This was horrible! Our driver showed up in a vehicle with a stained seat. We were dropped off at Churchill Downs and the tour was only 20 minutes long when we were told it would be a tour of the entire facility. When we inquired at the front desk to see if there was some sort of mistake we were told we had been booked on the basic tour and it cost only $20.00! That is not what we paid for through trip advisor. We decided to go ahead a look through the museum but our driver texted me and said we have to hurry and leave so or we would not make it to the distillery tour portion in time. So we got back in the car and headed out. After about 15 minutes, we started to wonder where we were going. The driver said nothing and just handed us pamphlets for a distillery. It was not one of the distilleries listed on the website. Also, it was an hour away! we asked the drive what was going on and he didn't respond. We started to get nervous. We followed the route to the distillery on our phones the whole way. We got to the distillery and got checked in. Our driver checked in for the tour as well! We asked him if he was going on the tour too and he nodded yes. We exclaimed "your our driver! you can't drink!". He just shrugged and we said this is not ok! Then we get inside we find out that the tour does not start for another hour! We stopped our driver and said "wait, why did you say we had to hurry or we would be late?" . He replied "we can go to the bar and get some drinks". at that point we decided this was not a safe situation and ran away from him. We found a staff member of the distillery ans asked for help. We explained the situation and he agreed it was weird. We told him we had paid $239.00 each for this tour and he stopped us and said "why? this tour is free". At this point we were sure we were being scammed or something. I texted the tour coordinator and told her all of this and that we were canceling this farce of a tour. She replied"Excuse me? please go to your driver. He is waiting in the parking lot". That made no sense. The driver was in fact, lurking behind a display case and watching us. We asked the staff member if he could help us get away from this creep of a driver and he kindly helped us. The driver took off at this point. In the end, we were scammed out of a lot of money, stranded and had to have a friend come and get us but we were at least safe. Now I'm trying to figure out if I can contact someone to get a refund.
Réponse de l'hôte
Nov 2022
Miss O'Neill-Blair we respect reviews, but it's not necessary to slander and lie in them. As a result of the investigation, the following evidence was uncovered:
1. Your text asking the driver to meet you in Churchill Downs ahead of time; no rush, you requested it earlier.
2.- Send the itinerary before your tour, specifying the hours and tourist spots you will visit (you chose the distillery; in the car, it is impossible not to know what you are going to see).
3.- You discussed the brochure with the driver during the trip
4.- With or without a tour, the distillery forces everyone to check in in order to enter. The driver performs this function to guide you inside the distillery and show you where the tour begins, help you with your purchases in the gift shop and help you with your photos and not to take the tour. You cannot slander the driver if he did not participate in the tour or Taste.
5.- 20 min before the last tour, you send text message requesting cancellation of the tour, refund, and return on your own (You weren't abandoned by the driver)
6.- Both Churchill down and the distillery confirmed that you had checked in and were participating in both tours.
7.- You reported that taking a taxi cost $144 soles (return).
Finally, we will put the evidence as photos on the tour.