How to Contact Goibibo support (solved!!)

[RaviAglRaviAgl is verified member.]

Origin of the need to contact customer support​

So, I am enrolled with Goibibo as a customer who books hotels and flights worth Rs 100k per year. This may not be a considerable amount, but in order to lure customers, they automatically enrolled me into their loyalty program (GoTriber SuperStar). In this program, they offer me complementary (or discounted) seat allocation in domestic flights for paid seats with some conditions attached.

Now the issue is that during the booking process, the site offers a paid seat for free. I select it and move on but on the payment page, the site smartly adds back the cost of the seat under Add-ons.

They also provided a direct number to contact them as now I had become a privileged customer. (More on this later). But I cannot talk to anyone on Goibibo.

Perception of Goibibo​

They think their background code (or software) is perfect. So, they ask the user to visit their site for web-help provided online.

Such is their level of confidence that they do not provide a single point of contact such as an email or phone number to talk to anyone (other than a bot). After calling their Helpdesk number, one can keep going round and round in the labyrinth of menu options without getting the option to talk to their customer agent.

As expected, there is nothing much to find in the help section on the site other than what we already know or what is factually displayed on the site while doing a booking.

The harsh reality​

Even Google and Microsoft struggle with bugs in their code. No code is bug free. Errors do creep in due to network latency, operating system incompatibility or hardware issues. All developers (persons who write software or code) understand this reality.

Now, about their direct number. Well, this number allows you to talk to someone only if you are looking for Holiday bookings or International Flights. There is no option for domestic flights and they again direct you to go to their website for online help.

Their site functions according to their algorithms and they made it sure, that no customer can get undue extra benefits even though they may be displayed to the customer.

Sites like Goibibo are probably operating on paper thin margins or maybe even at a cash loss, so customer support is the first place where they decide to cut costs. Managing customer support service does come with a huge manpower cost to maintain, leave alone training, hardware and communications costs.

About the issue​

So, my issue was this –

• Being a GoTiber Superstar, I was entitled to 3 paid seats, which I can take free during an anniversary year.
• I had already taken the benefit of 2 seats earlier, so that leaves me with the entitlement of 1 seat.
• I am booking a return ticket and their system is allowing me to book 2 paid seats for free (showing that I am eligible) but their system is adding that amount back to the booking amount.

What I think caused this error –

• Being a return flight, their system was not probably fine-tuned to handle such rare cases as mine.
• I should have been offered only one paid seat for free and they should not have offered the other seat at all.
• Due to this mess, the system conveniently disallowed my free seat and charged me for it, (without informing me). They already geared up their algorithm so that no customer can take any undue benefit due to a bug in their software.

The Repercussions –

• Due to this bug, I as a user, tried to book the ticket multiple times going back and forth thus wasting my time.
• Finally, I chose to book the ticket after 12 hours.
• I booked the ticket for a cheaper amount using Makemytrip and they lost a booking.

My final way out​

I am a person who dislikes wasting time on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter but I do use Whatsapp for personal communication.

Earlier in 2019, I had planned a trip to Dubai. When trying to book rooms and tickets, I had a few doubts where I needed to get in touch with Hyatt (a popular Chain), Atlantis (another luxury hotel) and City Sight Seeing (as the name suggests) in Dubai.

To my surprise, I had a wonderful experience using Facebook Messenger. All customer support was pretty active on it and I got all my queries answered in a day.

So, I decided to contact Goibibo using Facebook Messenger on their Facebook page. Finally, I found someone to chat with.

The same should be the case with Twitter, but I don’t know about it. I don’t find the personal touch in it and honestly, I have never tried twitter.

What happened in the end​

As already said, I had booked the ticket with Makemytrip. Following up with their trashy customer support did earn me some brownie points.

The support team asked for screenshots which I provided to them. They misunderstood the whole matter and related it with some ticket I had booked earlier. They provided a refund of Rs 150 against that booking.

What I learnt from this​

• Never lose faith. There is always a way out.
• Most customer support comprises of idiots. You never know if your query will be answered. Even if it will be answered, it may not be be the proper solution you were looking for.
• Why not put it up on your site that you have live support on social media! Millions of bucks spent to design a website and such a basic thing is gone amiss!!

Hit a Like, if you enjoyed this!!

Thanks,

Ravi.

 

[Tejo]

Origin of the need to contact customer support​

So, I am enrolled with Goibibo as a customer who books hotels and flights worth Rs 100k per year. This may not be a considerable amount, but in order to lure customers, they automatically enrolled my into their loyalty program (GoTriber SuperStar). In this program, they offer me complementary (or discounted) seat allocation in domestic flights for paid seats with some conditions attached.

Now the issue is that during the booking process, the site offers a paid seat for free. I select it and move on but on the payment page, the site smartly adds back the cost of the seat under Add-ons.

They also provided a direct number to contact them as now I had become a privileged customer. (More on this later). But I cannot talk to anyone on Goibibo.

Perception of Goibibo​

They think their background code (or software) is perfect. So, they ask the user to visit their site for web-help provided online.

Such is their level of confidence that they do not provide a single point of contact such as an email or phone number to talk to anyone (other than a bot). After calling their Helpdesk number, one can keep going round and round in the labyrinth of menu options without getting the option to talk to their customer agent.

As expected, there is nothing much to find in the help section on the site other than what we already know or what is factually displayed on the site while doing a booking.

The harsh reality​

Even Google and Microsoft struggle with bugs in their code. No code is bug free. Errors do creep in due to network latency, operating system incompatibility or hardware issues. All developers (persons who write software or code) understand this reality.

Now, about their direct number. Well, this number allows you to talk to someone only if you are looking for Holiday bookings or International Flights. There is no option for domestic flights and they again direct you to go to their website for online help.

Their site functions according to their algorithms and they made it sure, that no customer can get undue extra benefits even though they may be displayed to the customer.

Sites like Goibibo are probably operating on paper thin margins or maybe even at a cash loss, so customer support is the first place where they decide to cut costs. Managing customer support service does come with a huge manpower cost to maintain, leave alone training, hardware and communications costs.

About the issue​

So, my issue was this –

• Being a GoTiber Superstar, I was entitled to 3 paid seats, which I can take free during an anniversary year.
• I had already taken the benefit of 2 seats earlier, so that leaves me with the entitlement of 1 seat.
• I am booking a return ticket and their system is allowing me to book 2 paid seats for free (showing that I am eligible) but their system is adding that amount back to the booking amount.

What I think caused this error –

• Being a return flight, their system was not probably fine-tuned to handle such rare cases as mine.
• I should have been offered only one paid seat for free and they should not have offered the other seat at all.
• Due to this mess, the system conveniently disallowed my free seat and charged me for it, (without informing me). They already geared up their algorithm so that no customer can take any undue benefit due to a bug in their software.

The Repercussions –

• Due to this bug, I as a user, tried to book the ticket multiple times going back and forth thus wasting my time.
• Finally, I chose to book the ticket after 12 hours.
• I booked the ticket for a cheaper amount using Makemytrip and they lost a booking.

My final way out​

I am a person who dislikes wasting time on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter but I do use Whatsapp for personal communication.

Earlier in 2019, I had planned a trip to Dubai. When trying to book rooms and tickets, I had a few doubts where I needed to get in touch with Hyatt (a popular Chain), Atlantis (another luxury hotel) and City Sight Seeing (as the name suggests) in Dubai.

To my surprise, I had a wonderful experience using Facebook Messenger. All customer support was pretty active on it and I got all my queries answered in a day.

So, I decided to contact Goibibo using Facebook Messenger on their Facebook page. Finally, I found someone to chat with.

The same should be the case with Twitter, but I don’t know about it. I don’t find the personal touch in it and honestly, I have never tried twitter.

What happened in the end​

As already said, I had booked the ticket with Makemytrip. Following up with their trashy customer support did earn me some brownie points.

The support team asked for screenshots which I provided to them. They misunderstood the whole matter and related it with some ticket I had booked earlier. They provided a refund of Rs 150 against that booking.

What I learnt from this​

• Never lose faith. There is always a way out.
• Most customer support comprises of idiots. You never know if your query will be answered. Even if it will be answered, it may not be be the proper solution you were looking for.
• Why not put it up on your site that you have live support on social media! Millions of bucks spent to design a website and such a basic thing is gone amiss!!

Hit a Like, if you enjoyed this!!

Thanks,

Ravi.

Is this post or a discussion thread?

@RaviAgl

 

[RaviAglRaviAgl is verified member.]

Is this post or a thread?

@RaviAgl

An article or a journal (you may call it as you like).

Just for information purposes.

Thanks!!