ComplaintsforOld Town Trolley Tours of Boston

• Initial Complaint

  08/06/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Purchased 2 day pass tickets on Saturday August 3rd to tour the city of Boston. Attempted to board the trolley multiple times at various stops including ***********************, **************, ********** and USS Constitution. Every time the trolleys were either fully packed or had only a few seats available in them and there was a line of at least 10 or more people waiting to board. There were not enough trolleys in circulation to accomodate the amount of tickets sold. We waited at each location for almost 30 minutes each before giving up and taking a ride share instead. We never could get on the trolley. If we did not give up when we did we would have never been able to have seen the sites we wanted to within that day. This was nowhere near the level of service expected of a ticket that cost over $60 per person. This was a very poorly run business and an overall disappointing experience and I would never attempt to use them again in the future.

  Business response

  08/11/2024

  Good afternoon *******,
  
  We want to thank you very much for choosing Old Town Trolley Tours of Boston in the first place, and for contacting us with your feedback. We apologize that your experience was disappointing. It is certainly not how we intend our service and tours to operate.
  
  We take your feedback seriously and are constantly looking at ways to improve our service and the guest experience. So, thank you again for sharing.
  Your refund has been processed on our end and will be reflected on your credit card statement once it has been processed by your credit card provider.
  
  We apologize again for your experience, and I hope you will give us another try in the future when possible.
  
  Sincerely,  
  **************************
  General Manager

  Customer response

  08/12/2024

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does satisfy my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint #********. I understand that by choosing to accept the business response that my complaint will be closed as resolved. 
  
  Regards,
  
  *****************************

• Initial Complaint

  12/29/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  On Saturday, 12/17/22 my 3 friends and I bought tickets for the Holiday **************** Nights trolley.It was advertised as a 90 minute tour of Bostons holiday lights and sights with entertaining and festive tour guides. It was anything but that and halfway through, when the trolley stopped at Boston Common and everyone got out to explore, we were told by one of the tour guides that we were not allowed back on because we had drinks. He left 4 women stranded in Boston Common in the cold and we had to find our way back to the beginning of the tour to get our ride home. When we first boarded the trolley with covered cups, nobody said anything to us. At one point, one of the tour guides came over and rudely took my 2 friends cups from them. When we got off at Boston Common, my friend and I threw away our cups so none of us had drinks when we were ready to board back onto the trolley. I sent a message via the web site for a refund and the General Manager (***************************), responded with false accusations and said that he would not be refunding our tickets. There are many problems here.tour guides were rude and sarcastic and not nice, they left us stranded in the cold, this event was not advertised properly. The web site claims 100% satisfaction guaranteed which is false because I was told that our tickets were not going to be refunded. Also, the trolley was crammed, and you could not see out any of the windows. For all of these reasons, I would like to be refunded for the tickets and hoping for some help. I did send 2 e-mails to reply back to ***** about this but he never responded back.Unfortunately, I didnt read the bad reviews before buying the tickets. Other people had some of the same complaints. I can provide many disappointed complaints if necessary.

  Business response

  01/11/2023

  Our GM, ***************************, reached out to the complainant after speaking to both team members involved that night, as well as the driver of the trolley.  ***** also reviewed the onboard video from that evening tour, which provided additional backup to their statements.
  
  Firstly, the tour is not advertised as a tour of Holiday Lights.  The name of the tour is Holiday Sights and Festive Nights.  Apart from the Christmas Tree on the Common, there are not many lights on display in Boston.
  
  In reference to the complaint detail, our second tour guide, (not a security person), did ask the group to stop drinking and removed their cups (not covered), as the group was filling them from a flask while on the tour.  Our guides (and other guests) had already asked the group to stop doing this, and to be quiet,several times.
  
  Our team members were forced to make a difficult decision that night.  Because the group would not comply and continued to be disruptive arguing with the guide and drinking alcohol, for the safety and benefit of everyone else on the tour, the group of 4 was asked to leave the tour at the Boston Common.  The remaining guests on the tour then thanked our team members for removing the disruptive group. 
  
  Old Town Trolley Tours offers complying guests a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee on our tours.
  
  Please do not hesitate to reach out with any additional questions.

  Customer response

  01/12/2023

  Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered. 

  First of all, ******************** team is not being truthful.  Again, nobody said anything to us about drinking until the tour guide came over to my friends and rudely took their cups.  This was not handled properly.  And nobody asked us to be quiet.  Many people were being loud on this tour. We were not being disruptive. The argument came when we were not allowed to board back onto the trolley.  We were upset and knew that it was wrong to leave us stranded in the cold.  The argument was not on the trolley.  The guests on the trolley were annoyed because they wanted to go and we were trying to talk the guide into letting us back on.  We had no drinks at that point.  
  Secondly, as explained in my prior complaint, it was advertised as a 90 minute tour of Bostons holiday lights and sights with entertaining and festive tour guides (taken from the web site).  And again, it was anything but that.
  Lastly..What Is a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee? A satisfaction guarantee is a promise to assure a buyer that a refund will be issued if the buyer is not 100% satisfied with a product or service within a certain timeframe.  This is advertised on the web site.  We are not satisfied with this tour and requesting a refund for the following reasons:
  tour guides were rude, sarcastic and boring, they left us stranded in the cold, this event was not advertised properly, the trolley was crammed, and you could not see out any of the windowsjust basically a horrible experience. Please just do the right thing and issue the refund.

  Attached are some reviews.
  

   

   

  Business response

  01/12/2023

  Our final response is simply that the trolley video (with sound)from that night doesnt correspond with the accusations made in the above complaint, nor does our website advertise the tour that was purchased as noted.  Had the group not been drinking and disruptive, we would have refunded their money immediately, with just their notification that they were unhappy with our tour.  We, as a company, were put in an extremely difficult position and did what we felt was the safest way to handle the situation for everyone aboard the trolley.  In an effort to end this trail of communication, we have begun the process of refunding the 4 tickets through our ************************* but we would like it noted that we do not consider the actions of the group that night acceptable, and any and all situations similar to this will be handled in the same manner.
  

*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. ↩