Patricia_KelleyEarp

Just returned from an escorted bus trip to turkey with gate one. I want feedback on how to handle what happened with our tour guide. There was a group of 35 with the bus tour.i am traveling with a party of 4, my husband and myself and my two friends.
We were in pammukale turkey at the ancient pools and my friend realizes she doesn't have her wallet which has credit cards and some money and her passport.
She was afraid she left it at a rest-stop. Which was 4 hours away from pamakula now .We informed the tour guide and asked him to call the bus driver to see if my friends wallet was hopefully in the bus. Our tour guide name is salhi. He called the rest stop and the bus driver and no wallet was to be found. Salhi then informed my friend how hard it was going to be get a replacement since we were not in Istanbul. No help or concern was shown for the lost passport. Needless to say we made a decision as our small group, my husband and I And my friends mother we would not leave turkey until she had a new passport.
The story continues as we were at the baths in pammukale. Our guide salhi finds us to tell us good news . The wallet and passPort have been found! The bus driver looked in the. Us again and found it. We were so relieved! We spent the rEst of our day enjoying the Pools and the necroPolis and headed back to the bus.
When my little group of four arrived to the. Us for transport to the hotel. We were late, not the only ones. never less we did cause the group in the tour bus to wait 15 min
When we arrived at the bus our tour guide salhi informed my friend that there had been a mistake and her wallet and passPort had not been found on the bus.
We are all now very concerned and trying to figure out how to get my girlfriend to Istanbul to get a new passPort rePlacement.
We are in transit to the hotel. And when we arrive at the hotel the rest of the group got out of the bus and my girlfriend started scouring the bus for her passport hoping the bus driver missed finding it.
No wallet or passport to be found. My girlfriend went to the bus driver and is frantic. She asks him why he thought he had found. Her wallet and then it was lost again. That is when my girlfriend found out our tour guide salhi had it. Our driver had no idea that salhi was withholding her wallet and passport. Our guide salhi isn't telling us either
After a few hours with all this stress we find out my friend indeed has her passport now we ha e to confront salhi. We are in the lobby of the hotel, salhi our tour guide hands us our keys to our room and then after all the worry and stress he hands my girlfriend her wallet and pasSport.
We are relieved and furious. We decide to leave the tour because we thought the of fence of taking sOmeones passport and playing games was not acceptable . The four of us got airline tickets from cappadocia on Pegasus to Istanbul.
I did contact gate one tours to get refunded for the flights and extra nights in Istanbul. No success there
So world travelers please help. what would you do next, was this a big enough grievance to leave the tour?

Patricia_KelleyEarp

I would like to add we loved turkey and would have not been able to enjoy Turkey without the goodness and kindness of almost everyone we met.
We had ertunga ecir as our own private guide in Ephesus. I called him from pammukale and told him our situation with the tour guide. He was so compassionate and concerned. He offered us driver to get us if we felt unsafe. He and his wife Maria were our heros in turkey. They bought our plane tickets to Istanbul from cappocia. Ertunga. Couldn't get my credit card to work. We tried to buy tickets on our own but our flight itinerary got cancelled Ertunga and Maria are the life savers. Of course we will reimburse through PayPal. I want to sing the praises of ertunga ecir, outstanding guide and he and his wife are amazing good people

adrienne

I would have stayed with the tour since you had paid for it but would not have tipped the tour guide. I would have wanted to know his rationale for withholding your passport.

I don't understand how you found out that the tour guide had the passport if the driver didn't know and the tour guide didn't tell you. And how did the tour guide find the passport? Where was the passport when he found it. There's some missing information here.

Of course I would NOT expect the tour company to reimburse you for the additional expense. That was your decision to leave the tour. This is another unexplained situation. What prompted you to do this just because you were angry. It really only hurt yourself as you had additional expense plus you missed out on the tour that you had paid for.

There's nothing to do next. You made a decision - end of the story.

I would have wanted to know why the tour guide believed his actions were the correct ones which you should have done immediately through the travel company, Gate 1. I think that ship has sailed too.

Next time try to work out the situation rather than go off in a huff.

Patricia_KelleyEarp

We loved our extra time in Istanbul!
To answer your questions. The bus driver found the passport in the bus. The. BUs driver gave the wallet to our tour guide salhi when he arived to the bus before us.
The driver thought salhi had given my girlfriend her wallet back. He didn't know until later that our tour guide was withholding her stuff. That is why she asked the bus driver. We never asked salhi why he did it. We surmised that he was mad that we used our own private guides and were late getting back to the bus. It seemed like he was punishing us with a practical joke. The joke lasted too long for our. Omfort zone.

taobaobuyer

once meet this kind of case at tour journey,all the happy time will be down, why the guide bring you so big joke,who can accept it, he or she is not a valueable guide.

adrienne

I stick with my opinion of this situation - you should have contact the tour company immediately and let them work out the problems with the tour guide.

Patricia_KelleyEarp

Addrienne, of course I contacted gate one immediately. I have a correspondence with a representative of gate one from the first moment this joke happened. And yes we were angry lol. My passport is pretty darn important I am pretty confident we will be reimbursed. I posted this because of the seriousness of the joke and was curious how unusual this was. We are 99 percent independent travelers so I love doors forum and wanted some feedback. Thank you for your comments

qwovadis

Gate One has a BAD BBB.org rating many complaints on the boards. File a www.BBB.org complaint and a dispute with your Credit Card company you will get an immediate refund and
a free investigation.Odds are good Gate One will settle
if you do this. If they do not sue them in small claims cout it is easy cheap jusges are sympathetic.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease...

Patricia_KelleyEarp

I hate auto correct. I love fodors forum lol

Patricia_KelleyEarp

Thank you! BBB is getting the report

Patricia_KelleyEarp

I want to add I have traveled with gate 1 unescorted trips and have been very satisfied. This was my 3rd booking.

I am posting this on trip advisor and Facebook And twitter and BBB

When we were reunited with the group in Istanbul the nastiness continued. We had vouchers for transfers from hotel mosaic to Istanbul Araturk airport. Salhi our guide withheld them from my group. We did get the transfers from the driver. We were confirmed on the shuttle. Our guide salhi said we were on our own with no transfer. This is the truth. I know it sounds over the top, but this is how we were treated with salhi our tour guide

Patricia_KelleyEarp

To the top. I want the story out. No regrets leaving the tour

StCirq

If you really want to get the story out, I suggest you take the time to edit and proofread. I could barely follow it - gave up halfway through, in fact.

Michel_Paris

Definitely needs editing, really hard to follow.

What did the guide say when he did hand over the passport?

anonymous2bee

I really am not buying this. I was on this tour with the same guide actually and he was truly amazing back in November. I am not calling this person a liar but I believe we are only hearing 1 side of the story here. His name is actually Salih and I am a very well seasoned traveler and he was truly the BEST tour guide I ever had. 1 issue is that tour guides make money off by pleasing travelers, not by upsetting them, at the end of the tour they rely on tips as part of a source of their income, why would he piss off anyone, his job is to make sure everyone is happy in the group. As a seasoned traveler I have seen other people disturbing the groups travel due to their own selfish reasons that can vary for many reasons. the tour guide is not going to gain anything by withholding the passport from you. I traveled with Gate 1 for many years, I know I had a few issues with them as well but they were very responsive and quick to solve issues, and also on the tour if you decided to leave for Istanbul early, of course that is up to you and your own choice. when travelling with a tour like this, you are travelling with many other people as a group, and the guide has to deal with everyone in the same level. Reading into this I feel that you are trying to gain something out of nothing. I am not here to defend anyone and from my experience with gate 1 and having Salih as my guide, he was a very good guide. go ahead and complain to bbb I dont think thats going to gain anything for you, I just dont think its fair.

Patricia_KelleyEarp

Sorry my iPhone does that , I will correct and proof read. I will do the short version. My friend who I was traveling with on gate one left her wallet in the bus. The bus driver gave the wallet and passport to Salih our guide.

Salih told us her wallet had been found by the bus driver
When we went to the bus to collect the wallet. Salih told my friend that her wallet actually had not been found. It was unfortunate mistake.

Salih withheld her passport and wallet for a couple hours , my girlfriend found out from the driver that her wallet and passport had really been found.

We were a group of 4 people and we were in the lobby. I witnessed the whole situation. My girlfriend was given the key to her room and then Salih gave her wallet

I am amazed as season travelers that this is acceptable.

I believe that Salih found it amusing. I don't think it was anything more than a joke.
We were doing our own private tours with Fethi from the other tour
We booked ertunga ecir for Ephesus
We booked chihat from heritage tours for cappadocia
We booked butterfly balloons with mustafa turgut in cappadocia


Maybe we were taking profits away from Salih by not booking with him. Maybe he was mad because we were late getting to the bus
Maybe that is why he thought it was funny to with hold my friends wallet and passport


It is the truth. It happened to my friend on affordable turkey

The tour guide was Salih

We left because it wasn't funny

I love turkey
I adore ertunga ecir
Fethi from the other tour
Heritage tours in cappodocia
Butterfly balloons
All awesome!

nytraveler

I would have confronted the guide, contacted the company immediately, but stayed with the tour. It does seem that there is some info missing - and perhaps the guide did this in frustration if your group was late on a regular basis. (IMHO there is NOTHING more inconsiderate than tour group members that expect everyone else to wait for them. And having more than one set of people doing it idoesn;t make it any better.)

Not that this was the right thng to do - it was obviusly completely inappropriate - but I think a fuller story might have presented a differnt picture.

(I have only take tours twice, once when it was free and another time to Russia - when it was the only way to go. On both tours there were a couple of people who seemed to operate on their own time frames - always making people wait - even if only 10 or 15 minutes and several times more significant waits. On the first tour the guide had finally had enough and told the malingerers that the bus was leaaving on time - whether people were there or not. They weren;t and the bus left. When it came back about a half hour later (we had been to see some pretty views farther down the road) - the woman was in hysterics that they had been left behind and lost all their belongings. When they got on the bus - instead of apologizing, the guy started to complain to the guide - who politely but very strongly chastised them for making everyone wait continually - and the rest of the group applauded. After that, they were on time. Perhaps this was a similar situation - the OP appears very defensive about being late - but a misguided one.)

anonymous2bee

Hi Patricia, I didnt mean to come off too strong but just as nytraveler states the above, as a seasoned traveler it is very frustrating to wait for people on a continues basis. I mean you have 20-30 people on a bus waiting for a few who can't get themselves together. I think that is very inconsiderate. If what you are saying is 100% true, which is still missing a few things I think, Gate 1 should take the proper action, but if you and your group was late on a daily basis then that's a different story. Did you even contact them before blazing your guns? I think everyone is innocent until proven guilty. I know you spent your hard earned money to go on a trip and have a nice experience but when going on a group tour like this, you have to follow some guideline for the sake of other people and schedule they have to follow and you are still getting a great deal.

One more thing I want to add is, this is not only for this case this is in general with any type of issues you may have with a company and or people...before submitting something like this, saying that this guide is horrible, this company is horrible please consider that these are people that work for a living, you are damaging peoples reputation over what? He held your wallet or passport of your friend for a few hours? People earn their living to feed their families and you are trying to damage someones reputation over something like this? Maybe there was something else that was much more pressing that had to get done? I don't know but still doesn't make sense. my personal experience with Salih was great, and gate 1 while not perfect it was good. From what I recall Salih was a guide for many years and experienced one. I think at least they care. Just so you know many people will read this probably you are trying to hurt someones reputation cause someone held your wallet or passport for a few hours? really? BBB? he is going to be upset with you as out of the whole group a few people didnt buy the private tours with him?

grosenb

Interesting, anonmymous2bee just registered this month and defends the guide.

I think this poster works for gate 1 or connected to the guide Salih. Read between the lines here.

adrienne

The whole story is very weird. This is the OP's first post.

The OP only said that she contacted Gate 1 immediately after I wondered why she didn't and then anon who is new just happens to register and see this post and was on the same tour? What a coincidence!!

I've never run into anyone from this board who was on the tours I've taken and I've been on this board a very long time.

My next question is why did you (Patricia) take a tour if you hired private guides? That's bizarre.