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AffordableTours.com review: Scam , do not use! 40

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2:35 pm EDT
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My husband and I booked an Alaskan cruise through Affordable tours.com. On August 14 my husband found when checking the Holland America website that our tour booking had been cancelled, we had not heard anything from Affordable, so he contacted the agent A.G.

The agent advised that while she had taken our credit card information on July 18 she neglected to make the payment to Holland America.

In a conversation with this agent my husband was advised that we could be put on a cancellation list with H. A. if we wanted to do so, but it would cost somewhere between $100 to $150 - Affordable tours would not automatically do this for us and pay the cost, " but you can if you want to".

Affordable tours made no attempt to secure another booking for us, they advised that all cruises were fully booked - more than a month before we were to sail. They obviously felt that there would be no cancellations in that time ! something I find incredible and know to be a fallacy.

The eventual resolution offered was "I sent Mr. R. a letter on August 17 apologizing for the situation and offering that if he books with us again, we will sell him his next cruise at cost -- 100% commission discount".

Who are they kidding? Given this total disregard for the inconvienience and disappointment they caused we would be idiots to ever book with them again.

We have registered a complaint with the BBB of which they are members, their response remains unchanged from August 17, they feel that no other resolution is required.

Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

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Mg74
, US
Nov 04, 2018 7:52 am EST

They are a big scam they refuse to help

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Mg74
, US
Oct 28, 2018 1:43 pm EDT

They are a real scam please save your money and don't use them they don't care as long as they get your money

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Evelyn C
, US
Oct 10, 2017 11:51 am EDT

We booked a Viking Cruise with Affordable Tours, and it was our biggest mistake and nightmare EVER! We worked with Alex for the booking. She seemed knowledgeable during the booking process, but later found out that not to be the case. We told Alex we wanted to book Delta Comfort Seats and when could we do that. She said we would have to pay for our trip in full in order to do so, and we did. It then took us several days to finally get confirmation that payment was made. We chose our seats on the bulkhead and in Delta Comfort. I also asked for Delta flights as opposed to KLM/.We were booked from Madison connecting in Detroit and on the Amsterdam. From the time we booked our flights, Delta made a couple of time changes. However, on July 1st, I got an email from Delta saying flight out of Madison was cancelled, put on another flight from Madison so we could still make our Detroit connection. It meant we would have a 4.5 hr. layover in Detroit, but we were fine with that. On July 19th, I checked our flights and we were no longer flying through Detroit, but now through Minneapolis on KLM, and we had no seats on the MSP/AMS leg. NONE...and we paid for Delta Comfort. I called Delta to find out what happened and was told a "third party travel agent" had changed our flights! With the help of Delta and almost 3 hours on the phone we found two more seats in a bulkhead row of 4 passengers, not the two alone as we had picked months prior. The down fall of all of this was, we now had a 7 hours layover in Minneapolis, but knowing we had family there decided to go with those flights to get the Delta Comfort in the bulkhead. I emailed Alex telling her we needed to talk! When we spoke the next day, she denied that she made the change. When I told her Delta told me who made the change she finally admitted making the changes to our flights. She said, well I will take less commission to make up for this. She even told me she forgot that we had Delta Comfort, however, any travel agent could tell by where our seats were located. I was more surprised that she didn't have notes in a file for us but mostly amazed she would make changes without calling us to see what we wanted to do. I told her to not make any changes to our flights without talking with us first. I continually checked our flight almost daily to make sure nothing was changed. The day before our trip, I went to check in and in less than 24 hours someone changed our flights AGAIN and put us in the back of the plane...not in Delta Comfort that we paid for! I called Delta and they told me it was Viking. I called Viking and got the person that spoke to Alex about our 7 hour layover in Minneapolis. The Viking rep said she called Alex told her that she noticed that we had a 7 hour layover and what did she think we should do. She said, oh they will not like that. AGAIN, Alex did not call us to see what we wanted to do. She moved us to another flight, seats in the back of the plane...needless to say we were furious. Viking helped us get one of our seats back because when she moved us, someone checked in and took the aisle seat, so we ended up with two middle seats, but thankfully it was still in the bulkhead row. I called and spoke to both a customer service person and one of the owners, both of them sided with Alex. I would never recommend Affordable Tours to ANYONE and for sure not Alex. I would have thought a file would have been created for each client so if there was a change of any kind, a phone call to the client would be in order to see what they wanted to do. I was told they were going to refund us $200, however, we only received a check for $100. It was apparent to us, neither Affordable Tours or Alex has our best interest at hand.
Clare

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Wayne Ready
, US
Sep 05, 2017 8:05 pm EDT

I can assure you I have no connection to Affordable Tours. I booked a Globus tour to Great Britain and they saved me $1200 US off the price showing on the Globus site for two of us. I contacted Helga of AT a couple of times and got a quick helpful reply to my queries. I would use them again for another trip.

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Evelyn C
, US
Oct 10, 2017 11:52 am EDT

They do save you some money, but the travel agent we had there really caused us problems...see my review below.

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Abacus0101
Northport, US
May 12, 2015 4:49 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Do not use affordable tours. My address is northport ny. The comany was given my correct address information, but sent my itinerary one month befor to newport ny. I never received it no phone call from them. When i called back a dana rudely hung up on me, never gave me her extension number. Her supervisor who i left a voice, ail to madonna didnt call back. Awful company and their prices arent the best use europeanvacations instead, better deals

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JasmineR
, US
Apr 17, 2015 8:44 pm EDT

We saw a good rate for a cruise on affordabletours.com. My boyfriend and I both work during the day so we only have time to look for vacation deals at night. We went through the process of giving our information on the Affordable Tours website. We even emailed them the same night. We, then, called them the next morning to follow-up during their normal business hours to give them the benefit of the doubt. BUT FOR THE WHOLE DAY, THEY DIDN'T ANSWER CALLS. We never got a response back with our emails. When we called back that afternoon, they gave us a COMPLETELY different rate. It is very unprofessional not to honor a rate you posted. It makes me lose confidence in this company. Next time, I'll book through a more reputable company. NEVER AGAIN. I hope no one else gets deceived like we did by affordabletours.com.
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trust destroyed
Littleton, US
Jul 25, 2014 6:34 pm EDT

Never, never use Affordable Tours. They promise optional tours that don't exist! Bad company

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trust destroyed
Littleton, US
Jul 24, 2014 2:55 pm EDT

DO NOT, DO NOT use Affordable Tours. They misrepresented information to me and would not refund my money when I called them on the mistake. THERE IS NO CUSTOMER SERVICE AT THIS COMPANY, ALL THEY DO IS SELL, SO BE WARNED!

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Travel Queen
Hickory, US
Jan 02, 2014 12:51 pm EST

I am a travel agent who owns her own business and I know absolutely nothing about Affordable Tours, except, they are an online travel agency. Ok so they offer "lower" prices than the actual tour company can. That makes absolutely no sense! Does this mean, their agents make less money because of this? Also, if you have a home town travel agent, why not deal with someone local, where you can actually go into theif office and sit down and discuss your trip? Why do you want to deal with just email only or phone calls only? Why not go talk to someone face to face? If you were going to buy a car, are you going to buy it over the internet? Chances are, you won't. Be loyal to your hometown person. He or she will be there for you.

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Betsill
Jacksonville, US
Oct 04, 2013 2:26 pm EDT

We used Affordable Tours to book a Globus tour to Europe - European Jewels. The tour was fine but we had a big problem with the 3 day add on we had the agent, Allan, "take care" of for us. We wanted to travel to the Normandy area to see the WWII sights and Allan booked us in Le Harve, over 2 hours from where we should have been. We traveled by train to a city close to nowhere and had to manuever public transportation down to Caen, where we should have been. We visited the WWII Museum but could not go to the beaches and cemetery because of a time issue and the public transporation back to our city in nowhere. In addition, if Le Harve had been the correct the city, the motel Allan put us in was 10 miles out of town and absolutely unacceptable. We were lost and using public buses in Le Harve and the kindness of the people and drivers helped us get back into town where we checked into a nice hotel close to the train station. Upon arriving back in the states, the supervisor, Marily, admitted Allan was not ready to book add ons and they refunded the money we had spent with them and our costs for the lost three days but we can never recover what we lost by not seeing what we went to Normandy to see. Be very careful booking add ons with them. You shouldn't have to follow up on a travel agent but I should have.

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Cheryl L M
Junction Cioty, US
May 02, 2013 1:21 pm EDT

I recently booked a tour with AffordableTours.com for my mother, my daughter and myself. My mother is an easily excitable person but I'm a bit more laid back. We had numerous little issues come up. I was given a date we had to have our deposit in by and the day before that I received numerous calls reminding me to get my money in as soon as possible. Finally I just called Sandra, my consultant, and said we'd have our money to her when it was required and not before. The next issue arose when it was time to pay our final payment for the trip and it was made in two separate payments. That went ok, but it separated our money when it came time to get a refund because the tour had been cancelled. After the tour was cancelled, due to no blame of AffordableTours, we needed to pay the deposit on our new trip before we actually got any of our refund. My parents were afraid to invest even more money into what they saw as a possible scam but AffordableTours did nothing to see to it that we got our money back or got our refund before the next deadline passed. I had to pay my own money to put down the deposit, even though other monies were being refunded. We finally got our refund, only after asking numerous times why it was taking so long, and were able to pay the remainder of our payment for our replacement tour. Next, we couldn't get ahold of Sandra with questions because she'd gone on her own vacation. I can't blame her for that because everyone needs a vacation, but she didn't leave a specific person in charge of her cases. We just had to call and talk to whomever answered the phone. We hadn't gotten any word from the time we paid our money until we got the info from Cosmo. It would have been nice if Sandra had let us know a time frame to rely on in getting information. Then when I brought up the little things which had occurred and the whole thing to do with the money to the supervisor, Sandra was gone so I had to contact someone with our concerns, she took a very rude stand and was not in any way diplomatic in her reply to us. We haven't left for the trip yet, buI can say that I'd never work with AffordableTuors anymore since there are so many other ways to get good and affordable tours without all the rudeness.

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fiore86
, US
Jul 27, 2012 2:33 pm EDT

I booked a cruise with Affordable Tours. As a travel agent myself, I can say that their agents like to cut corners. The whole booking process was a nightmare as well as trying to redeem the promotion they offered me. I was promised a free promotion of 3 days 2 night free hotel stay, which I never got.

I emailed and called the agent for 8 months before they sent it to me... when I filled out the paperwork for the certificate the thrid party charged my credit card and never sent me my booking confirmation. I tried working with both the third party and Affordable Tours to get this resolved, as I ended up missing my vacation to Vegas I had planned on those 2 free hotel night stays.

When I finally spoke with a manager at Affordable Tours (After calling for a week straight and leaving her voicemails with no calls back), she told me "it's not their fault, they only promised me the certificate not for the other company to redeem it" SHADY!

Then, she proceeded to tell me how it is my own fault for missing my vacation because there are plenty of hotels in Vegas I could have booked myself... Not taking into consideration that I may not be able to afford the hotels on my own dollar, since they had promised me 2 free nights She was out of line and basically scolded me for missing my own vacation. She somehow diverted blame for the failed promation from their poor business decisions back to ME!?! I felt offended and ripped off after getting off the phone with her.

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Happy World Wanderer
, US
Apr 05, 2012 7:03 am EDT

My experience with Affordable Tours was less than satisfactory. I was very well and courteously attended to throughout my booking conversations. Affordable claims the lowest possible prices for tours, and a lower quote would be matched plus a bonus of a $100 cash card. I DID find a lower quote from Vacations To Go, submitted it to Affordable, and never heard from Affordable again regarding this tour. Needless to say, I booked with VTG. Folks, do your homework, match quotes and check with as many agencies along with Better Business Bureau records. Remember that agencies have discount/profit competitive margins from the actual tour companies. Bon Voyage!

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Herk
Herkimer, US
Mar 29, 2012 5:27 am EDT

I find that they do not wish to honor quotes because of errors made by their employees and when you have a complaint they would wish that you would just go away. I am waiting to hear if they resolve my complaint before I go to the BBB.

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Desire Heat
Thornbury, CA
Sep 26, 2011 11:35 pm EDT

Being a person that makes all the travel arangements for my family (and close friends) i feel as if I can tell when I get a deal and when I am being robbed. SO to hear someone with such dissatisfaction with a company (Affordabletours.com) that I use religiously it makes me feel they are lying. I have used affordable for 3 trips for myself and 4 or 5 for friends and family i have had no problems and i KNOW i got the best price possible because I shop around and affordabletours.com offers a proce match guarantee.

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TravelSteve
Houston, US
Sep 07, 2011 11:15 pm EDT

I bought a tour from Affordable Tours and was very pleased. The price was great and the service was also very good. My agent helped me out at all times and had some really good sugeestions. The trip was great and the hotels were very clean and centrally located.

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DPM000000000
Vestal, US
Aug 11, 2011 5:55 pm EDT

WOW, based upon the reviews I have decide not to book with affordable tours-----may not be afforadable after all! Often times, the cheap comes out expensive!

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JohnyLongBoard
Galveston, US
Jul 16, 2011 9:54 pm EDT

I have used this company two times and have been extremely pleased both times. Do your own researach!

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Pedro Isizarry
Detroit, US
Jul 05, 2011 5:59 pm EDT

I have used affordabletours.com for many years and I think this is a shame for someone to say these things about them i have never had one issue or one wrong word said to me by the people at affordabletours. Theya have sent me all around the world on tours and cruises and I have never had one issue. I will continue using them because I trust them and thats hard to find in any indusrty these days especially the travel indusrty.

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concerned_traveler
, US
Jun 25, 2011 12:51 am EDT

Never dealt with this company, but I have been researching a trip to Australia and Affordable Tours came up first.I figured I'd check reviews before I committed to anything. Between reading this page & trip advisors page I am sure of 3 things ALOT of people had REALLY REALLY bad things to say about Affordabletours.com. Secondly, any time you are a positive post about the company they praise the exact same things and are pretty vague, at leather 95% of their posts are from freinds or employees and are fake names & stories. Thirdly, I can ABSOLUTELY ASSURE you that I will NEVER do business with this SHADY FLY BY NIGHT COMPANY called Affordabletours.com

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Amanda D
London, GB
Mar 24, 2011 11:44 pm EDT

I have recently booked a cruise through Affordable Tours, and am already wishing that I hadn't. Since paying my deposit, I have emailed tham three times with the same query and have had absolutely no respone. I even copied in my agent's line manager the last time, but still I have not had a reply. This makes me very concerned about what would happen if there was a serious problem with my booking - clearly once they have your business they are not too concerned with customer relations or aftercare.
I did some research about the company before I made my booking, and found it to have mixed reviews, with one of the main criticisms being poor communication with clients. Unfortunately I went ahead and booked anyway, as they were offering a cheap deal, but I now regret not having gone with another company and paying a bit more, as it is more than worth the extra expense just for peace of mind. I wouldn't use them again

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tito vega
New York, US
Mar 07, 2011 1:12 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I am not an experienced travel I have only been on one vacation over seas. I went for a week in Paris and London using Monograms. I purchased it through affordabletours and they were very helpful and caring. First I booked the trip with my fiancee and she dumped me and I had already put all of her info as my co passenger for the trip. I thought I would lose all my money i put in but for a fee they were able to cancel her and I took my best friend and she was very happy. SO we went and we had a great time we even took a gondola ride and I ended up proposing to her on that ride. Now we will have our wedding in 3 weeks. Needless to day it was thebest trip I have ever had. WHo would have thought my REAL wife was always next to me all theses years. Thanks to affordabletours I met mrs vega my wife to be.

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fogodechao
Houston, US
Jan 19, 2011 5:15 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

For our annual vacation I really try to make it a trip that we can cherish. The only way to do that is by having money. Affordable Tours allows me to do it with less money because of there reat disconts. There reviews allow me to filter out the bad trips from the ones I desire. Affordabletours.com website is so user friendly that I spend ours just going through the different options I have. This company is my prefered travel agency.

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JKJonnie
Houston, US
Dec 30, 2010 4:08 pm EST

I LOVE AFFORDABLETOURS.COM! These guys are great. Have bought many time and will contue to buy. Like your service!

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Angel 8
Sacramento, US
Dec 21, 2010 6:54 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Its sad to hear such a thing happen to you i dont know if they have new staff or what but the experince I had with Affordabletours since last august has been nothing but great . I book a river cruise on the Danube river and got 2 for 1 airfare promotion that saved me $1000. I didnt even know about thepromotion it was offered to me by Janet my travel agent at affordabletours.com. She was very helpful she evencalled me from her house after she got an email from me late one night. I will use them in the future and from now on... maybe you should try them again andsee if u havea better experience.

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mccallbirdlover
Port Marina, US
Sep 02, 2010 9:50 pm EDT

When I first started searching for company to book my tour to Egypt I never thought of using an internet company and I stumbled upon Affordable tours and they met all my criteria, BBB, great reviews and cost efficient. They I started my process and found out they also have great customer service. This is very reputable company and I will be using them in the future.

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drewhart
Abilene, US
Jun 07, 2010 10:23 am EDT

Do people even read reviews any more? I know I read a couple but that was after I had already purchased my vacation with Affordabletours.com. I didn’t read anything that would have affected my decision but it did allow me to see that they are a very dependable company. And with all the scams and con artist out there it was a breath of fresh air. I bought my 10th anniversary cruise through them and I had a blast and im looking forward to booking my 20th.

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xaharrison
San Francisco, US
May 10, 2010 7:24 am EDT

This company is a place that I believe all customer service business should pattern them selves after. Affordabletours.com has always been very thoughtful and insightful in all my dealings with them. They must have extensive customer service training or just only hire quality individuals. The three travel agents I have encountered while using affordable tours have done went above and beyond and have been helpful in every situation I have had with them.

My first vacation with them I wanted to do a tour then right after I wanted to take a cruise. I don’t think this is an everyday occurrence but they where able to set me up with the perfect vacation. I traveled to London, France and Italy then flew back to London and took a cruise out of South Hampton. My trip was one of the best times I have ever had in my entire life. That is the reason I have used them two other times since. And I will continue to use them in the future

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itsallashow
Aaronsburg, US
May 08, 2010 1:27 pm EDT

I discovered AffordableTours.com by searching TOURS to Europe on the web, and I took an 11 day Tour last summer to Europe and got to see much more than what I thought with a few friends. We visited France, England, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium for such a great and affordable price, actually right at our budget. It was quite a few of us, but Affordabletours really helped us with that. Since I booked the tour, I dealt with the travel agent and I felt like I'd known her for years. It just made things that much easier for us and the next thing we knew, it was time for the tour. It went great, just what I expected it to be! I wanted to leave my thoughts as I loved this experience with Affordabletours, I will definitely refer this company to anyone that is looking to travel.

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hollyhobbyusa
Main, US
May 04, 2010 11:28 am EDT

When you find someplace that you trust it is easy to tell people about it. I have used Affordabletours for 8 years and 6 different vacations. You may say I’m just comfortable with them but I know good service when I receive it and that is what I get from this company. I am not sure why there are so many negative reviews since I have had nothing but good experiences with them. The discounts they offer and the customer service they provide are just two of the reasons my family keeps coming back to them. I am encouraged when the agent that I talk to is knowledgeable about the destinations we seek to visit and the companies that provide the tour or cruise service. When they can tell me little secrets that they have learned because they actually travel themselves, then I feel that I can trust them with every detail of my vacation. Since we have saved up to 10% on some of our vacations that means we have more money to spend on our vacations. Looking forward to booking our 2011 Alaskan cruise with them in the next few months.

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icingqween
Austin, US
Apr 28, 2010 10:19 am EDT

We are very experienced travelers and we have been to Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. We also have used a couple different agencies to book our vacations. And we are not here to talk bad about anyone but we know when we have found a good thing. This Affordabletours place is the best we have used; they return calls and at least try to answer all of our questions. I won’t go as far as to say I would never use another company but I know I won’t go and look for another one I’m pretty satisfied with this company.

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Gatormayne
Satsuma, US
Apr 20, 2010 2:25 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

On my very first Cruise I went to the Eastern Caribbean. I booked with Affordabletourscom and I experienced nothing kindness and excellent service. My travel agent Madeline was a big help she got us some ship board credit and free Champagne and robes. I couldnt ask for anything more. I was lucky i was searching on the internet for different cruise and I stumbled upon some review and I saw the name Affordable Tours, I checked the prices and they were what I was looking for. I am very glad I found them and I will use them in the future.

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xris22
Los Angeles, US
Apr 19, 2010 5:07 pm EDT

When my wife first suggested we use Affordable Tours I scoffed at the idea. I don’t really like using internet companies but I read reviews and decided to call and to my surprise it was an actual person not a machine or a foreigner. After we paid for our trip I would think they were done with me but they called to ask if we received our document and they called to wish us a safe trip. The little things matter to us so I really liked that Affordabletours.com took care of the little things.

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UT0428
Houston, US
Apr 14, 2010 9:16 am EDT

I used Affordabletours.com on my first ever vacation abroad and it wasn’t all I hoped it would be. The tour company I used was one I had been for warned about but the price was good so I took a chance. When I returned from my trip I filled out a survey to tell them (affordable Tours) about my experience and 4 days later I got a voucher in the mail giving me a past client credit for my next tour. I wasn’t going to use it but it was substantial enough for me to try and I did. But this time I read review and picked a much better tour operator (Globus vacations) I had the best trip I could imagine.

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kobefan81
Houston, US
Apr 12, 2010 11:23 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

My family and I are back after a marvelous trip to Mexico ( Mexico Colonial Jewels) with Insight Vacations. We enjoyed this tour very much. I was a bit afraid to buy a tour with an internet company and especially from a company (Affordabletours.com) we where not familiar with and one that we only read a few reviews on, but we were pleasantly surprised. Every thing was perfect during the tour. When we arrived at the Presidente Intercontinental hotel in Mexico City, the tour manager had reserved a room for us and everything was correct. When we got back our travel agent called us to make sure we had a good time and asked us about our experience and if they could do anything differernt to make our next trip better. I thought that was a good touch. We will deffinatly use affordable tours again.

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cbedair
Spring, US
Apr 09, 2010 5:10 pm EDT

This is a very reputible company from what I have encounterted. I used them once for a river cruise and on a Tour to Europe with Insight Vacations. They People with affordabletours.com treated me as if I was a valued customer and I always seemed to get the best available price. I am not a rich person so i shop around until I KNOW i have the best price and I always end up with Affordable Tours. And purchaseing a vacation is not something to be taken lightly because a lot of money is involved so I take my time and read reviews and do my homework. I really believe they area reputible company and I will use them in the future.

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momofsunburnedkids
Scotsdale, US
Apr 09, 2010 10:39 am EDT

My husband and I decided to take our family on a vacation during the kids Spring Break this year. We have booked cruises with Affordabletours.com for years now, so we decided to use them to book our tour with Globus.

Our travel agent – Brenda - has always been very helpful with setting up our vacations. She is through and precise and makes sure that all of our questions are answered. My husband Truman worries a lot and asks lots of questions and Brenda does so well to not mind his constant phone calls. I like that Affordabletours has good people working there. When our agent is not there and we need help then the other agents help us with no problem.

Anyway, I digressed. We booked the booked the Globus Rome, Florence and Venice and it was amazing. It was everything Affordabletours.com and Globus said it would be. From the moment we landed in Rome they picked us up and it was non stop fun!

I would greatly recommend using Affordabletours.com anytime you want a cruise or tour. I hope that people reading this review know that Affordabletours is a great company to work with.

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Former Affordable customer
Marco Island, US
Apr 02, 2010 9:06 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Mr. Fernandez didn't have the manners to contact us after we took the time to document the 11 day trip to the Holy land (see below). A person named, Lucy, telephoned, was extremely defense, obviously hadn't even read the letter or possibly never saw the letter. We had to take the time to review this nightmare again on the phone. Lucy did NOTHING but defend the company, the agents, the number of customers they have, number of agents they have. Couldn't explain why Mr. Jaimi Fernandez or Marilyn did NOT have the manners to return distrout customers who are running at the last minute to prepare for an 11 day trip tomorrow. If it hadn't been for Globus headquarters directly we would still be in a quandry.

Our suggestion is NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, do business with AFFORDABLE TOURS. Deal directly with GLOBUS if you join the journey club you cost will be the same if not better. Their service is the service you would expect from a professional organizaation that has been in the business for 80 years. Not some bush league travel agency that purportedly has been in business for 11 years. Only God knows how they are surviving with the incompetent, lack of customer support, lack of concern, an attitude that they rather try to get new customers than keep the same customers coming back. A business that runs like this cannot stay in business for much longer. Educated customers do NOT have to deal with such incompetence and Affordable will become unaffordable and the lights will go out for good.

Needless to say Globus's executive office is painfully aware of this entire disaster and they had a whole different attitude in wanting to go above and beyond to contact us, respond to us, and follow-up to ensure the root cause is identified and corrective action is taken. This is GLOBUS, a company we want to continue to do business with and not Affordable tours a company doesn't care to know what happened, wouldn't know root cause from a root canal, and probably never heard of corrective action to ensure the process never goes down the drain like this disaster did.

There have been many travel agencies that took the same attitude and now they are abandoned offices. Too bad they apparently do NOT have competent customer driven representatives. It appears they have part timers who are interested in making an extra buck period.

Mr. Jaimi Fernandez, President:

We do NOT accept Gilbert's lame excuses!

He did nothing to earn our business, and because of him we will NOT do business with Affordabletours again. Again NO assertiveness, NO customer care, a good deal of incompetence.

Several times when we needed to reach Gilbert, he was not available. After we had paid $3400, we were threatened Globus would cancel our reservations unless we jumped through hoops, getting the email (Gilbert unavailable again, he had gone home again) and we had to work with other agents (one started to assist then said he was going home in 10 minutes, and passed me on to another agent), printing the email, signing the release, scanning the release, returning the edocumnets in less than an hour.

When Gilbert contacted Globus about our transfers I suggested he would need the booking number, etc. He told me no he'd get it later, hold on. I did and when Gilbert returned to the phone in a fluster he told me he needed the information fast because the Globus person was rushing him. Wonder why I didn't think of that? Oh yes I did, didn't I. Gilbert told me Globus has 24x7 transfer process, but they might NOT be able to pick us up at the airport because it would be close to 4 PM. Also we gave Gilbert our return from TLV on April 13 @ 11:55 PM and he said no problem 24x7. This better be the case because we do NOT want to be taken to TLV airport 12 hours prior to our flight. We expect to be taken to TLV no earlier than 9:30 PM. Again NO assertiveness, NO customer care, a good deal of incompetence.

Gilbert told me we would get the documents vis-a-vis UPS and Globus personnel confirmed same last Friday after Gilbert was NOT available again. Looked the next few days for the documents but no UPS package came. Again I had to do the follow up calls, and once again Gilbert was NOT available, he had gone home. When I finally got through to Gilbert, he said we won't be getting paper documents because of his prerecorded mantra, "you were a late booking...". Affordable tours and Globus had NO problem accepting my $3400 that was not too late, but it was too late for Gilbert to properly serve the customer. Again NO assertiveness, NO customer care, a good deal of incompetence.

As of yesterday PM we had NOT received any paper or email documents. Again I contacted Gilbert, and again same old story Gilbert was NOT available. Once again I had to contact Globus and had GLOBUS email me the documents last night ~ 8:30 PM. Again NO assertiveness, NO customer care, a good deal of incompetence.

When we made the reservation we were to receive (2) Globus travel bags. Again I had to make the call to Affordable and again you were absent. Subsequently you changed that gift (for $3400) to we would NOT receive the bags, portfolios, documents.
Again NO assertiveness, NO customer care, a good deal of incompetence.

Left a message for Gilbert yesterday. Once again Gilbert was NOT available again, he was absent again.

Received a phone call today @ 9:40 AM and the person at the other end of the telephone said, who is this and where am I calling? At first I was taking aback, thought it was a crank call from a nut but, It turned out to be Gilbert. Apparently Gilbert does NOT maintain a tickler file on his clients. If he did he'd have their name, address, phone number, etc data for reference. Possibly this is Gilbert's normal way of doing business. Most unprofessional!
Again NO assertiveness, NO customer care, a good deal of incompetence.

Affordable tours has turned a very spiritual, once in a lifetime trip for my wife and I into a disheartening, frustrating, tenuous disaster.

We have to wonder what value add did Affordable input to the process? Nothing as far as we are concerned. Would think Affordable tours would be ashamed of themselves in how you unprofessionally mishandled repeat customers. Believe Affordable will not have this opportunity again! Again NO assertiveness, NO customer care, a good deal of incompetence.

Affordable tours has caused us undue stress, more time, misinformation, no information, no follow up than when we built our home. We were NOT building a home with you, thank God. We were only putting a trip of a lifetime for my wife.

Affordable and you owe us. I await Affordable's quick response. Not another excuse from Gilbert.

D
D
distantplaces
Houston, US
Dec 14, 2009 1:27 pm EST

I have been doing a lot of research and have found various things said about booking with on line companies and after having used a few other on line and local agencies, I found Affordabletours.com. I have to say that they give great service. I have booked several trips with them both tours and cruises now, and all three of the different staff members who assisted me were helpful and went over and above what I would consider their job to be.

I am now in the process of booking a Scandinavian tour and the agent I am working with now is really good. She obviously knows her tour companies because she gave me several options and helped me decide which tour I would like to go on.

Since finding Affordabletours.com, I have recommended to several people the business and will continue to do so whenever travel comes up.

I hope that you give them a second chance. I feel they do a great job.

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