"I hope Uzbekistan Temir Yollari will conclude." This statement was made by Dutch tourist Tom Grond, also known as Traveltomtom, regarding the recent incident involving bribery and the dismissal of the Afrosiyob train manager. Tom expressed his regret about the situation and shared the circumstances that led to his upgrade from economy class to VIP for a $15 bribe.
In his blog post, Tom explained that he usually does not travel through travel agencies, but this time he decided to use one to plan his trip to Uzbekistan. However, he was disappointed with the services provided by the agency. He mentioned that many of his requests were not fulfilled, and the agency arranged accommodations in random hotels that didn't meet his expectations.
Much of what we asked for did not comply with the plan. We quickly realized that our travel agency did everything possible to save a couple of dollars here and provided us with several random hotels.
The travel agency was also responsible for purchasing tickets for the Afrosiyob high-speed electric train from Samarkand to Tashkent. Tom requested the best tickets for himself and his team, but the agency failed to fulfil this request. Despite his efforts to update the ticket through the Uzbekistan Temir Yollari customer support service, he received no assistance. The problems continued on the day of the trip when he arrived at the station.
Tom described his experience at the Samarkand station, where he spent more than 15 minutes trying to find someone who could help him with the ticket. He even tried offering money to an official cashier or employee to upgrade his ticket to VIP. However, he was unsuccessful in finding the right person. Eventually, people suggested that he approach the conductor on the train and request an upgrade, which he did by giving a $15 bribe. Tom shared this incident on his Instagram account, which has over 500 thousand subscribers.
On October 10, a video about the incident was circulated. Uzbekistan Temir Yollari subsequently announced that the head of the train had been fired on July 10, immediately after the foreign tourist's case became known. Tom made a statement on October 16, expressing his concern that an employee was dismissed due to poor communication and customer service. He called on Uzbekistan Temir Yollari to reflect on their actions and improve their services for foreigners and non-Russian-speaking tourists.
Tom expressed his hope that the Uzbek railway company would learn from this incident and improve its service. He emphasized that if there had been someone at the station who could communicate in English and assist him in obtaining his ticket officially, the situation could have been avoided. He also mentioned that neither Uzbekistan Temir Yollari nor the Uzbek media contacted him for clarification or to seek his reaction.
Despite the incident, Tom urged other tourists not to judge the entire country based on this experience. He stated that he enjoyed travelling in Uzbekistan and plans to visit again. He described the country as amazing and architecturally one of the most interesting in the world.
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