Comprehensive Review of Sara and Hajj 2011
Hajj Ratings for 2011
Inshaa Allah, I will break my review into two parts, Summary and Detailed. Since my detailed review is really detailed, I will start with the summary of the review for those future hajjis (people who performed hajj), who want to know my review in a hurry. For those who want to know more details, I urge you to read the detailed review as well.
SUMMARY REVIEW: in Summary, I don’t recommend this company to any hajjis for many reasons. This is a company that will promise you a lot more than it will deliver.in short, their management is messed up, they care about you until they get your money and then they don’t deliver fully while in hajj, their leader (Imam Zameer) does not care to fix anything once you are there, their group leaders are very incompetent and rude, the company does few fake/illegal things such as faking the Meningitis shot certificate, and many other things. If it wasn’t for my intervention along with few other brothers, things could have been a lot worse. I am thankful to Allah (sw) that he gave me the opportunity to help those hajjis, who were in stress because of Sara’s faults. If that is not convincing enough for you, then please read my detailed review below. For detailed reviews of this company, go to Hajjratings.com and check out reviews from the hajjis from 2011.
DETAILED REVIEW: I have struggled with the concept of complaining about a hajj company after I am done with hajj. I don’t want to ruin my hajj spirit, but upon consulting with one of the leading imams in al-Madina, he told me that as Muslims, we need to enjoin what is good and forbid what is wrong and if a Muslim sees wrong, then he/she needs to report it and expose it, or even try to stop it, as prophet Mohamed (saw) told us “whomever of you see wrong, then change it with your hand, and if you can’t, then with your tongue and if you can’t then with your own heart, and that is the least of faith”. So, here goes my detailed review:
1. People were promised top services from Sara Int. That the company did not deliver. These fake promises included luxury transportations, guidance during the rituals of hajj, daily communications, group activities led by group leaders, etc.
2. There was no apparent leadership of any sort during the hajj. Imam Zameer is the owner of this company and is supposed to be the leader of the trip. But, he was totally absent during the hajj. Whenever there were problems (and there were so many problems), he simply would not get involved, would disappear or would provide the most radical answers that do not solve anything. Imam Zameer provided so-called “group leaders”, who did not lead, did not provide any guidance and were so much lost, much more than the hajjis themselves!!! When asked, some of the group leaders explained that they are new with the company, did not get any sort of training, or were asked to be leaders so that they get a free package (as a way to pay the company for the favor of a free hajj)!!! Some group leaders were also very rude and impatient with the hajjis. This is Imam Zameer’s fault as he is the one that hired these incompetent people and were supposed to train them.
3.in the few times that imam Zameer answered the hajjis complains, he basically blamed it all on the Hajj Ministry of Saudi Arabia. Good move, but that does not explain that there were NO buses provided anytime people wanted to go from the villa (in Azzazya) to the haram (the Kabba), OR why Sara Int. Did not answer their emergency phone number, OR why did people have to wait in the airport for very long times (anything between 10-18 hours) coming to or leaving Saudi Arabia, OR why did people have to take 11-13 hours trip from Mekka to Medina (when it is supposed to take only 6-8 hrs), etc. Etc.
4.in Mina (where people do the Jamarat) there were many problems. (A) The tents in Mina were in bad condition, nothing as VIP as promised by Sara Int. (B) There were two tents for men and only one for women. All three tents were over booked with more people than mattresses, or pillows, or blankets. (C) At least a group of 12 women slept few nights “outside” the women tent because there was simply no space for them!!! There were around 24 women inside the women’s tents who were just sitting on the floor with no mattresses or anything. The situation in the women’s tent was horrible, until I and few other hajjis complained to imam Zameer and suggested for him ways to improve the situation with the woman’s tent. We, the men hajjis also donated many of our mattresses, pillows, blankets to the women, and that is why we reduced the suffering of the woman in their tent. (D) People got sick accordingly and the living situation was bad at some times. (E) The bathrooms in Mina kept getting worse, and by the end of the Mina days, the bathrooms were simply in a horrible shape (broken and not working). This mina tents’ situation is not the ministry of hajj problem, it is imam Zameer and Sara’s problem. Sara should have instructed their employees (there were many young kids working for Sara around, not doing much at a lot of times), to clean the bathrooms, arrange the tents, get pillows/blankets/mattresses, and all the other stuff that were missing.
5.in Azzazya, which is a city outside of Mekka, men shared rooms and women shared rooms. Many people who were promised a room with 2 – 3 people were faced with 5-8 people in the room! Again, Imam Zameer did not lift a finger to solve this problem.
6. We were originally promised (by Sara Int.) VIP buses to take us back and forth from the haram. However, in Azzazya, anytime someone wanted to go to the haram (al-Kabba), he/she basically was on his own. On less than five occasions, small buses were provided to take us from the Villa in Azzazya to the haram (but not the other way). On the majority of occasions there were no buses of any sort from/to the haram. People had to take taxis which cost around 100 Saudi Ryal (around $30) PER PERSON per trip!!! This simply meant that hajjis spent a lot of money on taxis, when we were originally promised by Sara Int. VIP buses for travel!!!
7. One of the requirements of the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Hajj is that hajjis MUST take a Meningitis immunization to protect them during the Hajj. When we were preparing the different documents for the Hajj, we were told (by Abdul Rahim, who works for Sara Int.) that Sara Int. Would provide a FAKE certificate (for $50) that proved that the hajji took a Meningitis shot, and that it was OK if we don’t take the actual shot and just go with the certificate. My wife and I did not fall for that (fearing for our safety) and actually took the shot from a doctor who provided us with the certificate. When we received our passports, there was a fake certificate already attached that indicated that we took the shot! We then replaced the existing fake certificate with the real one that we obtained from the doctor. My understanding is that some hajjis actually went with the fake certificate, trusting Sara Int.’s direction. This is just simply illegal on Sara Int. Part and very dangerous as those hajjis could have contracted a serious disease.
8. During the days of the Jamarat stoning, the route to the Jamarat and back to our tents was complicated and the way the Saudi government organized it, made it very frustrating for people to find their way back in reasonable time. People spent on the average 3-5 hours or more, after being done with the Jamarat stoning. Sara Int. As the organizers for this trip did NOT provide any sort of guidance that knew how to go back to the tents. The group leaders were as confused and lost as the normal hajjis. On our first day of Jamarat stoning, a small group of us (5, including an old couple) were lost for five hours and the old woman (from the old couple) collapsed and ended up going to hospital. On another occasion, we got a call from one lady that could not find Sara Int.’s tents and ended up in Dar El Salam (another hajj travel company that is competitive to Sara Int.) and when I informed Imam Zameer of the situation, he did not do anything about it and continued some discussion he was having with one of his staff. That woman ended up getting help from Dar El Salam, who made the effort to take her back to our tents!!! Sara Int. As experienced hajj travel group should provide guidance to hajjis so that they get back to their tents easily and don’t suffer these types of very tiring situations.
9. On the day of the Muzdaliffa and once we “approached” Muzdaliffa, we were asked by the group leaders Abdul Rahim and Rafi to get off the bus. Next, we walked for around an hour or so, and then we were told that we should sleep on the street or under a bridge next to tons of buses, which were emitting so many fumes!!! Many older people and women had to leave early (midnight as Sunnah allows them to leave for necessity) to go back to Mina, as the situation with all the buses’ fumes was just not tolerable for them, if not dangerous. Those who stayed around had to try to sleep or hang in there with all the fumes around. My wife, I and three other couples had to walk a bit further than the proposed spot from Sara Int. To find a place were there were fewer fumes. After fajr, when hajjis were supposed to leave to Mina, there was no service from Sara Int. Of any sort. During the night and having seen all the horrible work by Sara Int. I took charge of the trip back to Mina and talked to many of the hajjis about how we can go back to Mina. At Fajr time, we woke up everyone, prayed Fajr and walked to the train station, where we took the train back to Mina. You can see again the very poor management of Sara Int. Where they did not select a suitable place for our group to sleep while in Muzdaliffa, and did not organize the trip back to Mina. I was told, and I am not sure how accurate this is, that Sara Int. Should have made an early trip (the day before going to Muzdaliffa) and secured a spot in a field away from the street and the buses, so that we have a place to stay overnight. This did not happen.
10. To travel from Mina to Arafat, we were promised a “train service” because we were the “deluxe” group. What we did not know was that we had to climb, at least, 500-steps stairs (I did not count them, but it surely felt like an endless number of stair steps) all the way up to the train platform. Even though there were escalators and elevators around, the soldiers told us that we cant use them!!! While climbing that monstrous stair trip, many of us stopped to catch their breath, and many of us thought we won’t make it. I believe it is through the grace and favor of Allah (sw) only that no one died during that day. The other groups which were not deluxe (called standard according to Sara Int.) took the buses. I don’t know of their experience, but I would just think that NOT taking a 500-steps stairs was a relief for them. My question to Sara Int. Is: how on earth could you not know about these stairs and how could you not know that there we will be denied escalators or elevators of any sort, and how can you allow this to happen when someone could have died of heart attack!!! It is not unreasonable to expect that Sara Int. Should have known and prepared for this un-deluxe treatment before the trip.
11. No Arabic guide was provided in a country where literally very few number of officials (soldiers, officers, hajj organizers) speak any English. Since I spoke Arabic, I took charge many times helping the hajjis with their matters and talking to Saudi officials. The actual group leaders such as Abdul Rahim or Rafi did not speak any Arabic and were more or less a spectator when any sort of discussion happened between me and the Saudi officials, as if they are just hajjis and not workers for the company. The least we expected them to do is to get involved and give me (or the other Hajji who spoke Arabic) directions to say it back to the Saudi officials.
12. We were promised communication on a daily basis. However, in Azzazya villas, Sara Int. Office was closed most of the time, and when open, most of the staff was not around.in Mina tents, you could find Imam Zameer only few times and when he was available he would not communicate anything to people about the next steps. People were kept in the dark and always guessing what is next!!! You don’t go to hajj every day, and you would expect daily communication from the Hajj agency/operator you are going with to tell you what is expected on the following day and what to watch for, from both a religious and logistic perspective.
13. When we first arrived to Saudi Arabia and after staying more than 9 hours in the airport for no apparent reason (and provided a mediocre meal after more than 7 hours stay), we began our trip from Jeddah airport to the Azzazya villas. We stopped more than 8 times to check with some local offices regarding which hajjis belong to which office!!! The system in Saudi Arabia is that the hajjis’ passports have to stay with so-called “Motawaaf”. The group leaders did not explain this situation or the system, but after we, the hajjis dug into the reason for all the stops, we came to understand the system and most hajjis were ok with it from that moment on. What was NOT OK or understood was why we had to stop by all these offices! Also, each time we stopped by an office, none of the group leaders in our bus (two group leaders) were interested to lift a finger or help or capable of helping. Since I speak Arabic I jumped in to help. Every time we stopped by any office, there seemed to be an argument and discussion around which hajjis on this bus belong to which office, which shouldn’t, etc. The group leaders did not do anything to resolve this, and I had to go back and forth following the driver to the office, talking to the office people and try to resolve the issue. After countless hours and stops, we were able to resolve this mysterious issue!!!
14. Another issue related to our trip from Jeddah airport to the Azzazya villas. The bus driver got lost for a while, and was trying to find his way to the villas. The group leaders in our bus (Abdul Raheem and Rafi) did not know what to do, did not know how to get directions and were as lost as everyone else. Abdul Raheem was so lost and only got on the phone after I asked him to call the local office to find out if they can help or talk to the driver. It was only after the last office that we stopped by (read point 13 above for the offices issue) that the office people told the driver how to go to the Azzazya villas.
15. No one was provided buses from Mina back to the Azzazya villas and most people had to walk or rent taxis. We had to walk for about an hour. This was ok with me and my wife and one other hajji, because we were just so happy we were done with Mina/al-Jamarat and all the loss we incurred during the Jamarat stoning days (see point eight above). I understand that this was not ok with some of the hajjis as they were old and tired, and it would have been really nice if they got a bus back to the villas.
16. When travelling from Mekka to Medina, the trip that is supposed to take 6-8 hours, took more than 13 hours. A major reason for our delay was that on our bus there was a bathroom that smelled horrible. The back half of the bus (where we stayed with others) smelled really bad, so we asked the driver to stop and try to clean it. When we stopped, we asked one of the cleaners in a local office to clean the bathroom. He agreed only after offering him money. He spent more than 2 hours cleaning the bathroom, which looked like never been cleaned in its life. After he was done and we resumed driving, in less than 20 mins, we began to smell the same horrible odor again! So, we opened the little window on top of the bus (don’t know what this is called but it is similar to the roof top sliding door in an SUV). Because we opened that window, we all felt a cold breath from the driving and many of us were cold! It was really hard to sleep with the odor and the cold breath and most of us had a horrible trip. Again, remember that Sara Int. Promised VIP buses. This was anything but a VIP bus.
17.in all of our major trips (from the airport to the Azzazya villa, from Mekka to Medina and from Medina to Mekka), the drivers seemed lost or not know the way, the group leaders had nothing to do or contribute to, and of course, imam Zameer was no where to be seen/found.
18. We got blackmailed by one of the bus drivers and Sara Int. Did not do anything about it. When traveling from Medina to Jeddah airport (on the last day before leaving the country), the driver kept asking for money!!! We, the hajjis, gave him money first time out of the kindness of our hearts. However, later on, we were told that the bus ahead of us (who left earlier) was denied entrance to the airport because it arrived early (strange concept from the Jeddah airport). So, we thought let’s ask our driver to stop in one of the rest stops before the airport (so that we don’t have to get stuck like the other bus just outside the airport gates where there were no proper facilities). At that time, our driver asked us “again” for more money and put it in a way that if we don’t give him money, then he wont stop and would just go straight to the airport. Sara Int. Group leader Rafi was us in that same bus and did not do anything about it. Why do the hajjis have to pay for this and not Sara Int. That is organizing all this?
19. Sara Int. Had an Emergency Phone number that was rarely answered! And in the few times that someone answered the emergency call; he did not help, was grumpy and hang up (never to pick up again after).
20.in Arafat, the A/C broke many times and many people were tired. Also, the women were not given enough water or liquids. One of the women told me that they only had one cooler, so I grabbed one of the Sara Int. Young handlers and took a water cooler and took it to the women’s tent. Another time, another woman told me that the A/C is not working and that the tent is closed, so there is no air circulation of any sort. Again, I took the same Sara Int. Young handler and we fixed the front door to the women’s tent so that they can get some air. Again, you see a pattern here where Sara Int. Did not do much when problems arose.
Finally, I hope that my review would help future hajjis know the kind of services they are going to get from this company. I don’t seek fame and Allah (sw) knows that I only seek to help future hajjis and explain the wrong doing by Sara Int. From the source of “amr bil-maroof and nahi an al-monkar” and Allah (sw) knows best.
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