Over three months ago, I cancelled my booking on SpiceJet & Indigo for an onward and return journey to and from Shirdi. A sudden death in the family necessitated the change in plan.
Indigo returned the money in 24 hours. SpiceJet has been sitting on it for more than three months.
I emailed SpiceJet to check the status of the refund. Other than the auto generated reply “We will get back to you within 48 hours,” I received no reply.
When I contacted them on their helpline, I kept getting contradictory responses.
There were two errors in their text (Screenshot B) confirming the refund.
- First, I had booked directly on spicejet.com, so there was no travel agency. I was surprised with their reply.
- Two, there was no refund.
Notice (in the same image) how in just two days after responding that “refund has been processed to your travel agency on Nov 12,” they had changed their position to “refund has been initiated”.
Either one can be true, right?
Wrong! With SpiceJet, both can be false.
After several attempts to remind SpiceJet, when the refund does not reach me, a month later I post my grievance on social media.
A Nodal Officer for SpiceJet emails me stating the refund of INR 12902 has been processed to my card on November 23.
I reply to the Nodal Officer attaching a copy of my credit card statement to prove that no refund has reached my card.
I then receive a reply from another Nodal Officer apologising for the delay and assuring an update at the earliest.
A fortnight later, I got an automated email response thanking me for my patience and assuring they will get back in 3 working days.
3 days later, I got the same response again.
I stopped communicating and decided to wait.
I am still waiting.
What’s wrong with SpiceJet?
There’s a clear dishonesty that’s visible in their response.
Their approach seems to be:
- Don’t refund
- Engage with the customer if he connects, doesn’t matter if you keep giving conflicting responses.
- Short of telling the truth, keep buying time.
Why not be honest with your customer? Why spin a web of lies?
If you have a cash flow problem, share it and provide a date by which the refund will certainly be credited.
But that’s too much to expect from an airline that does not seem to care.
I had paid INR 20,804 when I booked two seats for my mother and self. SpiceJet was anyway deducting almost 40 percent of the total fare and refunding the balance.
Even that has not come through despite multiple attempts to reach them through phone, email and sharing evidence with their Nodal Officer.
Why would a serious player in any business do so? It takes time to build trust but just a moment to lose it. Credibility once lost is hard to recover.
I will certainly never fly SpiceJet again, even if that means paying extra for another airline.
You can decide for yourself. But remember I warned you!
Bon Voyage!
About Me
An international award-winning producer, I have steered over two dozen TV channel launches, rebranding, and refresh projects and produced thousands of hours of content for news and current affairs.
Very frustrating experience. Good you ventilated the issue. Hope you do get your refund soon.