We went to whale watching with my husband and everything was going ok. We spotted a Minke whale very close and we followed her for a while. We felt like it was hard to follow the whale because the boat kind of zig zag around the whale so it was hard to figure where the whale was going to come out again, so we think that the best idea was to sail parallel to the whale...anyway that was just an additional suggestion for them. The bad part was they had a mechanical issue with the boat and they explain to us that we would have to come back 1 our earlier than scheduled. We paid for a 3 hour tour not for a 2 hour tour. The offer to give us a 50% off on our next trip. Ok, we perfectly understood that mechanical issues can happen and we of course agreed to come back, but we are foreigners just visiting San Diego so we cannot come back to take the tour again. A 50% discount on your next trip is not a compensation for your mistakes, it is like: we are going to take more money from you next time so we never loose money, and we force you to come back again. We tried to complain at the office and they told us literally that once you start the trip you don't get a compensation, once the boat leaves the port you don't get a compensation about anything....that was so shady. Anyway the summary of this experience is that the company only cares about getting more money, they are not honest, and does not care about the clients.
Réponse de l'hôte
Oct 2017
Hi, Ariela. Thanks for coming out and enjoying that amazing Minke Whale sighting with us the other day. As mentioned, Minke Whales tend to be quite elusive. It is difficult to determine where they will surface, especially if they are keeping a low profile. I'm sure you understand that we cannot control the wildlife by any means. You must have been thrilled when the Minke Whale surfaced and paralleled the boat right next to us toward the end of our visit with it. This may be one of the closest encounters with a Minke Whale you could get. What a treat! Due to successfully enjoying over 67% of the time we expected to be out on the water, we feel that a 50% off voucher is more than fair. Full re-ride vouchers would have been provided had we cut the trip significantly short or if we failed to get such a great sighting as a direct result of heading home early.
To state that our company only cares about the money or that we do not care for our clients is simply not true. The majority of our crew study topics in Marine Biology and work here because we love what we do. That is one of the many reasons why we have so many regular visitors! We're sorry to hear that you did not feel the same way about your trip as most of the passengers we spoke to after we docked. We would love to see you in the future if you ever find a time to put your 50% pass to use.