Mustafa and Center Tours & Travel (Post #67)
Mike tells the story of the most miserable business deal he and Michele have ever been involved in…
When we arrived in Delhi at 6 a.m. on December 3rd, we didn’t want to waste much time before getting our train tickets around the country booked since we have read and been told that the trains fill up fast and bookings are possible up to 2 months in advance.
So, after an overnight flight from Cairo, we checked into our hotel and took a 3 hour nap. Still quite tired, we ventured out into the streets to walk to the Foreign Tourist Rail Booking Center at the Delhi train station. Michele has given most of this preliminary information.
So, after being sent via autorickshaw by what seemed to be a kind man, we got dropped off at a tourism offic, located in the N-block of Connaught place, which had Government written all over the windows. We were very skeptical however because the rail bookings office we were looking for was supposed to be in the train station. For whatever reason we believed this “kind” man when he said “It has moved.” This is actually the oldest trick in the book to get people to go to a shop where the “helper” makes a commission.
Anyway, we walked in the door and looked around. It didn’t seem quite right. One of the employees said, “Don’t worry you are in a government place…”
We later realized this was a boldfaced lie. We were directed into a cube where a man asked us how he could help us. We told him we simply wanted to have some information about booking train tickets. He asked us where we wanted to go and we told him — Varanasi, Agra, Jaipur and Pushkar. He immediatly began to plan out an itinerary for us which involved taking an overnight train from Delhi to Varanasi, an overnight train from Varanasi to Agra 3 nights later and then we would have a driver for the next 6 days who would take us to the next 2 cities, back to Delhi and around each of the cities we would be visiting. I was a bit hesitant about taking the package deal because we’re independent travellers and we like to do things ourselves. This didn’t seem very independent to me.
Of course the “agent” we were working with was a bit pushy. What travel agent isn’t? Especially in India. So, he was trying to push us into booking hotel rooms through him in each of these places. It would cost us $40/night. No Way! i had studied the Lonely Planet India guide and was well aware that we could get a nice room in Varanasi for about $20 and in Agra and Pushkar for less than $10. So we told him we would book our own rooms. Of course he wouldn’t really take no for an answer and tried very hard to convince us that it was such a great deal. We really didn’t care because it was more than we wanted to spend. This is like finding a $100,000 car for $50,000 when you can only spend $30,000. Do you buy the $50,000 car? no! It would turn out that every time we interacted with Mr. Mustafa after this, he pressured us to use his hotels. Relentless.
So the total cost of the transportation was going to be about $605. After i subtracted out what i thought was the cost of the train tickets ($200) i realized we would be paying $405 for 7 days with a driver. While the $405 we would be paying for a driver seemed like too much to me especially since we were pretty sure we were paying someone’s commision (the rickshaw driver and/or the “kind” man) but for whatever reason we didn’t feel like we had any other options. We were both very tired and Michele had a pretty bad headache. So, we gave in and paid 27,xxx Rupees on the credit card.
Next, our “Agent”, Mr. Mustafa, asked us where we were staying. We told him we were staying at Hotel Ajanta. He asked how much we were paying. Then, he started to discredit our choice and tell us that there are much nicer hotels for less than what we were paying. He wanted us to take a look at another hotel he had in mind even though we told him we already had 3 nights booked at Ajanta. I told him something about not being experts in Delhi and it being okay with us if we didn’t have the very best place for the money. We’d rather not have all the answers spoon-fed to us. The “agent” responded with something like, “I know what Americans want, I have to deal with you people all the time.” What? He was clearly annoyed with me. Admittedly, while i had not been rude to him at all, i had been firm about what we did and didn’t want and had not been particularly pleasant because i felt we were getting scammed.
Well, we were told we would be given a complimentary driver back to our hotel and a complimentary driver for the next day around Delhi. This way we would get to check out the car and the driver before we were picked up in Agra. The “agent” also insisted that we look at the hotel he wanted us to stay in in Delhi. If we didn’t like it we didn’t have to stay. Fine. The driver was very nice and we enjoyed all our time with him that ride home and the entire next day. Anyway, we didn’t like the hotel we were shown very much particularly because they showed us an inhabited room. That didn’t seem like a good sign. Would we really want other people being shown all of our personal effects?
The next day (Sunday) we had a great day tour with our driver, Kul. When we asked him, he didn’t seem to know for sure if he would be able to be our driver from Agra but i felt confident he would be because we were told we would get to try our driver first. At the end of the day Kul took us back to the office where we were apparently supposed to meet with Mustafa again. However, when we got there, he wasn’t there. We had also missed out on a few of the sites because we ran out of time. Kul told us he would just call Mustafa. So, after a phone conversation while we were driving back to our hotel, Kul told us we would have another day of driving the day we were to leave for Varanasi (Tuesday). The driver was supposed to pick us up from the hotel at 11 and take us to the office where we would drop off our luggage and then proceed around Delhi before being dropped off at the train station.
Tuesday morning we were standing out in front of our hotel at 11 a.m. We waited until 11:15 before Michele called the office to find out what was happening. They told her someone was on the way. We suspect that no one was actually on the way at that point because it was another 20 minutes before anyone came and we know its not that far. By the time we got to the office it was pretty close to noon. After dropping our luggage in one of the cubicles, we sat down in a small waiting area to wait for our driver to come or Mr. Mustafa to talk to us. After maybe 5 minutes, one of the other agents asked us how he could help us. One would have to have heard his tone to understand that he seemed more annoyed that we were there than anything else. We told him we were there to be driven around Delhi. He told us we had already had our complimentary day. Next, Mr. Mustafa came out from his cube to ask us what we were doing there. We told him we didn’t know. We subsequently explained that we had been told we were going to have another day with a driver. When he asked us who told us that and we told him it was our driver Kul, he exclaimed, “Kul is nobody!” He went on to tell us that if we wanted a driver for another day we would have to pay 400Rs for the automobile’s fuel but he would give us the driver free of charge. We told him that if we had to pay 400Rs we would just go find our own driver/taxi/rickshaw for the day. He was clearly unhappy with us. I explained it was no big deal to us it we just had a different understanding of what we would be getting. Mr. Mustafa finally “broke down” and said, “Ok. i will give you a driver for today since there was a misunderstanding.”
So, needless to say, we were pretty flustered and somewhat upset by the alleged “service” we had been getting so far from Mr. Mustafa and this company. The three of us headed outside where Mr. Mustafa asked a driver to get a car to take us around Delhi. While we were waiting to get into the car, Mr. Mustafa told said to me, “I am giving you a driver for another day. Smile.” “No,” i said. “Why not?” “Because ever since we walked through that door,” gesturing towards the office, “everything has been bad.” Well, he just lost it. He asked me why and i couldn’t begin to respond. He told us to get in the car. At this point we were about to just walk away but we got in the car. While we were sitting in the back seat, Mr. Mustafa opened the passenger door and began screaming at me. “America may be a superpower but that will do you no good while you are in India! You have to be polite to people in India! From the beginning you haven’t appreciated my service! Be happy for the great service i give you! Don’t tell me everything is bad until you go on the whole tour! Then you can decide if i have given you good service!” I just couldn’t believe this guy was screaming at me. I just stared at the floor and said nothing. What else could i do? Would starting a fistfight there in Delhi have been a good idea?
We went on the drive with the driver and had a nice look at the Lodi Gardens and at Qtub Minar. When we got back, we stopped in the office to check what time we needed to be back to get dropped off at the train station and it turned out we had about 2.5 hours. This would be enough time to hit an internet cafe and get some dinner. After these two tasks, we went back to the office where Mr. Mustafa finally had our train tickets booked. I waited in the “lobby” while Michele got the tickets from him. It turned out, they were not the seating we had been promised. The trip to Varanasi was as we had agreed but from Varanasi to Agra was 3-tier sleeper not 2-tier (these compartments have either a double bunk (2 people vertically) or a triple bunk (3 people vertically)). He told us the 2-tier wasn’t availible and he had been trying to book the tickets for 24 hours. When we expressed disappointment that he had not gotten us the seating promised, he, while getting angry, told us the tickets were only 200Rs price difference (~$4). Then he kept saying, “Excuse me! Excuse me mam! Look here! You see! (showing Michele on the computer) There are no tickets for 2-tier! Look at the tickets! You see the Delhi to Varanasi tickets were booked last night at 5 p.m. and the Varanasi to Agra tickets weren’t booked until 11 this morning! you know why!!??!!?? Because these tickets are very hard to book!” So, we should have been so appreciative to him for getting us any tickets at all.
Our Delhi to Varanasi train ride was horrific with an obese man and his family occupying the other two beds in our compartment. This man was snorring, coughing, yelling in his sleep and flailing his arms all night. We slept for 1.5-2 hours.
Our 3-tier was not as bad as we expected and we met a nice couple from Switzerland. When we arrived at the train station in Agra, we were pleased to see our driver was actually there. Regardless, this has by far been the worst experience on the trip so far. It is incredible that this Mr. Mustafa bastard would imply that WE were being rude to him! After having travelled through 14 countries in the past 6 months, we can honestly say we haven’t met ANYone as rude as him. And we’re supposed to be the CUSTOMERS!
Saturday morning we arrived in the Agra train station fully expecting there would be no driver for us. To our great surprise, our driver for the second day WAS in fact waiting for us. So, everything went smoothly on saturday (while in Agra) and on sunday we set off with our driver. After discussing our itinerary with him a bit he asked, “what day are you going back to Delhi?” We told him the 16th. “Oh. Because the voucher the boss wrote for me says i come back on the 14th.” We almost died. The exact dates of travel were not written on our receipt but they WERE on the itinerary Mr. Mustafa drew up for us. We were lucky we had it. When we showed it to our driver, Dilwan, he agreed it should be the 16th but he had to call and ask the boss (Mustafa). For the next 24 hours we held our breath. We were definitely not going back to Delhi on the 14th, it was just a matter of whether we had to do it ourselves or if we would be driven. The next day our driver told us the boss said “yes, the 16th is okay.” However, this evening (Tuesday), our Dilwan had apparently had another conversation with “the boss” in which “the boss” told him, “I remember now. They are supposed to come back on the 14th.” So we handed the paper over to Dilwan for his next conversation with “the boss”.
What a nightmare. Whatever happens, we have NO intention of ever going back to that tourist office. We just suspect they may ask us to come back to close the whole deal but, quite frankly, we are scared for our physical wellbeing. We just have a bad feeling about this outfit. There’s no telling what someone like Manjur Mustafa would do with that kind of temper. While we don’t yet know if they will follow through with carrying us back on the date we were promised, even if they do, we have never been more unsatisfied with a service before.
So, for everyone who travels to or through Delhi, India… Be VERY CAREFUL!!! We were so stupid for falling for the “it has moved” scam. Always insist on going to your intended destination. If nothing else, NEVER EVER go to this office. We think it the company is “Delhi Tours” but our receipt also says “T.I.C.” which stands for Tourist Information Centre.
sorry that was so long and boring but this informatin HAS to get out…
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Tags: Category #19: India
Michele Harmon
What a total and complete jerk this Mustafa is! I’m glad you’re both able to enjoy India, despite having to deal with such an unscrupulous character.
Remind me to tell you the story sometime of the cab driver in Madras who insisted I had agreed to pay him a fare of 300 American dollars, not 300 rupees. That was fun! 😛