Sometimes people try
to con you, and sometimes they succeed. I got ripped off in India, in spite of
taking the good advice of Lonely Planet, who told me only to book a train
ticket at the New Delhi train station, on the first floor. But what do you do
when those people tell you that all tickets are sold out? You believe them. At
least that’s what I did. I decided to send an email to the Ministry of Tourism
in Delhi to tell my story, and I have send an email to Rajan Tahim, the guy
that set me up and who seems to be running a parallel business while working
for an official Indian public service. This is what I had to say to him:
Dear mister Tahim,
I wanted to inform
you that I have written an email to your superiors to complain about your way
of working.
I was in Delhi a couple of weeks ago, and I needed to buy a trainticket to Agra. I came to the official booking office, on the first floor of the New Delhi trainstation, where I was told that all tickets for first and second class were sold out. That, of course, is information that I can not check. The ONLY other solution, so I was told, was to hire a private car. I was stupid enough to believe it all, and booked a car that was way too expensive. 9400 rupees (137 Euros) for a ride to Agra is a complete rip off!
Moreover: the first thing the driver told me, was that I could only go to see the Taj Mahal, and no other sites in Agra. This was not what you told me, so I insisted on at least visiting the Red Fort as well.
The car you arranged for me was clearly not an official service. It is very obvious that this car and this driver have no license to do the business or to provide the so called services that you sell. I could only hope that we would not be involved in an accident, because your insurance would never cover any costs for the passengers, since the driver is providing something he is not insured for.
I was in Delhi a couple of weeks ago, and I needed to buy a trainticket to Agra. I came to the official booking office, on the first floor of the New Delhi trainstation, where I was told that all tickets for first and second class were sold out. That, of course, is information that I can not check. The ONLY other solution, so I was told, was to hire a private car. I was stupid enough to believe it all, and booked a car that was way too expensive. 9400 rupees (137 Euros) for a ride to Agra is a complete rip off!
Moreover: the first thing the driver told me, was that I could only go to see the Taj Mahal, and no other sites in Agra. This was not what you told me, so I insisted on at least visiting the Red Fort as well.
The car you arranged for me was clearly not an official service. It is very obvious that this car and this driver have no license to do the business or to provide the so called services that you sell. I could only hope that we would not be involved in an accident, because your insurance would never cover any costs for the passengers, since the driver is providing something he is not insured for.
The driver himself
was a dirty, very impolite guy, who started asking for a tip five minutes after
he picked me up. His English was not good enough to keep a conversation going,
and he stopped at least 10 times to buy tobacco to chew on. He didn’t even have
the courtesy to fill up the tank before he picked me up, so we had to stop to
buy fuel. The toll that needs to be paid was included in the price, so you told
me. Well, when we stopped at the toll booth, the driver asked me to pay the
toll, which I refused of course. For the next payment he had no change, so he
asked me for change. I was – once again – stupid enough to give him some money.
All the way to Agra and back, he never stopped spitting. He opened the door several times, while driving, to spit. This is not only dangerous, but simply disgusting!
It is very clear that you are risking peoples money and peoples lives by doing what you do. If you look into the mirror, and if you would be honest with yourself, you would stop this immediately.
I am travelling around the world, and publishing a blog while travelling. Well, mister Tahim, your name will be in it, and it will not be in a positive way. As a matter of fact, this entire email will be published on the web.
All the way to Agra and back, he never stopped spitting. He opened the door several times, while driving, to spit. This is not only dangerous, but simply disgusting!
It is very clear that you are risking peoples money and peoples lives by doing what you do. If you look into the mirror, and if you would be honest with yourself, you would stop this immediately.
I am travelling around the world, and publishing a blog while travelling. Well, mister Tahim, your name will be in it, and it will not be in a positive way. As a matter of fact, this entire email will be published on the web.
I thought it would
only be fair of me to inform you of the fact that your superiors are getting
this information too.
Kind regards,
David.
I am not naïve, and I
assume that mister Tahim will just knod his head and continue his condemnable
yet profitable side-job. At least my conscience is cleared now.
hey David! we hebben hetzelfde meegemaakt maar ik was die Indiërs ZO BEU dat ik niet heb opgegeven. We zijn naar de buschauffeurs zelf toegestapt en naar de lokale bevolking die stond te wachten op het perron. Met hun hebben we gepraat over de situatie. Aan het officieel loket werd ons verteld dat we alleen een luxe-bus konden nemen voor 50 euro pp, maar na enkele uren zoeken naar een oplossing vonden we minstens 6 lokale bussen die ons voor 100 rupees mee nemen! Wat een rip-off die Indiërs soms kunnen verkopen... bah bah... :) Veel geluk nog daar!
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