I booked this tour through TripAdvisor. I immediately got the email confirmation, but pickup time was not listed. Karma Tours was listed as the tour company so I called. The guy who picked up was extremely rude and said “we’ll call tonight okay”. I asked for a ballpark pickup time and he said “no” and hung up. Not a great first contact experience. I finally get an email 6 hrs later with pickup details.
The next day Hema (driver) picks us up. She immediately thanks us for being tourists, said she was furloughed, tourism is slow, she doesn’t have money, hard to pay bills, etc. Hema is nice, but her personal situation is not what I want to hear on my vacation. Also, she drove recklessly and we were almost in an accident.
We get to Pearl Harbor and she hands us Arizona tickets and tell us to be back at car in 1.5 hrs. I’m thinking ‘WTF aren’t you coming with us, you’re the tour guide right??”
We get back at the car at the designated time and she tell us we’re going back to the hotel, but we’re going to drive past a cemetery, Punchbowl, and some random places. I say “Wait a min, what happened to the rest of the Pearl Harbor tour? This was supposed to be a 6 hr Pearl Harbor tour as stated on TripAdvisor, and these random places are not mentioned on TripAdvisor.” Hema says she’s not a tour guide, only a driver. Apparently she hears many complaints, the last as recently as the day before! She says she understands why we’re mad, she hates her job, understands why we feel cheated, etc., but the owner tells her what to do and she does it as she wants to keep her job. She knows the tour listed on TripAdvisor is misleading, but apparently the owner doesn’t care when she voices her opinion and concerns. I ask her to take us back to the hotel because I want just this experience to end.
On the way back shes drives recklessly, and almost hits another car again!! She ends up giving me the owner’s name and personal phone number. I call him and he starts complaining about how he’s tour guiding 40+ people at that moment, how he’s short staffed, how his days are long, etc. I tell him I’d like a refund and he immediately shuts me down. Hema acknowledges the owner is like that.
I call him again the next day and he hangs up on me after saying “No refund!” A horrible customer experience! Beware of Karma Tours!! You have been warned!