Beware of All Ireland Chauffeur Tours, Waterford

We booked All Ireland Chauffeur Tours for an all-day tour from Waterford, Ireland in August, for a group of 11 people. They required full payment in advance. Unfortunately, our ship could not tender in Waterford due to bad weather. I was not to concerned, since all other tour companies I have used have promptly refunded our money if the ship cannot port. When we returned home, I emailed this company requesting a refund of our 550 euro. They refused, and after negotiating, they did refund about one third of the cost.

Please use caution when considering this tour company. I was so very disappointed with the outcome of this situation.

Margee

That's terrible! If I were you, I would also post your comments on Trip Advisor since many people use that website to get feedback on various travel options.

Cole

I have also posted this review on TripAdvisor.

Margee

Im partly supportive of the tour company. Weve booked many tours with local companies knowing that if the ship doesnt dock we would lose our money. We do so to either save money versus the cruise lines tour or to get a fuller, less busy experience. Obviously the tour company lose out if a ship doesnt dock.

However, unless they made their terms and conditions available before booking that made it clear the cost was non refundable, and that you agreed to that, I would make a claim through my credit card company to initiate a chargeback.

I've been researching private tour companies for my upcoming cruise next June. The first things I look for are their cancellation policy and whether they require payment upfront, both deal breakers for me. On the website of all Ireland Chauffeur Tours, it clearly states that they are not liable for delays or cancellations from third parties and they require full payment 4 weeks prior. Maybe you can file a claim with your trip insurance if you had it?

I just would like a clarification of which company you had a problem with. You stated All Ireland Chauffeur Tours. We used Ireland Chauffeur Travel in Cashel last year in both Waterford and Dublin. We had a wonderful experience but we did have to pay for both tours in full in advance. I would not want the wrong company to get a bad rap.

Janice

I was one of the 11 on the private tour in Waterford. It wasn't our fault that the ship couldn't tender into port. As far as I am concerned, this tour should have been paid back in full to our group.

We have never prepaid any private tours on our 39 cruises except for ones in the British Isles. We were very leery doing this prepayment and now we know why! All Ireland Chauffeur Tours required full payment before the tour while others only needed a small deposit.

Again, we don't recommend anyone using All Ireland Chauffeur Tours!!

We booked All Ireland Chauffeur Tours for an all-day tour from Waterford, Ireland in August, for a group of 11 people. They required full payment in advance. Unfortunately, our ship could not tender in Waterford due to bad weather. I was not to concerned, since all other tour companies I have used have promptly refunded our money if the ship cannot port. When we returned home, I emailed this company requesting a refund of our 550 euro. They refused, and after negotiating, they did refund about one third of the cost.

 

Please use caution when considering this tour company. I was so very disappointed with the outcome of this situation.

 

Margee

I'm very sorry this happened to you, but particularly since your large group was giving the tour operator a great deal of money in advance, did you not ask beforehand what the refund policy was if the ship could not tender? That's an awful lot of money you handed over without asking (if you didn't ask). There's always a chance a ship might miss a port for any number of reasons, but particularly since this was a tender port, weather becomes an even bigger factor.

I agree that reputable tour companies ought to have a policy of refunding any pre-paid sums if a ship can't make the port, but you can't assume what anyone's policy is. It's very important whenever committing any money up front (be it for a hotel reservation, a cruise, or a shore excursion) to know the vendor's policies for cancellation or any other circumstance that could cause you to miss whatever it is you have paid for or guaranteed by credit card.

I hope you have travel insurance that will cover your loss.

I was one of the 11 on the private tour in Waterford. ... We were very leery doing this prepayment and now we know why! All Ireland Chauffeur Tours required full payment before the tour while others only needed a small deposit.

 

Did someone put a gun to your head to make you book with this company and pay over all that money? Did you just pay over money without ever asking what would happen if you couldn't tender? You said you were "leery doing this prepayment." Why not ask their refund policy?

Thanks for all the feedback. Of course, we should have known about the cancellation policy. Lesson learned.

We will still do private tours, since all our others have been wonderful.

We realize that problems happen, and I am trying not to feel any worse/stupider than I do now. This was a learning experience for me. I was very, very upset for 2 days, but have decided to chalk this up to a learning experience.

Margee

Thanks for all the feedback. Of course, we should have known about the cancellation policy. Lesson learned.

 

We will still do private tours, since all our others have been wonderful.

 

We realize that problems happen, and I am trying not to feel any worse/stupider than I do now. This was a learning experience for me. I was very, very upset for 2 days, but have decided to chalk this up to a learning experience.

 

Margee

I'm sure it was a lesson learned for other people too. Sorry this happened to you. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for all the feedback. Of course, we should have known about the cancellation policy. Lesson learned.

 

We will still do private tours, since all our others have been wonderful.

 

We realize that problems happen, and I am trying not to feel any worse/stupider than I do now. This was a learning experience for me. I was very, very upset for 2 days, but have decided to chalk this up to a learning experience.

 

Margee

As I said, I'm sorry this happened to you. It was good of you to come on and help others.

I agree with you about private tours -- definitely worth taking!

Non refundable deposits are common in the UK (I don't know about Ireland). Demanding full payment up front is rare, and keeping more than any lost profit would probably be illegal.

I was one of the 11 on the private tour in Waterford. It wasn't our fault that the ship couldn't tender into port. As far as I am concerned, this tour should have been paid back in full to our group.

You surely aren't implying that it was All Ireland Tours' fault? There's certainly no case to answer for getting all your money back, because you arranged to have a mini bus with driver for the day, and the driver would still need to be paid, and they may have turned down other work that couldn't be recouped.

Non refundable deposits are common in the UK (I don't know about Ireland). Demanding full payment up front is rare, and keeping more than any lost profit would probably be illegal.

Certainly not illegal. A contract was made between 11 passengers and All Ireland Tours. The tour company did all they could to fulfil the contract, and the reason the contract wasn't carried out to plan was because the passengers didn't turn up. Ergo, the company fulfilled its side of the bargain and has no legal requirement to give any money back.

As someone pointed out above, travel insurance is the remedy. Though unless they had a zero-excess policy, it probably won't be worth the effort.

When I first started cruising in Europe (about 6 years ago), I was dumbfounded at the business model most private tour companies used: take a reservation, at best ask for a credit card number but take no deposit, get payment at the end of the tour.

I can't possibly imagine how those companies survive on this model. Its up to the individual to decide whether they can live with the terms set forth by the tour company. I can't blame the tour companies for trying to make a living.

Hi Margeecruiser-

How soon did you know you wouldn't be able to tender in Waterford? I wonder if you were able to contact Ireland Chauffer Tours as soon as you knew you wouldn't be making port? If they had to pay their people and send a van to meet your group I do understand why only a partial refund. OTOH, a company that specializes in tours for cruisers should be aware of weather problems, know there are times that ships cannot tender, and clearly spell out their policy for refunds or not in such cases.

Essentially, what is being said here is that all the risk for losing money should be on the vender. None on the people contracting for the service. If, for whatever reason, you don't make it to the pick up location, and the vender loses money, oh well, not my problem. Give me all my deposit back, even if the vender showed up, incurring the cost of the driver/guide, gas, etc.

Sounds fair to me...:confused:

We just cruised Alaska and booked private tours. We had to prepay all to them !!

Question for the OP: did you have an alternative port as a substitute or was the day spent at sea? I am assuming at sea.

The first time we went to Waterford, we were scheduled to tender at Dunmore East but had to dock at Belview. Just curious if your entire day was spent at sea (this happened to us once when we were supposed to visit Scrabster).

Sorry this happened!

Yes, we had a sea day. On other cruises, if the ship did on tender, the tour companies refunded our money. In fact, the refund was posted that very day. I expected this to be the norm. If we had been able to tender, but failed to show up, then no refund would be expected. How do so many other reputable tour companies manage this issue? The must have a business model whereby they have insurance or build in cost of lost business risk into their pricing.

To me, this is a business decision. Proper customer relations would have been to clearly spelled out their policy of no refunds if the ship could not tender because of bad weather. The refund policy was vague about "third party" causing failure to appear. Plain language and having this spelled out would have been better. Other tour vendors say loud and clear, "this tour is completely non-refundable "

Margee