Scenic tours: When you see Scenic Tours run the other way

[NGE]

In November 2009 I took the "The Heart of Egypt" with Scenic Tours. At the commencement of the tour my wife became ill was could only do 1 day out of the entire tour. Our tour director prescribed a medication in which he is not qualified to do and Scenic has admmited they have had to speak to the tour director about giving this form of advice. Over all Scenic Tours do not live up to there moto. My wife was placed on a drip by a doctor the day prior to going on the Nile cruise and on the morning of the cruise she was made to walk to the boat in the heat, no attempt was made to get transportation for her. Scenic Tours provide a 24 hour mobile phone number on their paperwork if you need to contact the travel agents while in Egypy, don't bother ringing it because it took 2 days of trying for them to answer. Our farewell dinner was very poor, you get no soup or even dessert and you have to pay for your own drinks. You would at think they could provide a drink or dessert. When returning to Australia I wrote to Scenic and heard no reply at all, it took a letter from our travel agent to get a responce and we have only had reply in February 2010 saying that they will not refund us anything but rather take it up with our insurance company. It seems that once they have your money they don't care.

During our tour the tour director was complaining about other countries, you would think they would'nt do that as they are potential future guests. I will never go any where near Scenic Tours again, they even said they were wrong but tough luck.

Our travel here (Escape Travel) have been great and have supported us all the way and I can highly recommend them as a travel agent, but when you see Scenic Tours run the other way.

NGE Member: fordfan

[susiecordia]

Dear Fordfan
I dont understand why you didnt use your travel insurance when your wife became ill. If you did what did they do? Scenic Tours do have a good reputation among all the tour companies so I am very surprised by your post.

[craig1960]

errrrrrrrr. why didnt you use your Travel Insurance to get the best possible attention for your wife??

AS To the tour dinner - what do you expect with a budget tour? Please !

[dsljal]

My wife and I went on a 35 day British Isles and the cruise down the Rhine/Danube in May/June 2008. I took ill in Vienna and the travel insurance wouldn't cover me for all their wrong reasons, but that's another story. We found that the Scenic's officers were very helpful in that they followed the rescue ambulance to the hospital so they could translate for us. But for obvious reasons the ship had to continue and we were left to our own devices for three weeks. After a period of rehabilitation we decided to travel to Darwin and paid a deposit in September 2009 for travel in May this year, again with Scenic. After weeks of fobbing us off with excuses regarding timetables and availabilty we finally asked for and received our deposit back after nearly three months of complaining. Glossy brochures, DVDs, conferences etc does not make a good travel company.

[fordfan]

We did use our travel insurance on our return and they did refund the medical expenses, however to miss the entire tour is just as bad. However there were numerous other problems that occured during the tour and after contacting Scenic on our return we heard nothing from them. Even our travel agent said what they did was wrong and was poor customer service. As for the tour being a low budget tour it certainly was not. Sadly they appear not to care.

[fordfan]

We did use our travel insurance on our return and they did refund the medical expenses, however to miss the entire tour is just as bad. However there were numerous other problems that occured during the tour and after contacting Scenic on our return we heard nothing from them. Even our travel agent said what they did was wrong and was poor customer service. As for the tour being a low budget tour it certainly was not. Sadly they appear not to care. It sad when you expect a quality tour and don't get the experience you went for even though they admit they hope future tours don't have the issues we had.