Like the travelling newbie I was, I was herded into a travel agency on Connaught Place and soon found myself singing up to a flight to Srinagar, Kashmir to visit a homestay there. They were pushy, but the price wasn't bad so I went along with it.

I eventually booked a travel package of transport and hotels across northern/mid India with a separate company I was introduced to through my host. I cancelled this trip in May, and have been fighting ever since to get my money back. Hundreds of emails, dozens of internal calls and various broken promises for deadlines of returning the money, I have still yet to see my money.

I have since discovered that all the individuals and companies I met are all closely related, using various fronts and fake surnames and people to distance the money from the client. A person I met in Kashmir staying at the homestay had an even worse experience with them. Here are a list of names and companies to avoid:

Imran Jeelani / Teli https://www.facebook.com/imran.jeelani.33

Ashraf Jeelani / Teli https://www.facebook.com/ashraf.jeelani.7?fref=ts

Sameer Patloo

Expedia India Tours www.expediaindiatours.com

Western Himalayan Adventures www.western-himalayan-adventures.150m.com

Kashmir Holiday Trip http://www.kashmirholidaytrip.com

If you have any questions, please email me and hopefully I can help


*UPDATE*

So Sameer of Expedia India Tours actually replied to me! He seems to have ignored all my emails but this post on the Thorntree forums got his attention.

However, he was pretty unhelpful but took the time to claim Expedia India Tours has "the best services in India" in the same sentence he tells me to accept my mistake of doing business with him

Here's the link if you're interested : http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2262317

Stay safe travelling, chaps - do your research and don't be a chump like I was!