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Once I
arrived to Egypt, I was to contact their agent in
Egypt to get my ticket to Saudi Arabia.
Knowing that I paid for everything in full before
I left the USA, I thought there should be no
problem, yet I was a little anxious to make sure I
had the ticket in my hands ahead of time.
This agency in Egypt "Grand Egypt
Travel" located in Hiliopolis - 45 El Hegaz
Street is owned by Magdy El Hawary & his wife
Dr. Salwa. I am not too sure what is she a doctor of,
whatever it is she is now a travel agent.. and if
I may say so, yet another incompetent, deceiving
and lying travel Agent and I will go into details
to show what I mean a little later.
This Dr. Salwa said that the tickets were being
arranged but not ready yet. She will be traveling
to Saudi Arabia to accompany an
Egyptian Hajj group and I can contact another
person there in a couple of days to get my
tickets. Couple of days later, I called to
make sure the tickets were there and I got the
green light .. so I rushed to their office in
"Heliopolis" coming from Madinet El
Mohandessien" ... If you are not familiar
with these cities, it is about at least 1 - 1 1/2
hour drive. I arrived at their office to
learn that whoever told me that the tickets were
ready was wrong and that there were no tickets!!
The tickets could not be issued, because they
were not paid for. His exact words were "we
have been asking Mohamed Elsherbini to
send us the money, but he never did". My common
reaction was in a form of a question, "what do you
mean he did not pay for the ticket, are you saying
he scammed us?" The answer was, I don't know go ask
him if you can find him. He is already in Madinah
and we have been calling his "mobile" no
answer, his office in the USA also has only an
answering machine.
With our plane, scheduled for departure the
following day, he insisted that we can only get
the ticket, if we pay for them right there. They
do not accept credit cards and LE 4,150.00 must be
paid in cash. With the clock ticking and they
close at 5:00 pm, I had to take a taxi to drive me
home in Mohandessien to get the money, wait for me
and take me back to Heliopolis before they closed.
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