We reserved the 7 Zipline tour through Viator, which furnished very little information about the tour and withheld the identity of the tour provider until the tickets were fully paid for (presumably to keep one from going around Viator and booking with the vendor directly).
Once we paid for the tour and learned who the provider was (NorthShore Zipline) we Googled them and immediately had a few misgivings based upon their website. However, on that site was the unequivocal statement that "You have up to the first two lines to determine if ziplining is for you. If at any point prior to the third line you decide it is not, Northshore will authorize a full refund." (Note that it did not say you actually had to ride ANY ziplines, nor give ANY reason before asking for a refund nor, despite being called the "scaredy-cat clause" that anyone had to actually be scared.)
In reliance upon this written representation, we traveled for over an hour, in good faith, to NorthShore's location. Immediately upon reaching their property, we became concerned; the shoreline was nowhere in sight, and the place looked more like a goat ranch than a jungle. The vaunted World War 2 "Museum" appeared to be nothing but a few relics in a small tent (though I didn't go in). Everything seemed disorganized, and equipment was just kind of laying around. Nobody was wearing masks, and I couldn't really tell who if anyone was in charge.
I went inside the headquarters, where they were showing pictures from a prior tour. It became obvious very quickly that the course was nowhere near the shore or jungle. I asked one of the guides and he confirmed it was mostly over open ground, and said the value was not in the terrain but in the "freestyle" ziplining experience (looking at the pictures, that appeared to include being squirted by a water hose). I asked a couple of returning guests from another party how they enjoyed the experience. One said "meh" and another called it "basic."
Based upon all this and more, I became convinced that the experience was decidedly "not for us." I asked the 12 year old girl in my party if she was comfortable going on the tour, and she said she was not, so I asked about getting a refund. From there I got passed around from employee to employee, all of whom they said they had no authority to talk about refunds. They called (or at least claimed to call) the owner/manager, but she was conveniently unavailable. One guide finally said we had to go on at two ziplines in order to get a refund. After re-reading the website, I told another guide that I believed we had the right to a refund regardless, but agreed to wait a reasonable amount of time for the owner to call back. After waiting patiently for an additional half-hour, I politely told a guide that we were not comfortable going on the tour, that we were leaving and that we expected a refund.
The owner/manager finally texted me back four hours later, with some double-talk about what the language on the website meant versus what it actually said. In the end she told me bluntly that I should have "shut up and tried it" in order to get the refund, but that I "decided to leave." I gave them a day to reconsider but have heard nothing back in four.
I'm going to follow up with a complaint to Viator, and a more formal complaint to the Hawai'i Department of Commerce and Consumer affairs. I'll amend if necessary, but wanted to get this review up for the benefit of anyone else considering booking this tour.
Одговор домаћина
Apr 2022
I'm sorry, but you are not being honest. I was the one you talked to, and at no point did I ever say, "You should have shut up and tried it." That is a bold face lie.The scaredy-cat clause is for people who get up on the lines and realize that ziplining is not for them. The guides onsite told you that in order to get the scaredy-cat clause refund, you would have to try at least one line. You choose not to, thus giving up any rights to a refund. We have a 24-hour cancelation policy and you were trying to cancel within 15 minutes of your tour. "YOU HAVE UP TO THE FIRST TWO LINES to determine if ziplining is for you. If at any point prior to the third line you decide it is not, Northshore will authorize a full refund." Anyone reading this will see how you are trying to twist the meaning of our policy to what you want it to be. UP TO THE FIRST TWO LINES....you didn't even do one. No where does the clause say anything about being able to change your mind before your tour and getting a refund. I would say, nice try, but it wasn't even a nice try because you did it dishonestly.