THE FINAL OFFER

Detained with fake tickets, they have rejected MakeMyTrip’s compensation requestTwo city-based businessmen had a harrowing time at the airport recently after the international tickets they booked through a popular travel portal turned out to be fake. They were even detained at the airport after the visas turned out to be fake too.The two men, who are related, have now lodged a complaint against the company, MakeMyTrip, for the losses they incurred for not being able to make the business trip, and for being interrogated and looked upon with suspicion after their documents turned out to be fake.Builders R Harish Kumar and P Manikantan had booked their tickets to Singapore for March 19 through the Kammanahalli office of the online travel website, MakeMyTrip. They had a meeting with another construction company in Singapore.When the two reached the airport on the day of travel, they were stopped by the authorities, who told them the tickets were fake. Once they investigated some more, it turned out the visas were fake too.“We immediately got in touch with the company. A person there told us they would send us new tickets and visas. After waiting for it for hours, we decided to go personally to the office and get them. After much waiting, we did. When we went back to the airport, and gave the documents, these turned out to be fake too. No bookings had been made in our names,” said Harish, a resident of Ramamurthy Nagar.By now the airport police had become suspicious, and they were asked to stay back. “They suspected us to be terrorists,” said Harish.After much discussion over their passports, the two were finally able to convince the police that they were duped by the company.“All this happened between 6pm and 1:30am,” he said.The two later found out that even the return tickets were fake, and shelved their travel plans.The next day, Harish went to the company’s main office in Richmond Circle and explained the fraud. “Had I travelled to Singapore that night, and it was the Singaporean authority that had caught the fraud, I could have been barred for life from travelling to the country,” said Harish.In a letter to Harish, MakeMyTrip distanced itself from its two employees who were responsible for the fraud. Calling Harish’s compensation demand “disproportionate to the issue and exemplary”, the company put forth a final offer to close the matter out of court.MakeMyTrip’s email to Harish seeking an out-of-court settlement:We have already placed the settlement on record more than once. We had also communicated the settlement to you when we had met at Bansawadi Police Station at Bangalore. We once again place on record that you are already aware and have accepted that the forged tickets and visas were provided to you and your co-travelers by Roshan and Rupesh. Roshan has even admitted to the same. We also informed you that we have filed an FIR against Roshan and Rupesh and your visit to the Bansawadi Police Station was an attempt for you to directly settle the matter with Roshan and his family. Being a responsible service provider, MakeMyTrip addressed all customers who were cheated by Roshan and Rupesh. We have not only refunded amounts to customers but also provided alternate travel options to customers including you.Please note that no part of your booking was done with MakeMyTrip. However, when the facts of your case were brought to notice, MakeMyTrip tried arranging your entire trip in good faith. The compensation you have demanded was disproportionate to the issue and exemplary, and so we had to offer a different compensation. You now want to file a police complaint against MakeMyTrip only because your unreasonable demands are not being met. In addition, you have also been threatening the safety and security of MakeMyTrip’s staff for not adhering to your demands. We still request an amicable settlement in this matter and would like to place our settlement offer before you once again of return tickets for 7 persons to USA and 2 lakh compensation. Please note that this is our final offer of settlement to you. This email is without prejudice to our legal rights against you in the above matter.