We were abandoned by Cruising Excursions!!!

I sent this letter to Cruising Excursions immediately after our horrible experience with this tour company. This was a nightmare. Read for yourself. And, the response was worse. They stalled, delayed and, several weeks later offered us our money back, as a "gesture of goodwill".

All the rest of our private tours throughout the British Isles were exceptionally good!

To : Cruising Excursions

Re : Booking Reference -

Date : June 3, 2015

Our tour, scheduled for Guernsey proved to be a disaster. It was our first tour for this sailing, and our first visit to Guernsey. We tendered in from the Royal Princess and were directed to your bus. It was 8:50am. Your man checked his list. We saw our names and we were actually on the top of his sheet.

We went onto the bus and there were no seats available. He was very annoyed and said people who were not on his list boarded the bus. That's why our seats were gone.

Your man then informed us that a car for us was on its way. It would be there by 9:30am. We waited patiently on the pier.

When no car arrived by 9:50am, we began to search for your man. He was nowhere to be found.

I phoned your emergency number and was informed she would phone us right back. We waited fifteen minutes. She never phoned back. I phoned again and spoke to Charlie. We were given your customer service email address to send for our refund. Your company was inept, unhelpful and downright rude.

A nearby taxi driver witnessed our incident with your man and he offered to assist us.. He said he could call for another taxi for us and he would collect the charges from your company.

That car showed up at 10:30 am. He advised us he would take us but we would have to pay his fee because he wasn't sure you would pay him.

We were stranded.

Along came Isabel de Menezes from "Visit Guernsey". She had witnessed everything that had occurred for the past two hours. She informed us that she would report this to the Guernsey Tourism Board. She quickly made arrangements for us for a taxi. It was a miracle with all the tourists ashore.

We finally left on a very abbreviated taxi tour. We did not go to Guernsey Pearl. We did not go into a German bunker, nor the hospital. We did not see the Castle etc.,etc,etc...... We were just driven around, without description of the history etc..You absolutely ruined our day in Guernsey!

We expect a refund of our $205.92. We paid you in good faith many months ago.

Please advise us as to when we will receive our funds.

Signed by

Sheila -----

Herb--------

So --- that's what happened. Don't use Cruising Excursions! They are not honorable.

Sheila and Herb

Many thanks for your response.

I am very interested in the response. At the moment it seems a one-sided story.

I came across this company when planning our Baltic cruise. I checked them out on Trip Adviser and found some bad reviews. They have a habit of not showing up for tours and claim the client didn't. Also they are not very responsive to refunding your money.Sorry you had a problem and good luck with dealing with them.

Before i book anything either with them or another company i want to be certain of the service i will get. I have seen a mixed bag of reviews about this company. ?

They're not a tour operator, they are just a reseller.

Very true they are a broker as such. But the same applies to cruise companies.

Very true they are a broker as such. But the same applies to cruise companies.

Yes, they're an agency rather than an operator.

Yes, same as cruise lines.

But altho I've heard of plenty of unsatisfactory ship's tours I've never heard of any problems getting refunds from them. And the same should apply to other agencies such as cruisingexcursions, they have much the same bulk-business clout as cruise lines and they hold the money until after the tour, so they can easily with-hold it from the operator & refund it to the customer. That is, in theory at least, an advantage of using a middle-man.

Problems with a tour are almost always the fault of the operator, hence mixed reviews for agencies like cruisingexcursions.

But they do seem to have more problems than other agencies such as Viator or City Discovery.

And where a refund is clearly the least that should be expected, their prevarication is unforgiveable. That's the sort of experience that seriously dents the reputation of an agency.

Refunding "as a gesture of goodwill" is a legal thing, it means that their offer isn't an acknowledgement of liability should you want to seek further recompense for breach of contract. Phraseology that covers the supplier, but inflames customers.

Sorry to hear of your experience, BC, and I realise that the fee for the tour is only a tiny part of your disappointment. :(

JB :)