Sandras cruise tours refuses to refund tours that were fully refundable

[momeagle36]

https://consumerrescue.org/cruise-fiascos/carnival-cruise-missed-greenland-excursion-refund/

[3Sisters]

@momeagle36 Wow, thanks for sharing that review! It's such a shame you weren't refunded for what you should have been. CCL should be better than that! Typically Carnival Cruise Line will refund when necessary and follow through with its advertised protocols. If the line committed to a fully refundable excursion, it should be honored as such! Was this your personal cruise experience? Typically once you leave the ship, trying to get a refund is seemingly impossible. My rule of thumb is you must check the financials a day before disembarkation and ensure everything id documented properly. I never link my credit card onboard either to ensure there are no questionable charges being billed to my account without my review and consent. I have had on board cruise credits be withheld and then shown documentation to get it added correctly. It's important to always keep printed documents (evidence) in hand just in case!

[RoadTravelled]

@3Sisters  Please note that the excursions in question in this article were NOT CCL run or booked.  The guests booked a 3rd party company to do the excursions.  It was that 3rd party company that is now refusing to give refunds.  So, CCL did not have any obligation to refund any money as they didn't get any money in the first place.  This just points out one of the hazards of not booking excursions with CCL.  Those were indeed refunded when the port was missed as is standard protocol.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@RoadTravelled That's the real issue @momeagle36 is facing. I always recommend booking excursions through the cruise lines because the line follows through with what it says it will. It's quite rare that the cruise line would leave you high and dry. A third-party company is questionable. I don't try many entities to follow through. Carnival Cruise Line is one of those that I do trust to follow through. Let this be enlightening to those who are considering book an excursion outside of their selected cruise line. It's pretty clear that the issue is the third party here.

[melaniek]

I feel for all those people who are now having to fight to get refunds from Sandra O'Leary for those missed ports. We have had only one experience with her and that was enough for me to say never again. We booked a tour in Iceland with her and got only about a third of the tour time we paid for as well as missing 2 major stops. All 3 tour busses had people with the same complaints, although the severity of the issues varied from bus to bus. She had revised the itinerary prior to the tour as the puffins left Iceland. That is not one of the things we were complaining about as she did give us notice and the opportunity to cancel.  We chose to go knowing we would not see puffins. I sent her an email, as did many others, regarding the issues on the tour. She offered some ridiculous small amount for a refund claiming it wasn't her fault it was the tour operators she had hired. I pushed back that 25% refund was not sufficient, since we had only received a third of the tour snd misses to major stops I wanted a 75% refund. She then claimed we only missed 20 minutes. I sent her screenshots of text messages we had all sent at the end of the tour showing we were indeed back way earlier than that. She refuses, actually she just did not reply. I disputed with my card. She gave them the same lies about tour only being short 20 minutes and that one of the things I was upset about was the puffins. Based on her lies they rejected my dispute. She then said she would still offer the small refund if I canceled the dispute. There was nothing for me to cancel as it was already denied by my card. I told her this and to this day, 11 months later I have gotten no response or refund. She is shady and not a competent business woman. She frequently blames issues on tour providers and refuses to take responsibility for the operators she hires to provide the tours she sells. She blames slow response times on the fact that she is on a ship and not able to respond quickly. Well, if you are gonna run a business none of those excuses really work. We saw so many good reviews, mostly in the Facebook group she runs fornher tours. Pretty easy for her to have fake reviews in there and keep out anything negative. She deleted several threads with people that were discussing the issues on our tour and then scolded all of us for posting it on Facebook. Had she responded timely or taken care of these issues timely maybe there would have been fewer discussions about it. Beware of booking with her. What she sells you isn't always what you get and she picks and chooses when she makes it right with her customers and when she just washes her hands of the issue with lies and revisions to her website and terms. Spend a little more and book with a real, registered, licensed tour guide company. 

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@melaniek That's very upsetting! It's unfair that a person could be so unethical. It's really wrong that there should be a fight for a refund. I don't think anyone should have to work that hard to be returned what is rightfully theirs. Was there an opportunity to book your tour through the cruise line directly instead? I'm glad that you are shedding light on the issue and exposing a potential issue for those who could book with her in the future. What exactly was enticing to book with this person? Unless she offered better prices, I would say always booking with a registered and licensed tour guide company would be the best choice!

[Cruising Caribbean]

@momeagle36 Thanks for sharing this. Do you have a personal connection to this situation?

@melaniek That's wild! Thanks for giving some context. It's such a shame you weren't refunded! It doesn't sound like an affordable tour either. I hope justice will be served at some point, but this happens more than you think. It's always better to not book with a third party entity. Your story supports that statement!