Editor,
On 27 July, some of my relatives booked a ticket from the Riba Tours and Travels counter, located near the Aalo daily market, to travel from Aalo to Itanagar.
The ticket was booked through a phone call, and was confirmed with the counter two to three times over the phone. It had been specifically mentioned that my relatives would travel in a Xylo, considering the scorching heat.
The reporting time was 3:30 pm. I drove my relatives and reached the counter exactly at 3:25 pm, and informed the person at the counter about our arrival. We sought the ticket, but the person running the counter said that the ticket would be issued after the taxi had arrived.
We waited till 3:55 pm, whereas the departure time was between 3:30 and 3:35 pm, and our taxi was yet to arrive. We enquired at the counter again and again, but no clear information was provided. It was 4:10 pm, after most of the Sumo taxis had left the counter with their passengers, when the person at the counter informed us that they were unable to manage a Xylo, and left my relatives with no choice but to travel in a Sumo.
Now, the questions are: why did the person at the ticket counter fail to arrange a Xylo for my relatives’ journey? Why was proper information not passed to us, despite the repeated confirmation earlier over the phone? Is this a usual habit of those running the taxi counters?
Passengers pay the fixed journey fare in advance, and the ticket sellers must ensure that service proportional to the amount is provided. My relatives were set up at the 11th hour and were forced to travel by a Sumo taxi, which had no air conditioning.
Moreover, the person who was driving the Sumo was later found to be the owner of the Sumo and the Xylo. He said that he had already informed the person at the ticket counter that it would be a Sumo and not a Xylo. On top of all that, the driver behaved rudely with my relatives during the entire journey.
In a nutshell, it appears that those operating taxi services in Aalo are concerned only about money, disregarding the passengers. This is unethical and should be corrected by any association of travel agencies, if such an association exists, to regain the passengers’ trust.
A concerned passenger