Sonoma Valley Wine Trolley is advertised as visiting 4 wineries. I took the tour on August 30th. Our wine tour only stopped at 3. I called and emailed the touring company that evening asking how I should go about getting a refund for only 3 tours instead of the 4 as advertised. September 1st, I received a call back from a manager. I explained the situation and his initial response was that “it was a crowded tour”. We had 9 people on our tour and it was mentioned by the Trolley driver how we had a small group. He proceeded to place the blame on the tour guide at Ravenswood that he had taken longer than the allotted time. I shared with him that the tour guide asked several times to clarify when he had to have us back. During the tour, I remember him asking several times, to the group, the time, to make sure he had us back in time. When his attempts at excuses failed, he finally agreed to a $17 refund after letting me know they actually saved me money by not stopping at Madrone winery that day, as promised by the tour guide. The $17 was calculated and explained to me as lunch from the Girl and Fig costing $28 (while delicious, I question a "gourmet lunch" that is a deli sandwich,potatoe salad and a brownie), leaving $17 for each stop.
While I appreciate the refund, I did not appreciate the condescending tone I was given after my request. A simple apology and a refund for the 4th winery would have sufficed.
I would also like to add, that the tour in between each winery was of very little history instead of the “ As you embark on a journey full of rich local history,” and “fun & historic narrative.” As advertised on your web page. Instead, it was filled with loud music that included music from AC/DC. (While I have no objections to AC/DC, I found it to be less than appropriate for a drive through the picturesque setting of Sonoma vineyards.) Should you respond to this review, hopefully the excuses will be less then what the manager had given and more of a simple apology. A $99 tour that required an additional $20 fee at 2 wineries for the tour and tasting and $8 for the final winery was not worth the price of this particular wine tour.
Odpowiedź od gospodarza
Sep 2017
Dear Valued Customer.
Our sincere apologies for only having time for 3 tours instead of 4 as advertised. We are happy to have provided you a partial refund for the one stop. After speaking with the driver of the tour he explained that Ravenswood tour ran longer than expected which pushed us behind schedule and where not able to make the other stops on time so had to eliminate the one stop. This is not something that typically happens. In fact, in all of the time here I have never seen it happen. As far as the lack of narrative and choice of music, this is something we will address with the driver. We have a specific script that we stick to and music programming that should be played. Once again we are sincerely sorry for the lack of ability to get to all four stops. As you can tell from the other reviews we pride ourselves with the quality tour we have to offer. I ask if you are available to ride the Trolley again you go as our guest and let us prove to you that our tours are quite enjoyable for everyone.