We booked onto the 2 hour bus tour last minute and luckily they were accommodating to hold the bus for us which we thought was good. Unfortunately, that’s about where the positives end.
We were shown a few celebrity homes, but not half of what’s listed on the flyer that they advertise.
They guy driving the bus was nice and entertained us throughout. Unfortunately, about half an hour into the tour, it started raining very heavily and with no proper roof or windows, we all got totally soaked. The tour continued through the freezing rain up into the Hollywood hills. There wasn’t a single part of us or our clothes that were dry. My fingers were blue from the cold. The driver tried to keep our spirits up and continued to talk to us but for some reason, what was supposed to be a 2 hour trip turned into 3, quite a bit of which was spent either going to other areas or stuck in traffic. So as well as being soaked and turning blue, we weren’t always being shown much. To add insult to injury, the driver kept commenting about how it never rains like this and how many celebrities he usually sees out and about on his tours. We saw none.
We got back to the drop off point where my boyfriend and I asked for a refund. The staff said that they didn’t know how to process refunds on credit cards. I said I was happy with cash but they refused and said they would ask their colleague the next day to process it as he would be back in the office and knew how to refund us. We passed by the office the next day as we were leaving LA and were concerned that they may need my credit card to process the refund. They advised that their colleague was now in Japan and would not be back for a few days. I gave my phone number and asked for him to call me as soon as he had processed the refund. I received no call so I called them to chase it. They said they would call back in 5 minutes and again, no call back. I called the next day and was told their colleague was not back from China yet but would be in the next day. I grew increasingly frustrated by the terrible service and explained that being pregnant, sitting for 2.5 hours in a freezing downpour had made me sick and that they should be taking this more seriously. The gentleman I was speaking to laughed down the phone at me which really tipped me over the edge. I later received a call back to say they had processed the refund.
I appreciate that they have no control over the weather but they should have things in place like roll down plastic covers for the bus or disposable plastic raincoats on the bus. At the very least they should offer to take people back early.
2 stars because they eventually did refund me after a lot of complaining.
Відповідь від хоста
Jun 2019
Dear Sgwads,
I'm sorry your experience with us was marred by rain. Of course, as you note, we can't control the weather. When it does rain, we offer customers to reschedule or get a refund. No one is required to go on a tour in the rain nor continue one. Unfortunately your guide did not offer to let your off or return immediately, which he should. We've discussed that with him.
As for your refund, we contacted the 3rd party service with which you booked your tour to request your refund the same day.How long they take to process a refund is out of our control. We only receive payment monthly from all 3rd party bookings, so we did not receive your payment in order to refund it. When booking in person, over the phone to our direct line or online through our website, we can process refunds immediately.
We hope you enjoyed the rest of your trip.
Kind Regards,
Tom