Miami Duck Tour-Beware of Booking Process

[Caribbophile]

Tour itself is nice but wanted to give a heads up on the lying, incompetent people involved in booking. We had planned to go to actual Duck Tour office on James but ended up in a generic tourist office one block over on Washington (which used to be the Duck Tour office). Instead of directing us to the correct office the guy lied & said his was the correct office & he had various locations. I knew it was wrong when he required a cash deposit instead of letting us put it all on the credit card. Since it was only 1 hr until the tour & we wanted to eat first we just booked there. Arrived back at this office at the designated time & the guy walked us over to the official Duck Tour office (still claiming he was a branch of it). Girl at Duck Tour office couldn't find our reservation in computer & claimed the booker didn't phone it in. Accusations & fighting back & forth between Duck Tour office & tour booker; bottom line: tour was full & we had to be on standby hoping for cancellations. Ended up with last 2 seats that were under leaky roof & it was raining so we got soaked the whole trip. Owner told us - after the tour - that he was planning to repair that section. His daughter also processed our payment incorrectly; blamed booking office for entering senior fare on wrong line & she couldn't figure out how to give us a correct receipt; had to go back later for it. All in all, a nice tour had damper put on by dealing with lying & incompetent people in both booking office & Duck Tour office.

[eandj]

A couple years ago we did the same tour. We were called and waved over to some office we were passing on the way to the Ducks main office. After some discussion we figured out they were just booking FOR Ducks and we left and went to the main office. You should have kept walking.

 

We have seen many tour booking groups try all kinds of "tricks" in our travels. Just gotta be skeptical when things don't seem right. Sorry you got treated so badly and your warning to others is smart and helpful. Hope you wrote a letter afterwards and used tripadvisor.com to publish your experience.

[Caribbophile]

A couple years ago we did the same tour. We were called and waved over to some office we were passing on the way to the Ducks main office. After some discussion we figured out they were just booking FOR Ducks and we left and went to the main office. You should have kept walking.

 

We have seen many tour booking groups try all kinds of "tricks" in our travels. Just gotta be skeptical when things don't seem right. Sorry you got treated so badly and your warning to others is smart and helpful. Hope you wrote a letter afterwards and used tripadvisor.com to publish your experience.

 

Thanks for commiserating. We were punchy from having just come off a cruise & we ended up in that particular tour office because the bus driver had pointed it out (as it used to be the Duck tour office). I did complain after the tour and the Duck Tour owner dragged us over to the tour office & got us in the middle of their argument where they each blamed the other for the screw-ups. There were lies & incompetence on the part of both the tourist office & the official Duck Tour office. I did post this same report on trip advisor's Miami forum. I included this forum because like us many stay in Miami a day after their cruise & do these tours.

[Quench]

I did this tour too in April. I went directly to a boat that was waiting to go on tour and they told me what office to go to.

[Quench]

Tour itself is nice but wanted to give a heads up on the lying, incompetent people involved in booking. We had planned to go to actual Duck Tour office on James but ended up in a generic tourist office one block over on Washington (which used to be the Duck Tour office). Instead of directing us to the correct office the guy lied & said his was the correct office & he had various locations. I knew it was wrong when he required a cash deposit instead of letting us put it all on the credit card. Since it was only 1 hr until the tour & we wanted to eat first we just booked there. Arrived back at this office at the designated time & the guy walked us over to the official Duck Tour office (still claiming he was a branch of it). Girl at Duck Tour office couldn't find our reservation in computer & claimed the booker didn't phone it in. Accusations & fighting back & forth between Duck Tour office & tour booker; bottom line: tour was full & we had to be on standby hoping for cancellations. Ended up with last 2 seats that were under leaky roof & it was raining so we got soaked the whole trip. Owner told us - after the tour - that he was planning to repair that section. His daughter also processed our payment incorrectly; blamed booking office for entering senior fare on wrong line & she couldn't figure out how to give us a correct receipt; had to go back later for it. All in all, a nice tour had damper put on by dealing with lying & incompetent people in both booking office & Duck Tour office.

 

Did you see what happened to the Duck Boat in Philly???

[CruisinMommas]

They might have to rethink the whole booking process. One Duck Ride is now sitting at the bottom of the Delaware River. Two passengers are still missing.

I enjoyed the time we spent on The Duck, but right now there are some people who have been put through a great amount of stress. Several factors have caused this, but some will never get over their experience on The Duck Ride.

[Caribbophile]

Did you see what happened to the Duck Boat in Philly???

 

If that had happened before I took mine I probably would have been chicken to book the Duck (no pun intended!)