Raj National Travels ...
Raj national travels now offers a complete internet based booking (http://www.rajnationalexpress.in/) from any point to any point (on the routes they have services).
But one of the foolish things they seem to be doing is to imitate the Airline business to obsene levels. For e.g. you have to "check in the luggage", "report 30 min prior to the start time" etc. The whole point of traveling by bus - especially between cities such as Mumbai and Pune (distance of about 2 hours) is that you save a lot of time by catching the bus just 5 min before scheduled departure.
And another foolish thing: Because they run off the internet, they don't have mechanism to admit last-minute passengers. Once we were right at there when bus was about to leave (from the last pick-up point in the city), and even though there were sufficient no. of unoccupied seats, the in-charge basically said they can't any more passengers. No - not even "in-house" TC as you have in trains! Isn't that foolish? Basically it shows how the software systems are often built without understanding of real world properly...
The level of sincerity among staff is however quite high. When the service was delayed once, the person in-charge gave factual answers, and also gave appropriate instructions to not to stop for tea break - since we had to catch flight immediately.
In any case, the rates are no less than other buses. The main convenience is that you can book with your credit card (and beware - you may not be able to cancel; the cancellation charges are more than ticket charges - another fooling thing!).
Hope these people get software things right. And most importantly, they should give some respect to most basic aspects of life, and not take us customers for granted.
But one of the foolish things they seem to be doing is to imitate the Airline business to obsene levels. For e.g. you have to "check in the luggage", "report 30 min prior to the start time" etc. The whole point of traveling by bus - especially between cities such as Mumbai and Pune (distance of about 2 hours) is that you save a lot of time by catching the bus just 5 min before scheduled departure.
And another foolish thing: Because they run off the internet, they don't have mechanism to admit last-minute passengers. Once we were right at there when bus was about to leave (from the last pick-up point in the city), and even though there were sufficient no. of unoccupied seats, the in-charge basically said they can't any more passengers. No - not even "in-house" TC as you have in trains! Isn't that foolish? Basically it shows how the software systems are often built without understanding of real world properly...
The level of sincerity among staff is however quite high. When the service was delayed once, the person in-charge gave factual answers, and also gave appropriate instructions to not to stop for tea break - since we had to catch flight immediately.
In any case, the rates are no less than other buses. The main convenience is that you can book with your credit card (and beware - you may not be able to cancel; the cancellation charges are more than ticket charges - another fooling thing!).
Hope these people get software things right. And most importantly, they should give some respect to most basic aspects of life, and not take us customers for granted.
posted by Vinod Kulkarni at
8:16 PM
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