Robert S.
Expensive and untrustworthy
I must admit that I never actually toured with this company. I did try to schedule an itinerary but that blew up big time. We scheduled a tour of Peru (5 months in advance) with the company owner, Jose. He was nice enough and the original price seemed in line with what I expected. Then, because the flight home had to be vet early in the morning we asked to add one day. The cost of the new 1-day longer itinerary was $3000 more than the original. In addition to one more hotel night, for reasons that are unclear, Jose added several lunches/dinners to the tour despite me specifically stating we did not generally eat much lunch. When I asked why the price exploded so much, he refused to itemized any of the new costs so I could decide what to keep or not. I had already paid 50% down and when we asked to cancel, he refused to credit back my down payment! I called to discuss this with Jose but he refused to take my call or call me back. I had to contact my credit card company to dispute the down payment call. I then made the same itinerary with another high quality company for the Sam extended tour and it was $200 cheaper than the initial shorter trip on Yampu. In response to the Yampu response, much of what is written is correct but there are critical issues that are not. I had every thought about continuing my trip through Yampu until we received the $6000 price increase ($3000 per person). When that occurred, stated, I asked for and received of things that they thought comprised the $6000 increase. HOWEVER WHEN I FURTHER ASKED YAMPU TO SPECIFY THE COSTS FOR EACH OF THE ITEMS THAT WERE NOW ADDED, I WAS TOLD THEY COULD NOT (OR WOULD NOT) DO SO. Manny of the items added were meals, which I did not ask for and it is totally unclear yo me how he could set a charge for a meal, when no one knew what we might order. When I asked my subsequent Peru Travel Agent about the costs of specific tours or side trips, they were able to give me details that would allow me to to keep or delete things with knowledge of what they cost. YAMPU REFUSED TO DO SO! IT IS ALSO UNCLEAR WHY THEY ADDED SO MANY MEALS, WE ONLY ASKED THEM TO ADD ONE LUNCH (WITH HORSE SHOW). I called Yampu twice to leave messages about my refund and my travel agent called several times. I NEVER RECEIVED A RETURN CALL AFTER WE ASKED FOR A REFUND. EVEN WHEN I EXPLAINED ON THE FINAL CALL TO THE OFFICE, WHY I WAS CALLING, I GOT NO RESPONSE. I AM CERTAIN THAT BELIZE HAS EMAIL, TEXT AND TELEPHONE SERVICE. ONLY AFTER GETTING NO RESPONSE FOR 24 HOURS DID I CONTACT VISA TO ASK THEM TO REVERSE THE CHARGE. IF THIS COULD HAVE BEEN EASILY AVOIDED, I SUSPECT IT STILL CAN BY RETURNING MY ENTIRE DOWN PAYMENT. WHEN THAT OCCURS, I WILL BE HAPPY TO RESPOND AGAIN AND MAKE IT CLEAR THAT THE ISSUE IS TOTALLY CLEARED UP. JUST DO THE RIGHT THING AND RETURN MY DOWN PAYMENT. AGAIN I JUST ASK THAT YOU JUST DO THE RIGHT THING AND RETURN MY ENTIRE DOWN PAYMENT.
Response from Yampu ToursJan 10, 2022
Update January 17th, 2022: Despite issuing a full refund on January 11th and showing Dr Schwartz a copy of the refund that same day, noting "Dr Schwartz, Below please find the full refund of $ 5458. If you have initiated a dispute kindly contact your credit card company and inform them that this has been processed" he still called his credit card company and initiated the dispute on January 14th. Update January 11th, 2022: A full refund has been issued to client; Yampu absorbed all costs. Through this review, many vital points have been omitted from the situation. We have tried to reach Dr.Schwartz on more than three occasions and offered a full refund to come to a final solution amicably. However, we have received no response. Allow us to present the details of this situation below to clarify the dilemma at hand; Dr. Schwartz contacted Yampu Tours on September 27th for a custom trip to Peru through this travel agent. Through 12 emails sent the same day, we came up with a custom itinerary which was sent to the agent the morning of September 28th. That same day we advised the agent all hotels were confirmed. On September 30th, the client called and gave us his credit card for the deposit. However, I (Jose Irauzqui, President) noticed there was a discrepancy between what Dr Schwartz's agent was telling him and what he thought he was booking since the agent appeared not to have relayed all the information (he wanted to go straight to the Sacred Valley instead of spending the first night in Cusco) or perhaps Dr Schwartz had not read the thorough documentation that had been sent to the agent. On November 1st, the agent emailed saying they had accepted the revised itinerary and wanted to see details which I re-sent. Then on November 2nd, Dr. Schwartz asked us to send a complete list of all possible excursions he could do; we created a special custom list for him with over 500 experiences. After a lengthy conversation with Dr. Schwartz on November 30th (The agent was not on the call), we discussed adding several items, which we included. On December 4th, I sent the client and agent an updated itinerary and quote, to which Dr. Schwartz replied, "This looks good. We need to insert flight departure and arrival times and train time. I think we could/should add a bit more to Lima days. Will discuss restaurants with Beth." Suddenly, on December 10th, we received an email from Dr. Schwartz asking why the price had gone up so much. My reply was to name all the extra items I had added in total 14 items including several experiences, some extra flights, extra hotel night, and hotel upgrades, car services at disposal and meals, and asked which items he would like to remove so that I may update the pricing. In addition to this, there was also a very high commission payable to the agent, much higher than is customary in the business. When Dr. Schwartz initially complained about the price, I immediately wrote to the agent and stated, "If your client is not satisfied, I would be happy to refund the payment he made minus the credit card fees we incurred". This was even before Dr. Schwartz asked us to cancel the trip. Therefore, it is not accurate that we declined to refund the client. When Dr Schwartz then wrote back and said he wanted to cancel, I said there was no problem to do this; we just needed to deduct the nominal credit card fee (about $ 200) that we paid to process the transaction and refund the full amount. The agent wrote back saying that the client agreed, "Dr. Schwartz has agreed to a refund" however, due to credit card regulations, we needed an email from the client himself and not the agent, which we requested but never received. On Friday, December 17th, Dr. Schwartz contacted our office, saying that I needed to call back immediately, or he would dispute the charge. However, I was on an inspection trip in Belize with limited cell availability and could not call back immediately. (This can be seen from the week's social media posts.) I cannot attest to the client's new itinerary or who he is booking with. However, we pride ourselves in delivering great experiences at reasonable prices, which can be seen by the hundreds of 5-star reviews here on Trust Pilot, including some that happened after Dr. Schwartz's review. Yampu has been in business for over 22 years. Due to the pandemic and being short-staffed, I (Jose) have been planning trips for many clients. The pandemic has created a lot of difficulties for the travel industry. Still, we have been able to weather the pandemic and have successfully rescheduled hundreds of bookings due to the stellar customer service we always provide, with no complaints, unlike those that other companies have encountered. This unfortunate situation could have been easily avoided with one simple email from the client.