Thursday, June 22, 2023

Paulo Travels, never again!!

Anu and Myself with lot of enthusiam planned a trip to Goa in Febraury, 2007. I thought of booking bus tickets at Paulo Travels. When I went to their office, I was upset with the staff behavior who didnt have slightest of concern for their customers. At the counter, the person was talking to his colleagues and made me wait for 10 minutes for no reason. They were chatting and cracking jokes. Only upon my insistence he issued tickets grumbling. I booked for A/C sleeper.

The day of our journey arrived and we went to catch the Paulo Travels bus. We settled down in our place and felt lack of AC. We thought they may switch on once we start. The bus left the office at Race Course Road at 7.15 PM, 15 minutes late.

Still the AC was not on. When we enquired we were told that it is not AC bus. What a shock we got! They collected Rs. 100 per seat extra, pure day light robbery!

Our problems did not end here. The bus stopped at filthy hotel for dinner. We didnt even step inside the hotel. We just had the snacks we had got with us. Later on we slept hoping to reach Goa at the earliest next morning. However, we were in for a rude shock next morning.

The badly maintained bus broke down at 6 AM next morning. We were still 200 Kms away from Goa. The brakes had jammed. The driver and the cleaner were doing their level best to set it right.

Some passengers realised it would get late and arranged for alternate transportation. We thought its better to wait.

Finally around 7.30 AM, the driver removed the brake drums causing the jam and we set on our journey. After some time, we realised that the the bus was running with just around 25% brake efficiency. Driver was controlling bus by switching gears. We were travelling really slow. By the time we reached Goa it was 3 PM and our scheduled arrival time was 10.30 AM. A cool 4 and half hours late.

Imagine our plight, we travelled in an badly maintained bus for neary 20 hours!
The bus hardly had braking power anything could have happened to its passengers.

My request to you is not to travel in Paulo travels to any place.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

This is Vinod Kumar Gujjula. I have travelled to Goa to Hyderabad recently.

I really had a terrible experience while coming back to Hyderabad from Goa. None of Paulo travels staff had addressed my concerns in a proper way. Before boarding bus I made numerous calls to the allotted bus driver and informed that I will reach the boarding Pick up point in 5 minutes time.

Irrespective of my request Bus left from the boarding point. Even after that I made a call to Paulo executive, they have asked me to go to the other pick up point, and informed the right time is 6.45 PM. I caught a cab and rushed there at 6.40 PM ,though I reached on time bus left at 6.30 PM. I was little panic and again called the executives, this time none answered my call. I chased the bus upto belgaum and catch the bus. This time Paulo travel staff told, seats are allocated to some other guys. This is really terrible. After spending extra 2000 rupees and caught the bus, to my surprise staff told the above thing.

How come you are handling service provider like Paulo Travels. With my bitter experience I am requesting you, please do not encourage Paulo Travels. If possible please take necessary disciplinary steps against them.

Anonymous said...

I traveled from chennai to goa -booked for twelve tyres but got six tyres bus -very bad seating, in which i travelled for 29hours(instead of 24 hours) -very poor comfort (worst) some problem with the 'baloon' near the tyre because of which it didn't cross 65 kmpl througout the travel - halted the bus in bangalore office due to the repair for nearly 2 hours - when asked drivers response were to talk to the management - all pitstops time were reduced becoz of this. on top of all this I came by the same bus and same driver again from goa to chennai. please consider this , they should be answerable to this. PAULO- "fuck no"

Anonymous said...

Well these guys are never gonna change coz of the monopoly of the brand on these routes.Though they take the IST truly as Indo Stretch Time.Well they think people who are traveling to Goa wanna spend much and hit your wallet as soon as you get in the bus. Shockers which you gonna see for first time
1-Blanket have to be bought.
2-Package water has to be bought inside the bus
3-Better to carry some food as the dinner place cleanliness is doubtful
4.Tip for driver as mentioned inside the bus
5.Tip for Cleaner if you have luggage.
6.A/C,U may die asking for it or die of it..depending on ur seats.
7-Unfriendly drivers add to the plight of travellers.

Unknown said...

Hi Guys,

I have plan to travel to Goa from Chennai on June 2014. I had a plan to book in Paulo Travels. But after seeing all this comments and reviews in "MouthShut.Com" , I think I would not prefer this as I am going with my wife.
Thanks for the reviews.

regards
Arun