Recently my wife and I took a Perillo tour. We were most disappointed in Perillo's handling of our problems. For instance, our flight to Rome was cancelled. We contacted Perillo and were told that they had no interest in our problem and we were to re-book the flight ourselves. Their customer service person was rude and did not even offer the airline phone number. This was only one example of what we thought was truly sub par service. I could give you more but I'll just say that if your going to Italy stay away from Perillo.

Bit of confusion here - are you saying that you had an air and land package with Perillo and they refused to work the air portion?

If it was only a land package, why did you expect Perillo to get involved at all with the CNX?

Hey Degas. Sorry I didn't go into detail. Yes, We were on a tour. The 8 Day Roman Holiday. When we called Perillo, after our flight was cancelled, we had a number of questions. Not only pertaining to the cancelled flight but also other details of the tour. We wanted to know, since we were now a day late, would be met at the Rome Airport?
There was a tour scheduled in Rome that we were going to miss. Could we make up the tour at a later date? Could we make up the lost day?
The person we spoke to at Perillo concerning the above was to say the least - rude and uncaring. She stated that since the airline cancelled the flight Perillo was not responsible for anything. She made no attempt to answer any of our questions and simply told us to re-book our flight and take a cab to the hotel in Rome. We did all of this ourselves and never received any compensation or even good customer service from Perillo. I would NEVER use Perillo again. For the full story you can email at [email protected].

I've never used a travel agency or been on an escorted tour package, but find it hard to take that the company would not handle those basic issues for you. The air portion of your package got messed up and that impacted the land portion. Sounds like lousy customer service. As a minimum, it seems they owe you at least the price of the missed tour and transport to the hotel. I hope you didn't have to "eat" a lost night in the hotel as well.

this won't make up for the aggravation, but maybe it will get you some compensation: I'd write to the president of the company. I'd also mention that you are active on travel message boards on the internet, and as of now you have only negative comments to post regarding Perillo service.
Bet you get a response.
Let us know.

I was on escorted tours, and they ALL work like this: if you have a package, air included, they are responsible for all cancellations and make ups. Salpau, you did not say air was included, so I assume you made your own flight reservations, and there is no tour company which would make any arrangements for that.

We had to make a flight change to return home early, when on tour with Trafalgar. We didn't book directly with Trafalgar, but rather with AAA. The Trafalgar tour director instructed us to contact AAA to make our changes.
Perhaps this is the case with Salpau's Perillo tour as well?

After you spoke with the rep, did you speak with the supervisor? Perillo isn't perfect but I've been in there offices many times and haven't seen any issues that couldn't be resolved by a supervisor. (or Steve)

Actually, Salpau, it is the airline's fault that you missed part of your tour, not Perillo. Perillo is not responsible. It doesn't matter if you booked your air through them. (You don't mention if you actually took the Roman Holiday Tour late or cancelled.) I am telling you this because the same thing happened to me on a tour of China with Trafalgar. Thank the Buddha that I came to Hong Kong a day early, so I joined my tour on time because I was only 13 hrs late after United cancelled my flight (rebooked on Cathay Pacific)from JFK. United eventually compensated me with a travel voucher worth $200. Trafalgar gave me nothing for the lost night at my hotel (the very expensive Harbour Plaza Hung Hom), nor did they compensate me for the $17 shuttle ride from Chap Lap Kok to my hotel. But, all of this was listed in the contract that I signed, so it was my fault for not reading the fine print. Live and learn. Oh, and I had traveller's insurance and they even told me they would not compensate me because it was United's fault for the problem.

salpau....You can email this thread to Perillo.....give it a day or so and then just send it to them...

This is exactly why I've started buying travel insurance--the kind that will reimburse you (pro rata) if you miss part of your package if your flight is delayed. Yes, if you book your own air, the tour company makes clear in their contract that you're entirely on your own to get to the tour's starting point on time, and that includes getting from the airport to the hotel.

Salpau's experience is also a good argument for booking flights a day early before joining a tour or cruise. We now do this routinely. Yes, it costs an extra night's accommodations and meals, but you have the peace of mind that you (and your luggage, if it gets misrouted) will depart on time with the cruise and the tour. With the thousands we spend on these kinds of vacations, the extra night's lodging is small potatoes and well worth it. In our case (just got back from a Globus tour), booking our own airfare saved us $200 per person--so even with the travel insurance and the extra night we still came out ahead financially...and we got an extra day in Rome!

Linda, but Trafalgar booked my airfare. I did not take the "land only" portion of the tour. They are still not liable according to their contracts. I do not know if all tour companies operate this way. I quess you must read the fine print or ask questions before you book a tour. But, you are right, it is a good idea to add a day on to the start of your tour so this can't happen. My traveller's insurance only covered loss that happened because of "act of God," (i.e. blizzard, tornado) illness, or death in family. Now I make sure I read my insurance contracts first before I sign.

Just a word about notifying Perillo about your postings here:

I advised my sister-in-law to do the same after she had a horrendous experience with a company that booked her family's Eurostar day trip London/Paris'London, which included being met by a bus and touring Paris.

After sending them a NICE letter, but also mentioning that, if the issue wasn't resolved she would feel it her duty to warn fellow travelers on this board and others, etc., she got a SCATHING letter back saying their failure to meet her, etc. was her word against theirs and that if she posted anything negative about them on the Internet they'd sue.

Yes, of course, it could have been an idle threat, but it was NASTY and marked the final death knoll for customer service as we used to know it.

Just don't let the tour company know you'll be informing others.

My feeling about that is: sue ahead! You can't be sued for speaking the truth.

Actually you can be sued for telling the truth. It makes it more difficult for the sueing party to win if you're telling the truth, but you can be sued.

What you can provide are the facts:
I reserved this, I called them on such a date, they said this. You are also allowed to say that you would not recommend them.

You can't be sued for facts (well, you can, but it's a silly exercise) but you can be sued for calling them incompetent or dishonest or other libelous words.