Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  04/10/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  3/10/24 we paid the Catalina Flyer ferry company to go from ****************************************. Total cost was $313.44 (paid via Groupon) for our family of 4 (incl. kids aged 8 & 6). The ferry was scheduled return to ******* the same day at 4:30pm, but it had engine issues and everyone was stranded on the island Information was scarce but they texted updates on the boat repair status. Many passengers tried to take a different ferry company back to the mainland (to ********** or **************-other ferries did not go to *******), but these booked up. Eventually they texted everyone they would reimburse all expenses for their return trips (costs for taking another ferry home; hotel costs that night, and ubers to get back to *******, etc)For my family, our only option was to wait for the fixed boat as we were parked in ******* & could not take an uber from ********** because of the lack of car seats. We also couldn't stay in a hotel on the island because we were checking out of our mainland hotel in the AM. So we had to wait outside in the cold (nothing stays open late on the island) for their boat. I also realized my car was in a paid parking lot, so I DL'd an app to pay $23 to extend time to avoid a parking citation.Eventually they fixed the boat and we left at 12:30am. They were very apologetic (only about 30 of 300 passengers made the return ***** ****** implied they would refund our return trip since it was 8 hours late. Well, now we're getting the run-around as we are trying to get our refund. They say they won't refunding our trip because we took the boat home (this is not what they implied at 1:45am when we got back), and they won't refund extra parking costs (they say lots in ******* are free after 6pm, which I confirmed this is not true with ParkMobile - the "*********** 2" is a 24/7 lot which the ferry company directed me to park in).I would like: $23 parking extension refunded & the return trip portion refunded (approx. 1/2 total cost) as they implied they would.

• Initial Complaint

  03/09/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  My wife and I were in the ************** area of ********** on 2/26/24, and saw that Groupon was offering a discounted ferry ride to Catalina Island via The Catalina Flyer. We noted that it said final sale so made sure to double check the ferry availability on the website, as per the instructions on the Groupon. We wanted to ensure that wed be able to use it same day as we were visiting from ** and only scheduled to be in the ************** area on 2/26. The site said that yes, there was availability for 2/26, so we went ahead and bought the deal given this information. As soon as we purchased the Groupon (total of $94.50 for 2 tickets) and went to use it (minutes later), the availability for 2/26 had magically disappeared from the website. This seems highly unlikely given the two ferries that we did see at the island that day were well below capacity. (We ended up paying full price with a competitor.) We contacted Groupon customer ********************** who refused to offer us a one-time exception to the policy. We also contacted Catalina Flyer directly (via email), but never received a response. This is hugely disappointing given the circumstances listed above. We did our due diligence, followed the instructions, and got screwed in the end. We would like a refund of the original amount paid.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩