Tour company provided a low-quality service; request advice on claim for refund

[LMehl]

Hello --

In 2015 Feb I took a private 3-day tour of Vietnam's Mekong Delta. The
quality of the tour was very poor, involving an inattentive and
inconsiderate guide, poor accomodations, uncomfortable and dirty car,
and an itinerary that differed from the brochure I was given by the
travel agent who booked the tour.

I disputed approx 40% of the charge on my Chase Ink card. The tour
company is challenging me, saying only that they "provided the tour". I
provided Chase with a lengthy description of my experiences with the
poor quality/various shortcomings of this tour and the original
itinerary I received.

Chase is not convinced, saying I must provide evidence of what the
provider "did not deliver". Defective services are evidently judged
differently than defective products. Simply describing the bad
experiences is not enough.

Do any readers have experience with this kind of a credit card charge
dispute and can give me some advice about how to word my claim to Chase
or other suggest actions to take in my dispute?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Larry Mehl

[John Weiss]

Vietnam? You're probably screwed.

However, if you can produce your contract (or description of services,
if no contract), you might be able to detail line by line what they did
not provide. If he described the type of transportation, and provided
less, show a picture. Same with hotel...

[The Real Bev]

On 06/25/2015 08:51 PM, LMehl wrote:
> Hello --
>
> In 2015 Feb I took a private 3-day tour of Vietnam's Mekong Delta. The
> quality of the tour was very poor, involving an inattentive and
> inconsiderate guide, poor accomodations, uncomfortable and dirty car,
> and an itinerary that differed from the brochure I was given by the

> travel agent who booked the tour...

My daughter is a tour director who works for many tour companies as an
independednt contractor, which is standard practice. She says that some
tour companies are very organized -- reservations at good places,
buses/transport on time and adequate, just what you'd want. Others get
the reservations wrong, choose food and accommodation that sucks, bad
transport, lost luggage, etc. It's the tour director's job to fix
problems for the guests, but they have limited capabilities to actually
change the venues chosen by the tour company. Some directors (like my
kid) are good at it and others suck badly.

Before taking a trip, try to find REAL reviews of the tour company.
Never easy to do finding actual reviews for anything, but it's probably
worth some effort.

If you have good documentation you might consider suing the tour company
in small claims court, but if you win and they appeal they can get a
lawyer and tie stuff up forever.

--
Cheers, Bev
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The Marketing Professional's Motto: "We don't screw the customers. All
we're doing is holding them down while the salespeople screw them."
-- Scott Adams