Can this trip be saved? The guest canceled — so who covers the refund?

Suzanne Cohen runs the Santa Barbara Adventure Company, a tour operator that offers kayaking trips in California’s rugged but breathtakingly beautiful Channel Islands National Park (no, that’s not hyperbole; check out our coverage from last year if you don’t believe me).

It’s a one-hour ferry ride to the island, and the fare is included in the price of the kayak tour. The ferry is nonrefundable within seven days of a trip, and so are her tours. But like everything else in life, there are exceptions to that policy.

She writes,

I have a guest who was scheduled for a kayaking trip today. This trip requires a ferry boat transport to get to the island. The ferry boats leave at 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., depending on the date. We talk to hundreds of guests in the office each week about this trip. It is our most popular trip.

Today a guest did not show up and our guide called her from the dock before the boat departed to see if they were planning to attend the tour. The guest claims that she thought the boat transport was at 9 a.m. for the day and the reservationist (which was me) told her the departure time was at 9 a.m., otherwise she wouldn’t have booked the trip.

This woman has had her confirmation with the meeting time for a week – her confirmation gives all the correct information for the trip and specifics she should check in between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. It is possible I gave her the wrong start time over the phone or that we were talking about a different date than she ended up booking, so the start time changed during the conversation.

Does the guest have a responsibility to review her confirmation when she gets it to ensure the tour she is booked on is the one she wants? Or should I apologize and give her the refund she requests?

Excellent question. Cohen says this isn’t the first time she’s had the problem, and is trying to come up with a “reasonable” policy for the future.

What should she do? This is no small amount of money: $170 per person for the tour, plus ferry seats at $59 per person.

This feature normally deals with grievances between consumers and businesses, but it’s rare to get a look from the other side.

This isn’t an easy one. If Cohen inadvertently told the guest to be there at 9 a.m. but gave her a confirmation that said 7 a.m., then there would be shared responsibility. Yes, the guest is responsible for reading the confirmation, but if she was told to show up a 9 a.m., that might be a little confusing.

I think the guest should have tried to clarify the start time by phoning the Santa Barbara Adventure Company.

As to its policy, you might remind customers that it’s their responsibility to read the confirmation and verify the time for themselves. But at the end of the day, a tour operator is in the business of serving customers, and are you really going to stick them with a penalty of several hundred dollars?

I’m interested in your suggestions. Should Cohen refund the tour? What should her policy be?

By the way, I do have a resolution on this, and I’ll share it this afternoon.

Update: As promised, here’s what happened next. A few days after I asked Cohen if I could write something about her situation, she sent me the following update:

To let you know, I did issue a full refund to the woman yesterday. This means that I will pay for her two ferry tickets and eat the two spots she booked on a full tour on a Saturday in July (tour cost $170 per person – ferry seats $59 per person).

I really feel that she had a responsibility to look at her paperwork, as all the information was correct on her forms and she had plenty of time to review it. It also came out during the conversation that she reviewed the paperwork the night before and realized that the tour had an earlier check-in time than she thought, but instead of getting to the dock on time, she decided not come.

This is about the third time a guest has not read paperwork and then arrived for the wrong trip or date. I would really appreciate some feedback on this issue and how to handle it when it comes up next time.

Alright, any advice for her?

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  • Katie

    She should update her policy to require that guests verify that they have received the confirmation and will be there at whatever time. If they verify, then they assume responsibility for knowing what time they’re supposed to be there and all associated policies and information. If they don’t verify, then they don’t have a reservation. And yes, perhaps there can also be an option for a guest who missed the departure time to rebook for a later date–but no refund, IF they confirmed their reservation.

  • Dorothy

    I voted no, but possibly a god solution would be for the tour operator and the guest to split the cost depending on the circumstances.  It is very unfair to the tour operator to pick up the tab as I believe that the customer had a responsibility to read her confirmation.  After reading the solution I think this guest is a thief.

  • Dorothy

    I voted no, but possibly a god solution would be for the tour operator and the guest to split the cost depending on the circumstances.  It is very unfair to the tour operator to pick up the tab as I believe that the customer had a responsibility to read her confirmation.  After reading the solution I think this guest is a thief.

  • DavidS

    Really? So if I miss an 8AM flight, but show my printed itinerary and tell the agent that when I spoke on the phone and made the reservation, I had asked for the 9AM…they would confirm me on the 9AM…even if the flight was oversold?

  • Rusty

    No, because the Customer is Not always right.  Take the call, put it in remarks and send the e-mail.  If there is a last minute change, call the Customer for a voice confirmation.  A one-way e-mail only does not stand up to much.  If a discrepency; we would look at the operators remarks first.  You don’t need a printed itinerary to check-in your ticketless flight.

  • Rusty

    We used to sell Cozumel snorkel tours from the Riviera Maya.  The tour officially started at the ferry in Play del Carmen, not the snorkel site…one arrival time, even though the guides met the guests on the Cozumel side of the ferry. 

  • Tony A.

    *** ADVICE TO SUZZANE COHEN  ***

    First of all I’d like to say I love your website and I am going to take my whole family to the Channel Islands. Thank You!

    Now here is my advice…
    My company sells airline tickets (and other related services) over the phone. Most of time the callers even speak another language (English is their second language). In order to make sure we completely understood the customer, we create a PROVISIONAL Itinerary and price it (a quote) and email it to the customer ASAP. Then we call back the customer and verbally describe and go through the itinerary step by step. If there are changes we do it. If the customer says everything is correct, we send them a credit card authorization form that has the general details of the itinerary. The customer fills up and signs the form and faxes (or scan and email) it back to us. Then only do we proceed to ticket.

    The process could be shortened if the customer booked online since all the T&Cs would be printed out before they press BOOK. But my customers do not want to buy online. They want to talk to a live person.

    A lot of times there are verbal misunderstanding between the customer and our agents. This is natural since many customers actually forget that they just said or they do not listen intently to the agent (they want to hear what they think they want). This is the reason why create a PROVISIONAL itinerary and try to perfect it before we make a sale. We want to keep the customer happy so s/he keeps on coming back to us.

    Hope this helps…tony

  • flutiefan

    grant, everything you see below IS the entirely of their tweeted reactions. nothing more. it’s pretty much just a list of people who have tweeted Chris’s link/story. that’s all.

  • Rusty

    However, this was before smart phones…most business and leisure travelers did not have constant e-mail access let alone a printer. I assume the kayak Customer is on vacation with a packed itinerary.  They aren’t coming directly from their home office.

  • Z44212

    My advice is to refund the tour costs until you implement an itinerary confirmation process. Customers are not obliged to read their receipts. Verbal agreements are subject to misunderstanding. A feedback loop would mitigate this type of issue.

  • Raven

    Advice on how to deter this behavior:
    Send an email confirmation with “NO REFUNDS OR REBOOKINGS FOR ANY REASON” in giant bold print. Also, coach those who answer the phone to say “Our tours are non-refundable.”

  • Grant

    Ohhhh… Thanks ff. :-)
     
    (Aside to Chris… Why even bother to post these ‘reactions’?!  If somebody has a comment to make, I’m interested, but if they’re just tweeting or retweeting your story or a link to it, who cares?)       

  • http://elliott.org Christopher Elliott

    It’s just an optional feature to show other social media reactions to the post.

  • Anna

    I followed the link to Cohen’s site and found the info on her Channel Island kayaking tours. Here’s what it says for the sea cave tour:

    “Starting point and time: Ventura Harbor, 8am-5pm. Actual start times may vary.”

    So, the tour starts at 8 am…. unless it doesn’t?

    I would specify the start times already at this point. Unless the ferry schedule is completely random, it could be specified as “Mon-Thu; 8 am – Fri-Sun; 7 am” or whatever it is.

    The site also recommends booking via phone rather than online so I’d give the phone people a memo about always repeating the starting time when clients require about trips on various dates. Also ask the clients to confirm if they want this trip on that date at XX am.

  • Sdir

    The tour operator refunded the trip in good faith, but that doesn’t mean she said 9am was the start time.  I too work with customers over the phone and it’s very common to have someone misunderstand a key detail, even after you’ve repeated it five times.  The tour operator needs to either record the reservations or get a customer to sign off on the confirmation.  Not doing so will usually put the responsibility back onto the company for the sake of customer service.  The tour operator will have to decide if eating the cost of a few tours is less expensive than the hassle of getting customer signature each time.

  • Tony A.

    Fishplate,
    In the end of the day, the real problem is will the vendor win a chargeback from the credit card company if the customer disputes the charge. Your sending a confirmation letter to the customer will not be accepted as proof that the customer agrees to charge her credit card. This is the reason why you need to record the verbal agreement to charge her card. You need some proof the the customer AUTHORIZED the sale.

  • LePin

    Over the long run, refunding is better public policy than refusing. Of course she should not refund to somebody who is nasty or threatening, and of course she is within her rights not to refund.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-Hanna/100000038010477 Jason Hanna

    Cat’s outta the bag. The world, or at least the readers of this site, know to just call up and say “But you said 9am” now.

    The part where they’re not sure, MAYBE they could have given the wrong info.. Seems to say to me that they’re not really paying attention when giving out the info. That’s a tad concerning.. 5 extra seconds at the end of a phone call, reset, review the info, make sure what you’re giving out is right, because it is important that you get it right.

    A confirmation email, I think, is really the best thing. You’re following up with a customer, which gives them a warm and fuzzy, and as is said over and over here.. An email gives you a paper trail.

  • djp

    There is quite a bit more to this that we do not know….

    I was at Santa Barbara in May and their tour booking is seriously lacking and very confusing.  My tour was different ( a whale watching tour) I did look at these tours.  I found one web site said one thing and another said another.

    I noticed in calling three different tour companies about tours I got the same person answering.

    I called another time and got conflicting info from a different person.  First person said the boat was a private charter and unavailable  while the second person told me that there was a special tour conducted by the ACS (American Whale Society) that was open to the public.

  • Brooklyn

    Here’s another possible approach: if this has happened a number of times, the OP might consider whether a 9 a.m. ferry departure (assuming there is one) would better meet her customers’ needs.

  • Brooklyn

    Here’s another possible approach: if this has happened a number of times, the OP might consider whether a 9 a.m. ferry departure (assuming there is one) would better meet her customers’ needs.

  • Sadie Cee

    I voted “NO.”  As I understand it, the guest looked at the time and decided not to go on the trip.  I am amazed that the guest requested a refund.  The request should have been denied.  The service was offered and paid for and it was the guest who decided not to avail herself of the service. 

    The TO had no obligation to make any sort of refund.  However, I can understand the TO deciding to do so in the interests of good customer service. 

    As others have recommended, the TO should revise their practices in making reservations to make it clearly understood that tickets purchased are non-refundable.

  • Sadie Cee

    A departure time of 9:00 a.m. is quite reasonable, except that to make this departure time, the guest had to be at the dock much earlier – between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. for check-in.     

  • Anna

    Interesting. This intel – plus the OP admitting she may have given the client the wrong start time – makes the OP business sound a bit amateurish. 

  • Gimpy

    Why would anyone on the phone tell a customer anything other than “the arrival and tour details are on your confirmation.”  We do this all the time – when a customer asks us for immediate details we say the events are different and I wouldn’t want to give them bad info.  it’s not difficult.  Then no refunds.

    I wouldn’t have refunded her in any case.  She’s not coming back and if you’re filling tours why bother?

  • Dorothy

    amen

  • Andar Ebsani Girsang

    Have a good day, Sir/MadamI am just link my travel website…http://newflash-news.blogspot.com/ thanks

  • Patrick

    Try this “she said…..” with any airline, train or bus and see where you get.  If this is a continued problem then a positive confirmation from the customer that the reservation information has been read and agreed to needs to be done. 

  • Patrick

    Try this “she said…..” with any airline, train or bus and see where you get.  If this is a continued problem then a positive confirmation from the customer that the reservation information has been read and agreed to needs to be done. 

  • Patrick

    Try this “she said…..” with any airline, train or bus and see where you get.  If this is a continued problem then a positive confirmation from the customer that the reservation information has been read and agreed to needs to be done. 

  • doctork

    3 refunds out of so many riders?  If she stands up one of the three and said person starts complaining, her dissatisfaction will leak out and this can cost more riders.  She doesn’t have to but as a savvy businessperson who wants her program to keep growing, the refund is wise. If 300 asked for refunds that would be a different story

  • http://twitter.com/travelingiraffe Crissy

    After reading the update I can see why travel companies don’t want to help with ‘honest” mistakes.  

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