Jamie Anderson
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North Island ▷ Auckland Region ▷ Auckland ▷
Great Sights Scenic Bus Tours
GreatSights review - my friend and I had a terrible experience with this company.
We had booked the Hobbiton and Te Puia tour. The Hobbiton tour, while an hour late of the three seperate arrival times we were given, was fine, and then we were dropped off at the tourism office to wait for our next shuttle to Te Puia. We had not received any instructions on who was picking us up or what we were supposed to do, but we were there half an hour early, 15mns earlier than instructed. At 15 minutes past the pick up time, we were starting to get concerned, as no one had called our names or indicated they were waiting to pick anyone up. At one point I went and asked a woman sitting in a bus if she was with GreatSights and she said no. After waiting a hour, I borrowed a stranger's phone and called the tour office. I was told that the bus had been there and had left after 10 minutes. It turned out, it was the lady I had spoken to but, for some reason, she didn't know who she was picking up or which company they were affiliated with. So, through no fault of our own, we missed the tour and are out quite a large sum of money as we have been refused a refund. The communication was very much lacking for both tours. It seems to me that all this company wants to do is fill their large busses with as many people possible and collect the money. It feels like the customer experience is quite low on their list of priorities. However, the good news is, there are a lot of other great tour companies in New Zealand which we had amazing experiences with, and they all give the same tours! I would try Get Your Guide, Viator or Flexitours, all very professional and knowledgeable.
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North Island ▷ Auckland Region ▷ Auckland ▷
InterCity Coachlines
InterCity review - my friend and I had a terrible experience with this company.
We had booked the Hobbiton and Te Puia tour with InterCity and GreatSights. The Hobbiton tour, while an hour late of the three seperate arrival times we were given, was fine, and then we were dropped off at the tourism office to wait for our next shuttle to Te Puia. We had not received any instructions on who was picking us up or what we were supposed to do, but we were there half an hour early, 15mns earlier than instructed. At 15 minutes past the pick up time, we were starting to get concerned, as no one had called our names or indicated they were waiting to pick anyone up. At one point I went and asked a woman sitting in a bus if she was with GreatSights and she said no. After waiting a hour, I borrowed a stranger's phone and called the tour office. I was told that the bus had been there and had left after 10 minutes. It turned out, it was the lady I had spoken to but, for some reason, she didn't know who she was picking up or which company they were affiliated with, incredibly unsafe for travelers to say the least. So, through no fault of our own, we missed the tour and are out quite a large sum of money as we have been refused a refund. The communication was very much lacking for both tours. It seems to me that all this company wants to do is fill their large busses with as many people possible and collect the money. It feels like the customer experience and safety is quite low on their list of priorities. However, the good news is, there are a lot of other great tour companies in New Zealand which we had amazing experiences with, and they all give the same tours! I would try Get Your Guide, Viator or Flexitours, all very professional and knowledgeable.