Rushing and Unforeseen frustration enroute to Kilimanjaro 2009

Mt. Kilimanjaro (Uhuru peak) 5895m

A few days back I was running around for my Passport reissue, thankfully I was able to get over this just in time to (ready to) leave for Kilimanjaro.

25th june: Applied for passport

26th june: Received passport (5PM)after introducing and explaining exigency to passport officer; I left for a week end hike in Sayyadris near pune (Lohgad and Matheran) along with friends from ITC (Srini, GN, Mahmood and ravi).

28th 7PM: came back from the trek, changed clothes and walked into the Himalayan club meeting of Pune where "Krushna Patil" 19yr old Everester (May 21 2009) was sharing her experiences. It was good joing with Dr. Raghu a old friend who has affinity for mountains and mountaineers.

29th: 9 AM I sat in one of the cyber cafes and tried booking online ticket to Kilimanjaro (for 30th june) through www.yatra.com website. It was perfect until I did the money transfer through netbanking of ICICI bank. Then A message flashed on the screen saying unable to connect to Airlines and ticket was not issued. From then on my troubles and frustration started.

When I contacted Yatra.com helpline people. They said they didn't receive any record of my transaction. Then I gave them the bank transaction id i received after giving all personal details and answered the questions that were senseless for about 30 minutes over telephone (with roaming charges). In the end about 2 pm I was told that they will know wheather they recived this payment or not only on 1st and then only they can look into my case.

I rushed to ICICI bank and tried explaining that if this accepted to transfer my money to yatra.com site; they should have had some verification that money went there and some point of contact to talk while yatra.com were denying. They asked me to give a complaint on net when I was present in bank physically. And regarding time it was the same answer. IT takes two days. It took only a second to take away the money. (such is the technology; but when it comes to grievance rectification, it is worse than the traditional ways or more frustrating as you will not find anyone to answer/attend).

All along I was more frustrated as I could not go for booking another ticket as I didn't know wheatehr ticket was issued or not. I had to clarify to yatra.com that I don't want ticket and going for another ticket again without knowing wheather i would get my money back from yatra.com/ICICI or not. So for a couple of days.. I wouldn't have these funds that have gone because of this transaction.

I purchased another ticket paying the fee charged by the travel agent over the price of the ticket sold all over the net... I could have avoided all the frustration of talking and explaining to help line people/getting connected of both Yatra.com and ICICI people. I wouldn't have lost the time as well. And the joy that I was about to leave for another Kili ascent was also taken off and need to invest some emotinal energy to regain calmness of mind.

- I am very lcuky on mountains; Even More unlucky in cities.

I am flying for Kilimanjaro on 1st july and wish that there are no surprises in air.