Given below is the itinerary we received.
Leaving on 18'th May, 2008
- Kansas to Houston Continental Airways
- Houston to Dubai on Emirates
- Dubai to Colombo on Sir Lankan Airlines
Return 17'th May, 2008
- Colombo to Dubai on Sri Lankan Airlines
- Dubai to Houston on Emirates
- Houston to Kansas on Continental Airways
Even though we found another ticket for $100 less (each) and we could save $200, I decided to go ahead and book this flight instead, because we like the level of service provided by Sri Lankan Airlines and Emirates, rather than US carriers.
25'th January, 2008
We bought 2 tickets for 18'th May, from Top Holidays, NY and paid in full. After about 2-3days we received my paper tickets by mail.
1'st April, 2008
Received an e-mail from Top Holidays confirming all the flights and new flight numbers.
18'th May, 2008
08:00AM - We arrived at Kansas City International Airport (MCI) at 8AM after a 2hour ($60 each) shuttle ride. Our flight was scheduled to leave MCI at 11.15AM to Houston International Airport. Went to the check-in counter and we were informed that our tickets have been canceled by the travel agent. Then they connected me to an Emirates agent and they informed me that Top Holidays has canceled my tickets on 1'st of April. They also told me that they have requested all the travel agents to update flight numbers/information on 1'st of April because of some scheduled changes, and most probably Top Holidays has made an error while doing this. Instead of updating the details they have canceled my whole reservation.
We requested them to re-book us but were told that it's out of their hands, Since Top Holidays canceled our reservation they have refunded the money to Top Holidays and I no longer have any reservations in their system.
10.15AM - Sent an e-mail asking them to contact me.
01.00PM - Called more than 10 times but still no answer.
03.20PM - Sent another e-mail with the full description of the problem.
- Top Holidays knew that such a problem exist, but they neglected to take care of it before hand. They would rather let their customers be stranded in air ports across USA and after try to fix the problem later.
- A friend of mine flew to Sri Lanka the day before (17'th May) on the same route same air line without any problems. Only conclusion that I can arrive from that is that her travel agent worked proactively to prevent the problem.
Prasanna told me that he would call me at 7AM tomorrow with a new booking.
19'th May, 2008
09.45 AM - Still no call from Top Holidays, so sent them an e-mail asking about the status.
10.15 AM - Received an itinerary from Top Holidays and not only was this for 20th May (2days after the earlier scheduled date) the route they have scheduled was a nightmare
- Kansas (MCI) to New York(JFK) on Midwest Airline
- New York (La Guardia) to Dubai on Emirates
- Dubai to Colombo on Emirates
Please note that first leg is to JFK and second leg starts from La Guardia. Even though the Travel Agent is based in New York City (and all this confusion is their fault) they didn't arrange any mode of transportation for us from JFK to La Guardia. We were asked to arrange our own mode of transportation to get to La Guardia. This practically defeated the whole purpose of us spending extra $200 for this ticket, when we could have gotten another tickets for less from another travel agent.
02.15 PM - Just when we thought that everything was going according to the plan, they contact us and inform that Midwest Airline doesn't accept e-tickets and they would have to FedEx us paper tickets.
05.30 PM - Package was FedExed and we received the tracking number. There was nothing to do but hope that the package will arrive on time for tomorrow's flight.
20'th May, 2008
09.00 AM - Received the tickets
01.20 PM - Checked in the 4 baggeges and boarded the flight from MCI to La Guardia.
05.00 PM - Arrived at La Guardia. Collected our baggaes, since Airline doesn't forward baggaes between airport, where there's no connecting flights. (Had to spend another unnecessary $6 to get two baggage carts)
05.30 PM - Collected the four baggages (50lbs each, so that's 200lbs total to carry across the city) Also please note that this is additional to the two 15lbs carry on luggages and the Laptop bag. Took a Taxi to JFK from La Guardia.
06.00 PM - Arrived at JFK and spent another unnecessary $6 to get two baggage carts and went to the checking counter and checked in the baggages. I'm happy to say at least the rest of the journey went smoothly up to Colombo, and also the return journey.
Now the second part of the adventure
24'th June, 2008
Wrote a complaint about their irresponsible behavior to Ajith asking for a partial refund for our trouble and e-mailed him. I also specifically asked him to reply to my mail on or before 26'th June and inform me that status.
Let me just summarize the tangible loss we had to suffer due to their mistake.
- 2 day Hotel bill
- 6 meals per person (a total of 12 meals)
- Telephone call expenses (Since we don't own a mobile)
- For baggage carts at La Guardia and JFK
- Most of all two days of paid vacation days
As for intangible loss/trouble,
- trouble we went through trying to find their mobile numbers
- searching for a place to stay for the night
- travelling from La Guardia to JFK carrying a total of 230lbs baggages
- All the excitement of going to Sri Lanka after a long time was ruined
27'th June, 2008
Still no reply from Top Holidays, so I decided to call them. It was such a tedious and time wasting process. Just to stop you readers from wasting your time I'll put those details in a list below.
Given below times are in Eastern Standard Time (Since the Travel agent is located in NY, you can associate their working hours with these times)
27'th June 10:00AM - Talked to Prasanna and he told me that Ajith would get back to me.
30'th June 02:50PM - Talked to Chamila and leave a msg for Ajith
30'th June 04:30PM - Talked to Chamila and leave a msg for Ajith
01'st July - 5 calls to the office number during working hours, but no one answers
01'st July 12:20PM - Called Ajith's Mobile. (He knows it's me who is calling since he has both my home and office numbers)
01'st July 02:45PM - Talked to Prasanna and he told me that he would ask Ajith to get back to me
01'st July 04:50PM - Called Office. No answer.
02'nd July 10:00AM - Talked to Chamila and asked Prasanna to get back to me
02'nd July 11:45AM - No word from Prasanna. Talked to Chamila again
02'nd July 12:25AM - Still No word from Prasanna. Talked to Chamila again
02'nd July 01:50AM - Prasanna has called me during lunch hour (12.50 Central) and left a voice mail informing that Ajith would get back to me tomorrow morning
03'rd July 11:15AM - No word from Ajith. Call the office and talk to Chamila. She told me that Ajith is in another call and he would get back to me with in 1/2hrs time.
03'rd July 12:15PM - Called and talked to chamila since Ajith didn't get back to me. Ask him to call me within next 15 minutes or drop me an e-mail after that (since I would be out of the office)
03'rd July 01:20PM - Ajith has called since he knows for sure that I won't be at the office, and left me a voice mail.
07'th July 09:40AM - Talked to Chamila and asked Ajith to get back to me
07'th July 01:15PM - Called the office and Ajith answered the phone. He told me that he's in another call and he would call me before 4.30PM
07'th July 04:45PM - Called the office, no answer. Called Ajith's mobile still no answer
08'th July 10:10AM - Called office no answer
08'th July 10:30AM - Called office no answer
08'th July 11:45AM - Ajith called
7'th of July, 2008
I contacted Ben Popken at Consumerist.com regarding legal actions that I could take against Top Holidays.
8'th of July, 2008
Finally Ajith contacted me at 11.45 AM (Two weeks after my initial e-mail to him) and offered me only $200 to cover part of my expenses. He said he's not willing to cover rest of the expenses or provide any compensation for me for the trouble I had to go through because of their mistake, and further told me that he is giving the $200 just as a courtesy from Top Holidays. He also mentioned that they don't take responsibility for the tickets after they issues them, and they can't help me with rest of the expenses or the two paid vacation days I lost. He promised me that he will mail the check for $200 first thing tomorrow (9'th July)
13'th July, 2008
Still I didn't receive the check or any communication from Top Holidays. Ben at Consumerist.com has posted my problem in the blog and nearly 6000 people have read it with first couple of hours. (around 8800 views up to now) From its comments I noticed that some readers of the blog have contacted Top Holidays trying to figure out how they were operating and I suspect Ajith got to know about the blog entry on consumerist.
07.30 PM - Surprisingly things started to speed up after this and out of the blue I received an e-mail from Ajith saying that he mailed the check today (5 days after the promised date)
After all this trouble Top Holidays still owes me money for my expenses, two paid vacation days and my trouble. But been a lousy organization they refuse to take responsibility for their actions and I doubt that I will receive the compensation I deserve.
I wanted to document the nightmare that was created for me by Top Holidays and warn you about this so called travel agency. Just stop for a moment and think, are you willing to go through this trouble and looses hundred of dollars? I would suggest that you do business with a reliable and reputed travel agent and have a peace of mind in your travel arrangements.
P.S. : You are free to leave comments if you wish
The comments we received through e-mail are also added to the post.
34 comments:
Thanks for info. I had some problem back in 2005 with the same agent, Prasanna. We were told that we were going to get student discount through Sri Lankan. When I bought the ticket I figured out the ticket was not discounted. When I asked about it, Prasanna told me that the final price was after all discounts. I kept quiet since I was so busy at the moment. I know another similar story from a friend of mine whoes credit card was going to be charged even before he confirmed the deal.
I would keep away from these guys.
I too had problems with these guys. Had good experiences when I used Upuls travels.
Yes this travel agent is not good. When I asked about a booking one time, he wanted me to buy the ticket long before my departure date.
Never buy from this guy.
This is unacceptable! Why are these guys still in business?
I've regularly used Upul Travelers. My travel agent is Dilini - an extremely professional and efficient lady who usually gets me my desired itinerary and confirms the deal within a week. Their prices are pretty competitive as well. I'm not sure if they are the cheapest around, but I'd gladly pay a little extra to avoid the kind of experience these travelers went through.
For anyone interested, Upul travelers numbers are
718-815-6005
718-815-4831
718-815-4865
Thanks for sharing this experience. It is up to us as responsible consumers to make sure such events never repeat themselves.
Safe travels!
well this was a while back-2003/2004 I think-I had made the booking through these guys several months in months in advance and I did not get my ticket until few hours before the actual departure, and that was after I had to call them several times to remind them to send me the ticket. In comparison, when I booked with Upuls or Sri Lankan, things were much smoother.
I would consider myself an experienced traveler now and my advice would be to go with a well-known company/airline even if it is slightly expensive and to be prepared for delays at any time. Also, be sure to research the visa requirements in detail from the official website. Do not trust just the airline, travel agent or your friends who have traveled before-rules change all the time. As far as traveling from USA to Sri Lanka, I would advise against traveling through Heathrow if at all possible.
Travel agents should know that they exist because of us customers not the other way aroundn !!, keeping this in mind they should provide excellent service. I'm glad this site exists for people to share their travel experiences. Being stranded at the airport after paying thousands is certainly not someone's idea of vacation.
I, too, used this same travel agency when i was visiting Sri Lanka in 2005-6. The first flight was rescheduled 2 hours earlier than it was supposed to and prasanna had not given the airline a contact number so I was stranded in the airport while it was snowing heavily outside. On top of that they had booked such an irregular travel route that the airline wasn't able to book me another flight until 3 days later! Good thing I had relatives living there or I would have had to dish out a lot of money for hotel expenses. On top of that the route took me through Narita on an overnight stay and the travel agency hadn't provided any sort of accommodation for me. I had decided on staying at the airport overnight only to discover that the it closed at midnight and I wouldn't be able to leave the airport without a day pass that the travel agent kindly forgot to inform me of. I did use Upul Travelers the last time I came and they were MUUUUCH better and I highly recommend them.
I bought a ticket with these guys and they said its an ticket and send me the ticket details.
But Sri Lankan air line has not issued a ticket with the number mentioned in the details they sent me. And the flight from Chicago to London by virgin Atlantic has also been canceled. I paid the full amount and i don't know what to do now.
Well if your trip date had not passed I guess you could call them and try to resolve this. If you are already screwed, try the following options.
1. If you paid by a credit card you could dispute it with the bank and initiate a chargeback. But since they charge extra for credit cards I assume that you paid by a check like me.
2. Call Better Business Bureau in NY.
3. Call Attorney General in NY.
4. Write reviews about your experiance in all travel and sri lankan message boards and forums.
I'm screwed big time with Top Holidays. I paid $3000 on 17th March 2009 for air tickets and now look like Ajith & Prasanna has fled the country. I didn't get my tickets.
What is the best approach to get my money back?
my email is rumaja71@yahoo.com
did u try calling there toll free number?
We paid by check, cashed last week. Now he's not returning calls (yes, tried 1800 too) or e-mail, plus we've spoken to both consolidators who buy his tix for him. They are also trying to track him down. Apparently there are MANY people who are in the same situation. Looks like the ticket # he gave us is bogus... Anyway, thanks for the recommendations!
If that's the case contact the police and see if you can get ny help.
I am pretty much in the same boat. I have been trying to contact Topholidays to cancel my ticket so that I could travel on another date, but haven't been able to reach them by phone since last Thursday. I booked my ticket on Feb 12, 2009, and I too sent a check which they cashed on Feb 17th. I called them last Wednesday (3/18/09) to inquire about cancellations. Ajit answered the phone and told me that the cancellation fee is $250. I called them the next day and left a message cos I couldn't get through to anybody. Since then I have been trying to call them everyday, but nobody seems to answer the phone. Their voicemail is full too. I live in New York, so today in the morning I went in search of their office. I checked the address that was on their website and also another address I found listed under Ajit (both on 5th Avenue). The concierge of both addresses said that they moved some time ago. I also checked out the address that I mailed the check to this time. The address is actually a PO box number at a UPS center. There is no office building or anything, just the UPS store with mail boxes.
Anyway, I just came home and thought I'llw rite on this blog. After seeing the comment posted on this blog on March 26th by "Anonymous", I called Emirates to see if my booking was still valid. Emirates said that my reservation is still there, but said it is VOID because Topholidays haven't paid the money yet, which means that I can't travel with that reservation :(
I am trying to see if my bank can cancel the check because I technically haven't received a the service that I paid for.
This is the domain name register details.
http://whois.domaintools.com/topholidays.com
The address here might be Ajith's home address.
ohhh and when we were dealing with Ajith in June, 2008 me mentioned that they were moving the office.
Also the person who commented above you has already got in touch with 2 otthers who got scammed and they have lodged a complaint at NYPD. If you send me your email address I'll get you in touch with them.
Thanks!! I just sent you an email
That address with the domain listing is apparently his ex-wife's (except for the apt #). if you look on ussearch.com you'll find his info, including relatives. I think he HAS left the country. We called the Sri Lankan restaurants in NYC today to see if they'd seen him, and one owner said that Ajith was close to bankruptcy recently, but he is MIA now. Are you all Sri Lankans? If we want our money back, we should really fight this, contact the right agencies, etc. We are in touch with the NYPD, but if it's not "fraud" it might not be a "crime". We're waiting to hear back from the officer on this. I'll write an e-mail to the moderator so we can share without it being public on here. Let's all get connected...
Hi,
Can you please share my e-mail (erica.hougland@gmail.com) with anyon else who's been ripped off recently by this Ajith guy?
Thanks!
Erica
I just wanted to let you all know that we lost $5K too. Had a reservation, send a check and were waiting for tix and they stopped answering the phones. According to the Airline, Topholidays issued our tix and later canceled the same day. We have used these guys for the past 8 yrs with no problems prior to this. We dealt with Prasanna.
I lost over 4k too with them.trying to contact them for a while, recieved an email yesterday stating that ajith has to leave the country for medical reasons and prasanna will be in touch with us.But after reading previous comments I am doubtful that they are genuine.I have saved for this trip for two years now our relatives are waiting and we have no money to get there
Prasanna is answering the phone.
Call him on 1-800-447-5260
You can get your money back if you paid partially if not they’ll issue the tickets.
I got my money back.
Still I cannot understand why they just disappeared without even leaving a voice message or email.
I am the one who posted the comment "I bought a ticket with these guys and they said its an ticket and send me the ticket details." on March 26th.
We have been trying to contact Ajith in many ways.
And then I got an email form Ajith saying that he went to SL for an emergency medical treatments and all the transactions will be honored.
But in My case since the flight they gave me was canceled they had to change the flight and give me a new schedule and it cost more than I paid. So they asked me if I could mail them a check with the difference. (like $75).
I was not comfortable sending them more money and I asked Ajith whether he could refund the money without any charges since it was their fault that they didn't issue the ticket when i paid them in full.(if the ticket was issued Air line would have looked after the schedule change)
Ajith agreed to return the money.
and yesterday (i.e 30th of March) they refund the full amount i paid.
And thank you very much.
May be Ajith got sick and had to go to SL. But he could have appointed someone to answer the calls before he left. If there was someone answer my calls i would have not got this frustrated.
Anyway I am happy to have my money back. And I bought a new ticket directly form the Sri Lankan Air lines.
we also withdrew all the complains we made to the officials.
I am on the Top Holidays mailing list just to get a sense of prices when they send out their email flyers. I actually never book with them. I have had a positive experience with a Sri Lankan owned travel agency called Rio Travels. I have purchased over 12 tickets for my family over the last several years with them and would rate my experience favorably with them.
Check out http://www.riotravels.com/ if you need a travel agent. Their number is 718-667-4497. They have a nice website that allowed me to effectively plan an out-of-Colombo trip as well earlier this year.
Thanks for sharing your experience on Top Holidays and I hope you are able to recover your funds. You should file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau as well.
Ajith is back in action.. be careful !!!
Hello Everyone..!
Ajith is back in business..true but he dosen't have a office in the NY - USA. he's operating from CMB. so becarefull and this time he mush have a big plan. don't buy the tkt from this agency at all, go the airline website directly and you may find a better deal. as far as we know he had stolen more than two hundred thousand from people and vanish suddenly.
when I purchase the tkt from Topholidays they haven't give me the Student discount withc I found later on.
I am the one with the heading 'Lost Vacation' and I wanted to let every one know that they issued my tickets and we had our vacation.Ajith sent an Email later saying that some trying to distroy his business by giving him a bad name.If you are some one who did not recieve service for your money please blog here so we really know about him since this is the only blog you can find about this matter on the web
I'm glad that you finally got the tickets. As for Ajith I guess now with the news out and since everyone knows his shady business pratises he's loosing customers.
I'm glad I came across this posting. I consider myself to be a savvy traveler and was going to book a Sri Lankan trip online. However, my mom mentioned Prasanna's name as a "good" travel agent her friends have used in the past. I'm going to call her today and tell her about this.
On a different note, I have noticed that the SL ticket prices are consistently about $100 more through a travel agent when compared to Orbitz or any other reputable web site. The travel agents point out the fact that their tickets are refundable makes it more expensive. However, look at the fine print and you will notice that these tickets come with a $350 fee for cancellations. Non-refundable tickets through other companies such as Orbitz have a standard $250 fee for changes. So there really isn't a big difference. So, do your own research and book it yourself rather than dealing with these travel agents.
Yes, I'm surprised to see how many people got screwed by topholidays. I found out about it only after I published this article.
Even on SLSUSA yahoo sroups many people responded to my email saying they aslo got scammed by topholidays.
Anyway thanks for the tip on orbitz (I use it a lot for local travel), but I always thought they would be very expensive for international tickets.
Just to let you know Prasanna Perera has started a new travel agency under the name United Travel New York.
hi did you guys take any law action for this ??
no, since we are located in different states I didn't want to go through the trouble.
After the completion of my trip, I get an invoice from this agency that I had to pay them $200 + 93.57. When I carefully looked at the invoice, the travel agency had entered my name with someone else's credit card number. (This charge was incurred for change of date by the airline of $200.00.) This caused a rejection and fees by the credit card company which the Top Holiday's Travel Agency made me pay. The Agency and I knew they were imposing on me unfairly, but I let it go because I've done business with them for a decade. After this incident, I do not plan to do business with them. I feel totally let down. I paid for something I never owed except the $200.00
Post a Comment