Consumer Redressal

1. I, Rajnish Kumar Jain had a flight ticket booked for Flight number M9WKLG, Air Vistara IN (operated by TATA SIA Airlines Ltd.) for my daughter Ms. Tanvi Jain, on March 31st 2020. Schedule to departure time 11:30 am from Bangalore to Delhi. Enclosed a copy of the flight ticket for your reference 2. I had contacted the official customer services through email on March 13th 2021 at 10:31 am for the “Refund of Flight cancellation during Covid-19”. The customer service sent an email to me on March 15th 2021 at 5:27 PM stating that they are processing the full refund of INR 3,461/- with an incentive amount of INR 234/-. The email also contained a form requiring the bank details of my clients. 3. On March 16th 2021 at 9:35 am, the very next day, I sent the email giving all the bank details and the copy of the cancelled cheque for the refund completion. On the very same day i.e. March 16th 2021 at 12:28pm the customer service sent another email confirming the details sent by my client and informing my client that the refund process will take 10-12 working days. 4. On April 2nd 2021, I sent the first reminder for the refund initiation which wasn’t credited to my account. On April 6th 2021, stated the same as part of second remainder. On April 14th 2021 I sent the third reminder regarding the refund initiation process. Finally on April 18th 2021, A full one month since there last email, the customer service sent an email to me informing me that my case forwarded to finance team and that it would take another 10-15 working days to complete the refund process. However on June 4th 2021, I sent another email informing that it has been 7 weeks since the initial plea for refund initiation and amount has not been credited yet. 5. In further emails, the customer team of Air Vistara IN continuously dodged my emails, citing technical jargon without any proper merit. The customer service agent continued telling me that this has been forwarded to the finance team and I should wait for the refund to be credited and that they would require more time to complete the refund initiation. As of this legal notice, it has been over 6 months, I am yet to receive the refund amount that is owed to me. 6. On September 20th 2021 at 8:20pm I received an email from customer service of Air Vistara stating that the refund initiated against UTR number SIN15905Q0329228 , that I should contact my bank regarding the refund. I contacted my bank, HDFC bank ltd, stating that the refund amount does not reflect in my account. The bank noted that they have not received any funds in respect to the UTR number provided by Air Vistara. 7. According to the Judgment by the Supreme Court in the W.P.(C)D.NO.10966 OF 2020 it was stated that: “If a passenger has booked a ticket during the first lockdown period (from 25th of March to 14 of April, 2020) and the airline has received payment for booking of the air ticket during the first lockdown period for travel during the same period, for both domestic and international air travel and refund is sought by the passenger against that booking being cancelled, the Airline shall refund the full amount collected without levy of cancellation charge. The refund shall be made within a period of 2-3 weeks from the date of request of cancellation.” With reference to the judgment by the Supreme Court, the airline was supposed to initiate the refund but sadly in our case it’s been more than 6 months which has caused me severe grievance. 8. In light of all that is stated herein above, I hereby call upon Your Airlines to forthwith pay me a sum of INR 54,461 towards the ticket costs; a sum of INR 3,461 for ticket amount ; INR 50,000 (Fifty Thousand) for the mental agony suffered due to severe delay and Air Vistara making false statements of having made the refund, harassment and trauma suffered by me and my minor daughter; an amount towards legal fees / costs may be included if I have to take the matter further in Court/s.