Grand Circle Travel Booted Out of BBB
 

Grand Circle Travel has been bounced out of the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Massachusetts, Maine & Vermont because of a slew of complaints regards the company's cancellation policy - first the BBB gave the company an "unsatifactory rating" and later in Oct 2005 outright terminated their membership and has yet to reinstate it. The action was based on 57 complaints the BBB received in 2004 complaining about "credit or billing" "refund or exchange" or "customer service" issues.

The problem stemmed from GCT's Cancellation Policy where if they altered a trip you were not entitled to a full refund or the option to cancel. Customers apparently were not kept informed of changes made in itineraries till days before departure and in some case such changes were made during the trip.

To GCT's credit they are trying to resolve the problem but as yet the BBB is taking a wait and see attitude.

Caveat Emptor!

(above info comes from TravelWeekly magazine, an in-house rag for Travel Agents (10-23-06); www.travelweekly.com)

Samting- i hope you don't mind my copying your comment here! Others could benefit from your problem perhaps.

Author: samting
Date: 10/26/2006, 01:18 pm
As someone who has personally had big trouble with GCT, I would not recomend them. But if you go, put it on your Visa or AMEX. They try to discourage you from doing so, with tempting discounts, et., but when things go wrong, you have some discourse. We disputed and challenged their charges and business practices, and were refunded to our credit card account.

I'm not sure why you are posting this now with this head. There are several other threads on these forums that discuss in more concrete terms problems people have had with GCT (or praise for the company).

This isn't new information because the de-listing happened a year ago, but by focusing on the BBB de-listing Grand Circle, you sort of miss the point of the article, which discussed the policy changes that the company has now made so they can rejoin the BBB.

GCT and OAT have both detractors and fans, but the far larger portion of clients rate their trips very highly. Having taken an Overseas Adventure Travel trip, my opinion is that the company offers a superior product at very favorable rates, at least in Egypt.

This is old news that just keeps coming back like a bad...whatever.

Why stir the pot and re-start all the ugliness of a few months ago???

OLD news . . . . . .

Whenever you post anything on GCT think of how many people travel with them every year (was it 155000 vs. 50 something complaints to BBB?) and above all the prices you pay for EXCELLENT quality tours (most of them at least).
How many other companies sell their tours with air fee included?
Of course I can understand and relate to people having problems with GCT customer service. But I just hope more and more satisfied travelers will appear in Fodor's.
sorry to have posted the reply so late

seems like the company has gone out of their way to solve the problems and i would not hesitate to recommend them for the good value they are as now their customer service should be better than others not under the scrutiny.

Grand Circle's problems are hardly old news. The Washington Post ran a column on them last fall and there continue to be reports of trip problems. In fairness to all, I think when you are considering spending nearly $10K to go to Egypt, e.g., you need to feel reasonably sure you are dealing with those who will watch your back. I did not consider the posts malicious, merely informative. I booked with STI after reading up on GCT.

We have only had excellent experiences with both Grand Circle Travel and Overseas Adventure Travel. Great value for the money and fantastic tour directors. We are definitely fans and plan to travel with them again.

I doubt that anyone would need to spend $10,000 on a GCT tour to Egypt. Judging from the latest catalogue I have, the price is considerably lower.

Sometimes I wonder just how much the flap about GCT is related to the issue of "you get what you pay for." I suspect some of the unhappy posters expected a luxury trip for budget prices.

We had considered a trip with GCT at one time and we did some preliminary research and decided our money would be far better spent elsewhere. There is a flood of complaints among all the praise that deserves to be considered. Here is one re insurance issues that one traveler experienced:
____________
"I took a tour with Grand Circle to China and was injured on the trip. I had purchased Trip Mate Insurance throught GCT. Trip Mate managed to manipulate and exclude many of the charges and I was left with many unpaid bills. Even with letters from my doctors regarding the necessity for such treatment and that this was not a preexisting condition. I wrote to GCT but was advised they have no control over the insurance carrier. Then they should not use a company that is not creditable. I will not use GCT again if they don't have creditable insurers (GCT collects the money for the insurers) or other options. I was advised I could get my own insurance if I was not satisfied. Well, I am not satisfied with the insurer and with the attitude of GCT about the problem."
____________
Much of the criticism of GCT has involved shabby business practices and lack of response to problems. I hear from many folks that when the trips go well, they are well pleased, but one should, especially if elderly, be reasonably assured that if something untoward comes up, they will be handled.

I will again recommend GCT based on our four tours by my wife and myself...Greece, Italy, Scandanavia, Eastern Europe. Well run, economical, educational. While some have indeed indicated certain problems (and I think overly so) others of us have had positive experiences.

ozarksbill
[email protected]

We have taken six trips with Grand Circle, and two additional times had to cancel for medical reasons. In both cases, we received prompt refunds with reasonable documentation from Trip Mate. Granted, we have not had to make a claim based on illness or injury on a trip, but we have been very satisfied with the coverage.

Also, I have to support Underhill in questioning the $10,000 price for the Egypt trip. Depending on departure city, deck and date, the price is between about $4000 and $6500 for two.

The only way that the price could be that high would be if business class flights were reserved.

We have found Grand Circle to be outstanding for price/performance. That is why we chose them in the first place and continue to travel with them.

Jack and Ann

Beware travelling with GCT/OAT. I am just back from their "Route of the Maya" tour with pre- and post-trips.

On the pre-trip to Panama, I went swimming under a waterfall and apparently swallowed some of the water. The next day I had diarhhea from 10AM till 3PM. I took Immodium at 10 & 11 to no avail, and an antibiotic just before we left for our tour of the Canal around Noon. Because of the wait to get tickets and for security, I had a small accident at the Canal. I rinsed out my shorts in the bathroom and stuffed them with paper towels to keep dry. But the tour director was immediately on the horn to "Regional" (Guatemala City) who, without speaking to me at all, decided -- on the 4th day of my trip -- I was going home. They sent a car to take me to the hotel (without seeing the Canal) and told me that because I "couldn't fly" (to San Salvador the next day), I had to go home. What -- were they going to put me on a bus up the Pan American Highway??? I told them they were making a mountain out of a molehill and that I was going NOWHERE! I refused to get in the car and they sent it back. They had no choice but to take me on the rest of the bus tour, during which there were no incidents. I flew to San Salvador (and a new tour director) the next day.

Unfortunately, on the 2nd day of the main trip, I came down with a cold. My nose was stuffed and I had to breathe through my mouth. When I asked to stop at a pharmacy for aspirin, the new tour director went ape. WHAT was wrong? WHAT medicine was I buying? I told him it was a cold and he kept saying it was the flu. Another nosy passenger with absolutely no credentials panicked and told him I MUST go to a hospital! Again "Regional" (Guatemala City) was called and, again, I was ordered home. I, again, told them I was going NOWHERE! The busybody then got me kicked out of my room and all the bedding changed; I was then given the busybody's room and never heard the end of it. My former roommate wasn't even given a chance to utter her preference. The next morning my "next of kin" was called and told I was "seriously ill." Worried and not knowing what else to do, he gave out my entire medical history to the tour director -- who repeated it to the passengers on the bus while I skipped a visit to a school! Do you believe the unprofessional, unethical conduct? The tour guide told everyone I was on "dangerous medication" (a lie) and changed my seat on the bus -- again moving the busybody, who complained for the rest of the trip.

Now, the clincher: I just got a phone call from a "manager" that becausse of the problems *I* caused on the trip, I was no longer welcome to travel with the company!! If the tour directors had used their brains and not listened to a panicky nobody -- and maybe talked to ME -- all this could have been avoided. But, no, it is all MY fault.

The Guatamala City regional office is in need of serious re-training, and the whole staff taught ethics and discretion. Fortunately, I was able to get an e-mail off to my "next of kin" and assure him it was just a cold. I was fine in 2-3 days. NO ONE should be put through this kind of cruelty. Of course, other people were disrupted by the unwarranted attention to my insignificant ailments -- and they complained to the company about it; but *I* did not cause anyone's disruption -- the incompetent, misguided tour directors did! And I have been blamed for it and punished for it....

Next time, for no fault of your own, this could be you! Do you really want to risk travelling with such a totalitarian company???

(BTW, I not only finished by complete tour with OAT without incident, but stayed another week in Belize on my own with much pleasure and compliments on my courage.)

Re the 10K -- should have been more specific. It would cost us $8K, and that included an extension in Jordan. I was referring to how much we intended to spend on our vacation. Hope that clarifies that point. My ONLY point was that these vacations cost a lot of money, give or take a couple of thousand, and one must feel confident that they have made wise choices. To all, thanks for your input! We leave May 15 and cannot wait to report on our adventures.

Mamaclark, I hope you'll report on your trip with OAT to Egypt and Jordan. This trip is on my list also. I'm a big fan of OAT and have loved every trip we've done with them - great value, excellent guides, and interesting insights into the lives of the natives.

Wow, I didn't see this post before. 57 complaints to BBB is A LOT! Just to think how bad it was, to make people to file with BBB! And how many others don't know about BBB, don't use computers (is GCT for over 50?) or simply gave up or didn't bother.

57 complaints is a lot?! what about the hundreds, if not thousands, of happy, satisfied clients of GCT?

no, 57 complaints is not a lot when you consider the thousands of travelers. This old post keeps coming back to the top. As most tour companies do - GCT reserves the right to make itinerary changes. Last year there was one poster (not the OP of this thread) who had an obsession about GCT and came back over and over to complain about a cruise that was ruined due to the flooding in central Europe.

If even just 1/2 of the people on that one cruise complained "officially" that would be more than 57.

I often wonder how many complaints large companies like Globus and Trafalgar get. They're headquartered in Europe so how would we know? I've heard at least one person find something to complain about on practically every trip I've been on, and I thought some of their complaints were really nit-picking (like there's no yogurt for breakfast or there's no washcloth or I want to sit on a certain seat of the bus every day). As I've said before, we've been extremely happy with OAT.

We had a horrible experience with a Trafalgar tour - Best of Finland, Russia, and Estonia. We complained to our travel agent who passed on our complaints to Trafalgar. We never even thought of contacting the BBB. Note that in our many years of taking tours, this is the only tour that we felt the need to complain about. First of all we had the worst TD that we have ever had - he was not from any place in Eastern Europe and was completely unresponsive to complaints.

We were given a whopping 5% credit by Trafalgar to make up for our substandard hotels - to be used on another Trafalgar Tour, of course. Whoopie!!

That's when we decided to try other tour companies like GCT and OAT - which we are great fans of. The TDs are from the countries that we are visiting and the hotels have always been those promised in the brochure.

Below is the complaint that I posted on the Trafalgar bulletin board.

"Out of the 14 hotel nights, 8 nights - St. Petersburg, Novgorod, Moscow, and Minsk - were DOWNGRADED from the Trafalgar listing and the information sent to us with our tour documents just 3 weeks before the tour began, to CHEAPER and lower quality hotels. Since breakfast and dinner were included on those days, the quality of the meals, commensurate with the quality of the substituted hotels, was of poor quality, especially the dinners. Many of the people on our tour were angry about the substituted hotels.

At the substituted St. Petersburg Hotel in St. Petersburg, the meat served at dinners was tough, and unrecognizable in some cases. The buffet breakfast, while satisfactory, subjected us to hordes of people pushing and jostling in order to grab their food first. The rooms were very small.

After complaints to our tour guide about the quality of the food at the substituted St. Petersburg Hotel, he told us that things would improve at the other substituted hotels.

The substituted Intourist Hotel in Novgorod is listed as a TOURIST CLASS Hotel. The room was tiny, and run- down, and the shower was part of the minuscule bathroom, similar to that found on some cruise ships. When I complained about the awful room to our tour guide, he commented that he only promised that the food would improve. We were only served a continental breakfast in the morning at this hotel. The phone system was also sub-par at this hotel. We were awakened by the phone ringing at least two times during the night with noone on the phone. There was no internet available at this hotel. We also had to partially make our own beds at this hotel. There was a folded sheet that needed to be arranged properly by us in order to make the beds.

The substituted Hotel Cosmos in Moscow was a massive hotel. The rooms and food were satisfactory, though.

The substituted Hotel Orbita in Minsk was 3.5 km from the city, instead of the central higher quality Planeta Hotel that was promised by Trafalgar. Our room was run-down and very small. This hotel also did not have internet available. We were served a continental breakfast again. We were even warned by our tour director that if the buffet breakfast was being put out while we were having our continental breakfast, that we were not to touch the buffet breakfast, since it was not for us. We also had to partially make our own beds at this hotel. There was a folded sheet that needed to be arranged properly by us in order to make the beds.

All of the hotels that were as originally scheduled Helsinki, Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn were excellent, including the food served.

Per the Trafalgar brochure: Substitute hotels may be used at certain times and will be of similar standard whenever possible. 8 nights out of 14 nights at downgraded hotels is unreasonable and excessive and certainly not up to the First Class standard that we paid for."

One more time re: OAT. Magnificent tours; outstanding guides; great concept..small groups, sensitive to the culture etc.we've been with them four times, including Egypt. Here's the one very maddening downside. They are absolutely non-responsive after you get back if you had a problem. A great big stonewall. No response to (polite) inquiries. They just don't respond.
I'd consider going with them again because the trip itself - and especially the in-country guides - are first rate. I'm not going to re hash the problem we had. It was worth a couple hundred bucks and if they had said "no" in their response, I would have forgotten it. It was just no answer and that includes Alan Lewis at the top.
Bill

The BBB DOES list Globus' (non-member, no complaints), and Trafalgar Tours USA's (member, 3 complaints)over the last 36 mos. GCT had 99 complaints in 36 months and a suit filed by the state of MA. There is a reason their names keep popping up, and the primary criticism is their total lack of response to complaints. Perhaps if they had been more forthcoming in the 99 instances the issues could have been resolved more amicably. Before we booked with STI for our Egypt/Jordan trip, we checked out their record with BBB and learned they had not had a complaint filed against them. Again, it is not cheap to travel, so check, recheck and recheck before you go. Bad things can happen with any company, and good things can happen with any company, but consistent complaints such as those against GCT deserve to be aired and investigated.

Yet now that they have been aired would not one expect GTC to be on their very best behavior for fear of a repeat in BBB action - or in this case getting reinstated in full grace?

Author: Mildred
Date: 04/10/2007, 03:17 pm

I did not see things from a yr ago but did cancel a trip due to the last bill with scads of added costs.

I do however understand a great deal more about posters who flew first class and loved trips or never had problems etc from their responses here. A huge learning experience from a few words. Thank you so much for posting. I applaud you bravery.
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mamaclark.

We had a horrible experience with a Trafalgar tour, but never bothered to report it to the BBB. We did talk with our travel agent who was shocked at the substitutions of hotel rooms made on our tour, and the owner of the travel agency contacted Trafalgar about our experience. We received a whopping 5% credit from Trafalgar that could be used on another Trafalgar tour - extremely unsatisfactory!

We never even considered making a complaint to the BBB, especially since Trafalgar is not a US company. Instead, we no longer travel with Trafalgar and have switched to tours from GCT and OAT. Our experience with them has been excellent.

Just returned from a trip to Eastern Europe with Grand Circle Travel. It was a wonderful trip. Probably the best tour director I have had with any group. There were 32 people on the trip and I was probably the only one that had not been on several other Grand Circle trips. They had nothing but good things to say about GCT. For many on this trip it was their 7th trip with GCT.

Hey...where did you go on your trip? We went there with GCT two years ago and it was great. Was your tour director Agnes by any chance/ Let's compare notes. I took slides, wrote a trip report, and organized a file (mostly for my beneift but we do travelogues, too). This was our 4th GCT and all were wonderful.

ozarksbill
[email protected]

As oft the case when a company's PR problems are publicized they take urgent measures to shape up - this is why i would think GCT would be perfect now.

Ozarksbill. We went on the GCT Best of Eastern Europe tour last September. We also had Agnes as our tour director. She was fabulous - the best tour director that we have ever had. Before we booked with GCT, I had compared tours, and the GCT tour was much more to our liking than tours from other companies because the GCT tour spent 4 days in 3 of the cities and 3 days in the 4th city, giving us time for exploration on our own. And, the GCT tour was much better value for the money.

sandys...
What you say is true...GCT offers a well guided tour for a good price. Agnes (who will not put up with nonesnse) is interesting because she gives much information with an added take having grown up in Communist Poland. There is a trainer here once on their Olympic team guy here who knew her uncle. His take on the present government is interesting. Nothing is black or white.

Anyway, GCT provides an educational element not all companies have and often encourage unusual places to visit.

Which place did you like best I might ask though don't like to do so under the present topic of GCT booted out of BBB (which isn't accurate anyway). If you do respond, you might consider a new title.

ozarksbill
[email protected]

Ozarksbill.

We found that Agnes was extremely intelligent and knowledgable about the history of all three countries visited. We appreciated the educational aspect of the GCT tour also - lectures in each of the cities that we visited on politics and history. In Krakow she arranged to have a man who had been in a concentration camp talk to us about his experiences - he was a political prisoner, rather than a Jewish one.

Agnes went beyond the usual tour director duties, and arranged things for us that were in addition to the stated tour. I had asked her in Krakow if it would be possible, after the tour of the castle, to be dropped off in the old Jewish section of Krakow and then we would take a taxi back to the hotel. Her response was to have the bus take those who were interested on a bus tour of that area, about half of the tour group, including visits to an old synagogue and to Schindler's factory.

Also, she did not "push" the optionals. We tend to like to do our own thing after reaching a city, taking public transportation and doing a lot of walking.

We loved all four cities on the tour. Our very favorite was Krakow, since it was the least touristy. We found the main square of Prague to be wall-to-wall people, which took away from its ambience. We loved the castle districts of both Prague and Budapest. The highlight in Warsaw was the Resistance Museum, which was fantastic.