trips at the last minute or providing accommodations with the minimal facilities as an alternative stay.
This monsoon season has seen many such cancellations and last minute changes. Customers constantly complain that they are being fooled by such service providers.
Vishwaraj, a physiotherapist from Bengaluru, recently booked a villa in Wayand from an online service portal ten days ago. He was all set with his plan with couple of friends.
But after a few days, he received a call from the service provider claiming the road to the villa has been blocked due to heavy rains and promised an alternate accommodation.
With the day of his scheduled trip fast approaching, there was no official information about the arrangement from the service provider. Vishwa then decided to take up the issue with customer care, who tricked him with the same promises.
Later both the customer care and the client stopped responding to Vishwa’s calls or texts. He later received a letter from the platform. “Sorry for the late reply. My shift already ended yesterday. I tried calling the host, but he did not pick up the call. I suggest you send him an email as well. I will leave a message to his account; hopefully he opens and reads it. It is your choice Vishwaraj either you continue with the booking or cancel the reservation,” the service provider stated in the letter.
Fed up with unprofessional behaviour of the staff, Vishwaraj decided to cancel the plan. However, he was still charged Rs 300 for the cancellation. He also stated that a similar case happened with his friends last December, who booked the stay from one of the booking portal, who were also provided an alternate stay with the least of facilities.
V.K. Somasekhar, Managing Trustee of Consumer organisation, Grahak Shakti said, “There is no proper e-commerce regulation due to which these organisations are taking everyone for a ride. Very few take up the issue to the consumer court, while most of them just ignore it.”
Somasekhar also pointed that this is not only happening with hospitality service providers but also with the other product services. “People are getting cheated in some or the other ways and there should be a law to control such irregularities online,” added Somasekhar.
B4
