Mekong Delta Tour NOT to use
Mar 24th, 2010, 12:49 PM
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Mekong Delta Tour NOT to use
Mekong Delta tour NOT to use
I recently returned from Vietnam (Feb 2010). I have been waiting over 4 weeks for a promised response from the Delta Adventures Company in HCMC. Since I have had no email contact from them, I am now writing this scathing report about their service.
I am writing a travel book for solo travelers to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. I was told on Feb 1, 2010 before leaving HCMC and Kim, the manager of Delta Adventure Tours, in my hotel lobby (the Asian Ruby Hotel in HCMC), that she offered me a full refund , after talking to the owner. She sent over a $20 bill later that afternoon.
I have received no refund via her sister in Seattle, WA. I live in the US.
Kim said that she was shocked at the details I gave her about how horrible the 3 day 2 night trip was for me and others to the Mekong Delta. So many fellow tour companions were disgusted and outraged and said that this rotten experience would leave them with a bad taste in their mouth for Vietnam. I told Kim, that the hotel's written description of the tour was not the reality at all. Some of the things they spoke about in glowing terms just did not materialize, or were simply "set ups" for duping the tourists and not real operating candy factories, fish farms,etc.
It was fraud.
Besides telling Kim that I was angry about being lied to repeatedly by her 2 guides, while on the tour, I also expressed my disgust at watching one guide screaming at one member of our tour group ( a 69 yr old woman). What happened to Vietnamese respect and "losing face".? In addition this same guide yelled at a couple whom he picked up mid trip in Chau Doc, took money from them to deliver them by boat to Can Tho, crammed them and their large backpacks into our small minivan ( which only had seating for the already paid customers forcing us to sit in jump seats),then forced them to get out of the minivan in a small town where the guide refused to continue on until they got out at a bus stop. People were angry at the guide for lying and the disrespectful treatment of these passengers who paid him. It was very unsettling for everyone and angered the group on the already ruined 3rd day of the trip.
Repeatedly, the guides would tell one customer one thing and then another would get totally different information when asked what we were doing next ,or where we were going, or how long the bus ride. We all compared our answers and were mad. When someone would confront the guide with the misinformation, he would make up still another answer and turn around and leave. They were both totally unprofessional, rude, lied, disrespectful and one seemed crazy while in his rage!
What other trip advisor tourists said " negatively" about this company over the past years, I experienced too, and much more. There is so much more that has not even been mentioned. Sadly, this kind of "press" reflects badly for all of the tour operators in Vietnam. Why doesn't peer pressure and peer review get them out of business? Why don't the better hotels, like the Asian Ruby in Saigon stop using this tour operator? Are they all in agreement to "get what
money they can from the tourists, regardless of the means" ?
I know that this is not what Vietnam is like on a whole. I experienced the respect, kindness, generosity, happiness, and friendliness of the Vietnamese people for 4 weeks prior to the misadventure and disgust of the tour with the Delta Adventures company.
I was on at the end of a 3 month trip, and was writing copious notes for my book. I wrote daily, and detailed the 3 day experiences on this trip, so that I could report the problems to Delta Adventures. And I did.
I purchased the listed $42 3d/2n Mekong Delta tour with added on single supplement plus added on for 3 star hotels, totaling $98. Just another dishonest part of the trip. I stayed in 2 star, noisy, lousy hotels and experienced 3- 4 hr bus rides and very long waiting and doing nothing periods that were over 1 hr each.
At the beginning and ends of the tour while in the Delta, the company forces you to stay in the bus loading area to exchange people and buses as the company merged people again and again to make their tours more profitable for them. 3 day/2 day people went on one bus mixed with Cambodian drop offs, etc . They could care less if the customers were just standing around waiting for several hours altogether. We had no options to leave the bus loading area and were lied to about how long we would be waiting. It was disgusting to see their lack of respect for customers and their obvious greed.
Before even booking, I was also lied to when told that the tours were 14-15 persons, that ended up being 48 as the company crammed people on larger buses to make more money. I specifically said that I only wanted to be in a small group tour. I was lied to. We all felt like cattle standing and being forced to join other groups for very long bus rides around the delta. shocking! We spent more time on buses and waiting with nothing to do than on boats.
The Delta Adventure manager, Kim, who spoke to me in my hotel lobby following the trip, came because I complained to the Asian Ruby hotel staff that I felt cheated and that the tour was awful. She told me that the one guide was on probation and was to be fired. The other guide lied to us also and eliminated part of the tour and had us just sit at the "bus rendezvous area" for hours instead of taking us to a show and fruit sampling event..
I hope that this company is forced out of business by the good and honest Vietnamese people and also the lack of tourist support for their business.
I recently returned from Vietnam (Feb 2010). I have been waiting over 4 weeks for a promised response from the Delta Adventures Company in HCMC. Since I have had no email contact from them, I am now writing this scathing report about their service.
I am writing a travel book for solo travelers to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. I was told on Feb 1, 2010 before leaving HCMC and Kim, the manager of Delta Adventure Tours, in my hotel lobby (the Asian Ruby Hotel in HCMC), that she offered me a full refund , after talking to the owner. She sent over a $20 bill later that afternoon.
I have received no refund via her sister in Seattle, WA. I live in the US.
Kim said that she was shocked at the details I gave her about how horrible the 3 day 2 night trip was for me and others to the Mekong Delta. So many fellow tour companions were disgusted and outraged and said that this rotten experience would leave them with a bad taste in their mouth for Vietnam. I told Kim, that the hotel's written description of the tour was not the reality at all. Some of the things they spoke about in glowing terms just did not materialize, or were simply "set ups" for duping the tourists and not real operating candy factories, fish farms,etc.
It was fraud.
Besides telling Kim that I was angry about being lied to repeatedly by her 2 guides, while on the tour, I also expressed my disgust at watching one guide screaming at one member of our tour group ( a 69 yr old woman). What happened to Vietnamese respect and "losing face".? In addition this same guide yelled at a couple whom he picked up mid trip in Chau Doc, took money from them to deliver them by boat to Can Tho, crammed them and their large backpacks into our small minivan ( which only had seating for the already paid customers forcing us to sit in jump seats),then forced them to get out of the minivan in a small town where the guide refused to continue on until they got out at a bus stop. People were angry at the guide for lying and the disrespectful treatment of these passengers who paid him. It was very unsettling for everyone and angered the group on the already ruined 3rd day of the trip.
Repeatedly, the guides would tell one customer one thing and then another would get totally different information when asked what we were doing next ,or where we were going, or how long the bus ride. We all compared our answers and were mad. When someone would confront the guide with the misinformation, he would make up still another answer and turn around and leave. They were both totally unprofessional, rude, lied, disrespectful and one seemed crazy while in his rage!
What other trip advisor tourists said " negatively" about this company over the past years, I experienced too, and much more. There is so much more that has not even been mentioned. Sadly, this kind of "press" reflects badly for all of the tour operators in Vietnam. Why doesn't peer pressure and peer review get them out of business? Why don't the better hotels, like the Asian Ruby in Saigon stop using this tour operator? Are they all in agreement to "get what
money they can from the tourists, regardless of the means" ?
I know that this is not what Vietnam is like on a whole. I experienced the respect, kindness, generosity, happiness, and friendliness of the Vietnamese people for 4 weeks prior to the misadventure and disgust of the tour with the Delta Adventures company.
I was on at the end of a 3 month trip, and was writing copious notes for my book. I wrote daily, and detailed the 3 day experiences on this trip, so that I could report the problems to Delta Adventures. And I did.
I purchased the listed $42 3d/2n Mekong Delta tour with added on single supplement plus added on for 3 star hotels, totaling $98. Just another dishonest part of the trip. I stayed in 2 star, noisy, lousy hotels and experienced 3- 4 hr bus rides and very long waiting and doing nothing periods that were over 1 hr each.
At the beginning and ends of the tour while in the Delta, the company forces you to stay in the bus loading area to exchange people and buses as the company merged people again and again to make their tours more profitable for them. 3 day/2 day people went on one bus mixed with Cambodian drop offs, etc . They could care less if the customers were just standing around waiting for several hours altogether. We had no options to leave the bus loading area and were lied to about how long we would be waiting. It was disgusting to see their lack of respect for customers and their obvious greed.
Before even booking, I was also lied to when told that the tours were 14-15 persons, that ended up being 48 as the company crammed people on larger buses to make more money. I specifically said that I only wanted to be in a small group tour. I was lied to. We all felt like cattle standing and being forced to join other groups for very long bus rides around the delta. shocking! We spent more time on buses and waiting with nothing to do than on boats.
The Delta Adventure manager, Kim, who spoke to me in my hotel lobby following the trip, came because I complained to the Asian Ruby hotel staff that I felt cheated and that the tour was awful. She told me that the one guide was on probation and was to be fired. The other guide lied to us also and eliminated part of the tour and had us just sit at the "bus rendezvous area" for hours instead of taking us to a show and fruit sampling event..
I hope that this company is forced out of business by the good and honest Vietnamese people and also the lack of tourist support for their business.
Mar 24th, 2010, 08:56 PM
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I love a bit of revenge writing.
I wonder if a very salient point has been overlooked in all the huff-and-puff-and-I'll-blow-your-house-downery of this post.
'<i>...I purchased the listed $42 3d/2n Mekong Delta tour with added on single supplement plus added on for 3 star hotels, totaling $98...'</i>
$98.00 for a three day tour. $32.50 a day - ish: accomodation, meals, 'touring' and guide.
Virginia - what did you expect for $32.50 a day?
Pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
Now, here's some advice from someone who has been shafted every which way by low-life tour operators - swallow your pride, fergeddabout the $$ and MOVE ON. All you're doing is spreading your bad karma across the world.
It's always good to think, in the fullness of time, about what YOU did to contribute to this debacle - and what YOU did to resolve it. Dumping on us doesn't resolve anything.
I wonder if a very salient point has been overlooked in all the huff-and-puff-and-I'll-blow-your-house-downery of this post.
'<i>...I purchased the listed $42 3d/2n Mekong Delta tour with added on single supplement plus added on for 3 star hotels, totaling $98...'</i>
$98.00 for a three day tour. $32.50 a day - ish: accomodation, meals, 'touring' and guide.
Virginia - what did you expect for $32.50 a day?
Pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
Now, here's some advice from someone who has been shafted every which way by low-life tour operators - swallow your pride, fergeddabout the $$ and MOVE ON. All you're doing is spreading your bad karma across the world.
It's always good to think, in the fullness of time, about what YOU did to contribute to this debacle - and what YOU did to resolve it. Dumping on us doesn't resolve anything.
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