Status on 18th Sept 2014: Issue Resolved by GOIBIBO.COM
Thanks to Social Media, the post received 400 views in less than 24 hours and my friends shared across Facebook and Twitter. I believe the crisis management and the customer care team of GoIbibo (Ms. Anjali, Head - Customer Delight and Ms. Aditi, Team Lead - Customer Delight) saw this spreading, responded at night itself, then called up politely in the morning. By afternoon, the issue was resolved and they have agreed to refund the money. I can only say - my beautiful friends, power of Social Media and a common people like us who dared fighting beyond made it possible.

Status as on 17th Sept 2014: Never Book Your Tickets Through GOIBIBO.COM
GOIBIBO is an extremely FRAUDULENT and CHEAT portal. Please beware before you book your tickets on this site. I am duped of Rs. 10,000. And you might be the next one so please read this incidence before you plan your itinerary with them.

We planned a trip to South Africa during first week of OCTOBER’14. While booking they were not accepting my Citibank card and the message was “transaction declined by the bank”. Upon calling the bank they said we have no records of the transaction being declined from this site and your card. 

So why this ERROR message on their site. We tried 3-4 times but no success. Their ERROR message was also fake??

After unsuccessful booking for the hotel in Cape Town South Africa  for the date selected as 4^th Oct 2014, we got a message ‘UNABLE TO PROCESS THE BOOKING, DO YOU WANT TO TRY AGAIN?’ We pressed YES to continue. GUESS what, the transaction went through. BUT the systems automatically took the DEFAULT DATE  as 19^th Sept. I SELECTED 4^th OCT 2014, HOW THE HELL IT BECAME 19^th Sept?? ISSUE in their WEBSITE that it takes default dates when you try to continue after unsuccessful TRANSACTION.

My question is simple to GOIBIBO - SHOULD I PAY for the FAULT in YOUR WEBSITE? IS there NO CUSTOMER CARE POLICY? Do you check their Facebook page; it is filled with such posts of FRAUD BOOKINGS. Did you CHECK that I CALLED within 2 MINUTES and email was sent within 10 MINUTES of the incidence.

By the way I was in touch with Mr. HARIT SAPRA as customer care person. I also got in touch with Mr. Ankur Srivastava, who apparently is Sr.Manager Operations, CRM, Fulfillment, Vendor management for Hotel, Holidays and FPH (As per his LinkedIn profile). But only one impression I got from these two men which is same as the organization–IRRESPONSIBLE, NON CARING and NO RESPONSE to multiple queries.

LAST MAIL I got said, we checked our system it works fine, so we will not be in a position to do anything for you. Does GOIBIBO even realize that I am booking entire International trip and would not lie for such issue?

BUT the ANSWER they want to hear is – THEY do NOT WANT customer doing transactions on their WEBSITE. They do not want business and that is why they offer such harassing and painful CUSTOMER SERVICE. #PATHETIC

More than a decade now, Google came and it changed the way we access any sort of information. It made life a lot easier. Then came the platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Blogs and many others) we know them as Social Media. Why Social Media? Simply because they aim to connect people with each other – far or near, family or friends or colleagues. It came up as a relief for people to stay in touch. Apart from that it had lot of other features which awed the public as well as brands. But how this all is actually affecting ‘social-connect’ – Let us look at the advantages and the disadvantages of the same:-

Advantages:

Everything has its own pros and cons. However to summarize it is the kids and teens who have been swayed away by these platforms since they are not able to handle it maturely unlike the more experienced or adults. Demographic (Read here) shows that age 18-29 is the most present across all social mediums.  Facebook has maximum active users between 14-25 years. Is this stat not a disturbing? Shouldn't this age be more in playground, college and even hanging out with friends than here? Even more disturbing fact is that across all ages people who consume more than seven hours of Social media are more likely to get under depression because of the ‘likes’, ‘fan’, ‘follow’, ‘views’ world. (Read here)

To end it with the pro side of it people who are handling it more maturely, prioritize their real v/s virtual world are playing smart and enjoying their both the sides attention, sharing knowledge and are engaging confidently.

Happy Socializing!