ComplaintsforCultural Italy Inc

• Initial Complaint

  11/02/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  They planned our 30th wedding anniversary to Italy for 15 days charging us almost $20K to do so. I was under the impression that it would be an upscale vacation with high end hotels and private tours and drivers etc. when the itinerary was presented to us, I asked for an itemized statement because my husband wanted to see where our money was going. We were told no it didnt work that way. We went with them anyway because I went with a group to ****** that was planned by Cultural Italy and it was phenomenal. Our trip to Italy was a huge disappointment with subpar hotels and subpar tours. The trip averaged us about $1200/day-and we cant get any information from them as to where all our money went. We shortened our trip and were told we couldnt get any money back from the hotel. We again asked for an itemized statement now that we had paid in full and we were refused again. We were told after the fact that we could expect to pay 25-30% more to use a travel agent than booking the trip ourselves. That information should have been transparent in the beginning. We are looking to see an itemized statement because we feel ripped off. One hotel we stayed at told us they only charged $260/night-where did the other $1000 go? This company is a complete rip off and should be held accountable.

  

  Business response

  11/10/2022

  We feel this comment is unfair. The client states themselves that we did a phenomenal job on their previous vacation and now they are saying we are a ripoff. This seems very strange. The client has never even asked us for a refund. For some reason outside our control these clients starting having a bad vacation together and are now harassing us.

  In 20 years of being in business weve never seen anything like this. We have built our business on referrals and reviews and this client themselves came through a referral.

  Is there anyway you can remove this review? It doesnt seem right that someone can disparage us in this way when the complaint is obviously false.

  Please let us know if you need more details. Its sad because we really bent over backwards to try and help these clients. 

  Thank you

  ***************************
  

  Customer response

  11/16/2022

  I don't accept the resolution of this issue. First of all, I DID have a phenomenal experience on my trip to ******. I THOUGHT that it was planned by Cultural Italy. Come to find out- and this was told to our whole group by the travel agent, *******************************, that she used another travel agent in ****** to help plan it because she didn't know much about ******. She told us that Italy was her area of expertise. Because she knows one of my close friends, and because we had such a great time in ******, my husband and I decided to use her to plan our Italy trip. NOTHING was as expected, nor was any of it as nice as our accommodations in ******. I made it very clear to ******* what my expectations were. This trip cost us just under $20,000 not including airfare or food. We asked the travel agency multiple times for an itemized statement to better understand where our money went. We were denied this request. We were told after the fact that it costs 25-30% more when booking with a travel agent than booking by ourselves. This would have been good information to know in the beginning.

  We have NOT been harassing them, we have merely expressed our disappointment in what they provided for us and would like to know exactly what we spent our money on. One of the hotels told us they were charging $260/night. Considering we averaged $1200/day on this trip, what the heck was our money being spent on?

  They say they bent over backwards trying to help us, that is a complete lie. Getting us a bigger room and paying for part of our dinner out one night is hardly bending over backwards. They are right in that we haven't asked for a refund because we did use the hotels and the tours and the drivers even though they were subpar. What we have been asking for all along is an itemized statement of what these things cost. We want to know where our money went.

  

  Business response

  11/28/2022

  
  This client cant be happy unfortunately.
  
  - They arrived in Italy with extra luggage without informing us and because it wasnt specified in our documents, they pretended we upgraded all the transfers from a sedan to a minivan, which was costly and we did it at no cost to them.
  
  - They made us feel they were on a budget and they specifically asked for hotels that were not expensive. We upgraded their room in two hotels at no extra cost. We also offered the possibility of changing hotels at additional cost, but they did not want it.
  
  - We gifted a free extra hour with a private guide in ********.
  
  - We gifted a 200$ dinner.
  
  - We re-arranged their itinerary at no extra cost when they decided to return sooner.
  
  - We returned the money that was refunded to us for the services they did not use because they decided to return home sooner.
  
  
  We have a strong feeling this couple was quarreling for reasons not related to their trip. He wanted to see art and churches and she wanted to go shopping. Unfortunately this became known when it was too late, otherwise we would have made other arrangements. For example, she complained that the boat tour in Como did not need a guide, but her husband wanted to learn about history so a guide was needed.  All their complains were on these lines. 
  All the while, their posts on ******** show they had a good time, and in fact, her profile picture features them smiling during the boat tour in Como.
  
  We have been proud BBB members for many years and have never had a single complaint during that time. If what these clients are saying was true there's no way we could have went this long with a perfect A+ rating. 
  Please remove this complain or we wont be able to renew our membership next year.
  
  Kind Regards,
  
  ***************************
  __
  
  Manager ~ Cultural Italy Inc.
  Office ********************** or ************ 

  Customer response

  11/28/2022

  We would like an itemized statement of the cost of this trip. That really isn't hard to provide. This response is a bunch of lies. We didn't arrive in Italy with extra luggage. We had two pieces of luggage each. That's normal. I told them we were willing to splurge on this trip, I NEVER told them we were on a budget OR that I wanted cheap hotels; on the contrary, I told them I wanted very nice hotels. These lies are ridiculous,. I HATE to shop so that was definitely not something my husband and I were quarreling over-and we were there on our 30th wedding anniversary, we weren't quarreling at all. we got a voucher for $150 for dinner, not $200. We got a larger room at one hotel, not two. I have a strong feeling Cultural Italy ripped us off and doesn't want to get caught which is why they won't produce an itemized statement. My complaint stands-as does my review. I won't be happy until I see an itemized statement. They rearranged our itinerary at no extra cost because my husband told them that was his expectations.

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