Tour was canceled the day after I booked and a day before the date of the food tour as there were not enough people who had signed up. That's totally understandable, I understand a company can't make money if too few people sign up. That's not the issue. The issue is their customer service.
Why I have the low rating is the snippy email I received when inquiring about my refund. The email stated "Customers will receive a full refund with 24 hours notice of cancellation.". That's not true.
8 days later when I was able to check my credit card account and see I didn't receive a refund I contacted them. I received a snippy email response, and the response claimed I had been told it could take up to two weeks for the credit to appear. I had never been told it would take up to two weeks to receive credit. Never mentioned in any email that I received.
I was criticized for asking about a credit 8 days later and wondering why I hadn't contacted them within a week of the cancellation. Below is the response I received.
"As I stated in my email to you at that time, it can take up to two weeks for the credit to appear on your cc statement. I also stated that you could contact me if you did not receive the credit within a week. This is the first I am hearing of any problem withe the refund. I can appreciate the time this is taking to resolve and thank you for your patience with it."
I have since received the credit (after I filed a complaint with my credit card). I would suggest this company have better customer service and not blame the customer for inquiring about their refund.
Одговор домаћина
Jun 2022
Nancy -- Thank you for your interest in Local Roots Food Tours. We are so sorry that we were unable to accommodate you on the date you requested a tour and do apologize for any inconvenience you experienced.
We did not intend for our email regarding the refund to be "snippy." It was our intention to give you the information about our policy. As stated your refund was requested on 5/22/22, within minutes of the cancellation, after our telephone and email correspondence. Upon our request, it it the credit card company that takes over and it is their policy that a refund can take up to two weeks. We ask guests to contact us again if they don't see the refund within 1 week, so that we can follow-up and make sure the refund is moving through the process. I did not hear anything from you at that time.
On 5/30/22, I received a note from your credit card company that you were disputing the charges. The dispute request actually forced the refund process to stop ("5/31/22 @ 3:50am Customer disputed $88.00 charge to Visa.The cardholder has disputed this payment and it cannot be refunded right now.") I was not aware that customer generated disputes could cause this but now know for the future. When presented with the dispute, we immediately accepted and asked the refund to continue. It does appear that you have now been given a full refund.
Again, I apologize for the email inquiries we sent to you regarding the refund. It was not our intention to place blame on you or anyone else, nor to be "snippy." It was our intention to get to the bottom of the problem and to get the refund back to you. We do pride ourselves on customer service both on our tours and within the booking/refund process.
Thank you again for your interest in Local Roots Food Tours. We do hope we have the opportunity to meet you in person on one of our tours in the very near future. -- Dawnie