Sally

Sep 17, 2024

Customer service when there is a problem is completely lacking, no support for loyal customers will not use them again

We are loyal customers of Intrepid having taken over 5 trips with them in the last 5 years we liked their philosophy of trying to support small local hotels accepting that these were often basic with no hot water but this was part of the fun! However there was no recognition of customer loyalty when we had a problem and we will never travel with them again. We were booked on the central american journey when 4 weeks before our trip we were informed that the Honduran government were introducing visas for British tourists. Whilst we accept visas are our responsiblity it proved impossible to get a visa. We had absolutely no help withy the situation their whole attitude was tough if you don't travel you will loose your booking and we were not allowed to transfer to another trip, the reason being that everything was booked and paid for but we discovered later that they had cancelled our hotel bookings on the part of the trip we couldn't take and presumably got a refund. We had no alternative with no help to have to fly to Nicaragua thus missing over half the trip. We offered no help whatsoever in overcoming the problem of not being able to enter Honduras. Other travel companies we have subsequently discovered made alternative arrangements for their clients and from my next point below this was not difficult to faciltate. Indeed the other British tourist on our tour met several other British tourists on the ferry to Nicaragua from El Salvador and their alternative travel arrangements had been facilitated by their tour company. We discovered that when we finally joned the tour Ma Yara who was an absolutely excellent guide, that the local tour guide had put together an alternative itinerary that avoided Honduras including direct transportation into El Salvador as well as travelling from El Salvador to Nicaragua by ferry rather than overland through Honduras. They asked if this could be forwarded to us. This advice not passed onto us, or at the very least us being told that the local guide would be able to help us make alternative arrangements (accepting that these would have been at an additional cost)? The other British tourist on this tour decided to travel to Guatemala and followed this alternative plan very successfully with the help of the local guide, indeed she actually arrived in Leon several hours before the main tour group who travelled via Honduras. Furthermore if they had given us the local guides contact details BEFORE we had travelled we would have been able to liaise with them over alternative travel arrangements avoiding Honduras. Our tour guide and other guest were told that Intrepid were 'doing everything to help us' totall;y untrue. We booked the whole tour through Dialaflight who we have used on many occasions and who were very supportive but when they rang Intrepid the response was to them that if we couldn't travel to Honduras we would only be taken back to the starting point if we chose to travel, no alternative was offered to us help us with this situation. This left us with no alternative but to fly directly to Nicaragua thus missing out on a substantial portion of the tour unnecessarily. Extremely dissappointing service particularly as we have been very loyal customers as I said we won't be using them again. We have complained to customer services but they have yet to respond!