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Very Bad Experience !!!
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This is my complain about tour # 2-110 (3 days: Solvang - Hearst Castle - San Francisco - Stanford - Yosemite)
This is our first tour with your company and we had a very bad experience, from the beginning of the tour to the end of the tour.
1st bad experience: The bus broke down while we were in Solvang town. Because of this, our trip to Heart Castle had to be cancelled. This is not our fault or the weather condition, but it's Tours4Fun's bad service. It is not fair for us because you provided us with the old, filthy bus without permission to use to restroom the whole 3 days while we're on the bus.; and it's a tour with 8 to 9 hours drive.
2nd Bad Experience: Tours4fun stated on your website that we'd be provided a bus for our tour with restroom, TV and etc. This is not true, It's such a big hassle when the bus driver named George didn't allow any of the customers (including seniors and children) to use the restroom, because the bus would smell very bad for the whole trip. The bus driver even locked the restroom, so none of us could use the restroom. I think tours4fun company should warn the customers on the website before they book their trip about using the restroom on the bus.
3rd bad experience: Your tour guide (Austin) didn't warn the customers to be on time at first, as the result: we were behind the tour plan, (because 2 customers showed up at the bus at 7 am, instead of 6 am) .(If I were the tour guide, I'd leave those 2 customers behind, and call the main office to report the incident without interrupting other people's time. Everyone was very upset about this !!! . Again, we had to wait for another 1/2 hours when 2 other customer showed up late again while we went to Stanford University because they tried to find a rest-room (we're not allow to use the rest-room on the bus).
We'd expect to spend times at least 1 hours each place. But we got to spend only 15 minutes in Palace of the Art, 20 minutes in Stanford , 30 minutes in Lombard St (it took us 15 minutes to walk to Lombard street already, 5 minutes for picture taking, and another 10 minutes to walk back to the bus).
The tour guide told us that we would not have time to spend in China Town, so it was up to us to decide whether to spend $25 each person to join city tour with them or to spend 4 hours in the City Hall by ourselves waiting for them to get back after the city tour with other customers. What kind of tour is this ??? He should have asked the customers first, which tour we wanted to go (China Town or City Tour) !! He could drop us off at China Town and then take other people to SF city tour w/o wasting our time, doing nothing in City Hall for 4 hours.
4th Bad Experience: After 2nd day tour in SF, we headed to Clarion Hotel. This is the worst hotel I've seen in my life. There were blood, stains on the bed sheet and the pillows. There were ants on the bed sheet and table. The air condition smelled really bad when we first turned it on. When I told other travelers about my room, they said they experienced the same things
5th & 6th bad experience: The tour guide named Austin took off before the customers. Every Tour guide is supposed to leave after the customers, and until the bus is empty !!! He wrote down the customer's drop off location lists; gave it to the bus driver named George and took off without telling anyone. I'd not give them $18 for tour guide and bus driver tip for 3 days tour because none of them deserved that.
There were our family of 5 people and other family with 6 people wanted to be drop off at Days Inn location in Fountain Valley, only 2 wanted to be drop off at Fullerton and 2 at Irvine. Instead of dropping us off at Fountain Valley first, the bus driver drove to Fullerton first, then Irvine, and Fountain Valley last. This is what I don't understand: Austin kept saying that the bus driver named George has many years driving experiences but he didn't even know what city is closer and what city is further from LA ??? When my boyfriend told the bus driver that we all wanted to be dropped of at Fountain Valley location first because we were only 2 minutes away, George didn't listen, he kept driving to Fullerton, then Irvine. My boyfriend was very upset; he called the tour guide named Austin to let him about the incident that he had told George, but Austin said that there's nothing he could do. He took our $18 tip per person and didn't even care about the customer after all? Did you know that $18 tip per person per tour were over 15% gratuities tip law ??? It's only required if we have more than 5 person per service in our group.
This is a very bad experience that our group of 5 and other people have with Tours4fun. I don't like the service that your company offered. Thank you for giving my family such a good summer vacation experience !!! I'd like a partial refund because Tours4fun did a very bad job & your service didn't satisfy us at all !!!
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Business's response - on 11/20/2012
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Dear Jessie,
Thank you very much for booking with www.Tours4Fun.com and taking the time to share your thoughts about the 3 day trip you took.
We regret to hear that your scheduled Hearst Castle visit was canceled due to delays caused by mechanical failure. The tour guides often try to extend the sightseeing day to attempt to cover all the visits in the tour’s itinerary in cases of bus breakdowns, but may have to cancel certain highlights in favor of the travelers’ safety and convenience in cases of more major delays. In your case, the tour operator verified to us that you were compensated in the form of a free meal for missing the Hearst Castle visit. More minor delays usually result in an extended sightseeing day where the travelers would check in later into their hotels at the end of the day.
The tours we offer have varying policies regarding use of toilets on the bus. Your group was informed of the tour company’s policy before departure and the tour participants were strongly recommended to refrain from using the bathrooms on the bus unless absolutely necessary to curb any disturbances this can cause and additionally, stops were arranged at rest stops/ areas every 2 hours to allow for bathroom and snack breaks for the travelers. At no point during the tour was the bathroom locked and we apologize if you were told anything that gave you the impression otherwise.
According to the local tour company who arranged the accommodations for the package, 99.5% of their travelers who have stayed at the Clarion have rated the hotel as satisfactory or higher. We were also informed by the hotel that many rooms were still available during your dates of travel, and a change in rooms could have easily been arranged the nights you stayed at the hotel had this been requested of the front desk.
No more than a $6.00 per person per day was collected by the tour guide per traveler per day. Additional payable fees on tour are posted online for the 2-110 tour:
http://www.tours4fun.com/3-day-san-francisco-yosemite-tour.html#pid-110/tab-pricing/
Drop offs are arranged by the driver according to the most efficient route to all drop off destinations and the tour guides and drivers are equally qualified to assist the customers in getting to their final drop off location.
We apologize the you did not have a satisfactory experience on the tour you took, which we believe was been caused by a combination of miscommunication, misunderstanding and a lack of clarification regarding the tour’s details as well as by the delays caused by the tour coach's breakdown. Our offer for your less than satisfactory experience on tour, as specified in our initial reply to the first email you sent to our customer service team still stands. Simply reply back to the email we sent to allow us to credit the offered points to your account. You can contact our customer service team directly at service@tours4fun.com.
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