Latin Tour Dimensions reviews and complaints

I purchased a tour of the Galapagos and Peru from Michael Steinberger last July. On the day of departure he called to say that there was a problem; the yacht booking for the Galapagos had been oversold and we should not leave for the airport until he resolved it. Four hours later he called to say the problem was resolved and we could leave.
In Quito I discovered from the local travel service that he had not prepaid the yacht booking, nor guide service in Quito, nor as it turned out, the Quito hotel. At the last moment, however, the funds came through and I was able to depart for the Galapagos. The rest of the tour proceeded as planned, except that I was required to pay my Quito hotel bill and the Galapagos National Park fees, both of which were included in the package Mr. Steinberger sold me.
However, on return home I discovered that Mr. Steinberger had charged my credit card an additional $6300, without notification or authorization, on the date of my departure, Nov. 29. When I called him about it he pleaded that he had underestimated the cost of the trip and stood to lose money. I told him that was his problem and that I regarded what he had done as theft. I reported it as such to my bank which issued me a conditional credit. Mr. Steinberger admitted he had acted without authorization and refunded the money to my account. He still owes me $400 for the Quito hotel and National Park Fees.
After this experience I cannot recommend his services to anyone.

I asked michael Steinberger, President and owner, of latin Tour Dimensions to plan a trip for my clients. He quickly asked for credit card information and kept pressing before he produced an itinerary. He said he had to ticket the air immediately. As soon a she got card info and before he received the CC authorizations, he charged the entire trip, air and land. That alerted me because it is certainly not cutomary 41/2 months out from travel. My clients were understandably irate. We requested a refund and he agreed. That was over six weeks ago and NOTHING had happened. We are in CC dispute with him. He is a disgrace to the travel industry and a very dishonest man. I advise EVERYONE NOT TO USE THIS unreliable agency. Thabnkfully, we stopped the process before travel. From reading reviews, you can see he does not pay hotels and tours for services and clients are "stuck" He is unrhical and unworthy to have any business clients. Help me put him out of business.

Michael Steinberger created a professional and thoughtful luxury tour for my clients. My clients’ hotel, tour, and guide arrangements went very well, except when they checked in for their first in-country flight and found that 4 of their 9 family members did not have seats on the plane. Because of this problem, my clients had to spend an extra $1590.59 for tickets, but these tickets were already included in the total package price paid to Latin Tour Dimensions before they left.

Mr. Steinberger acknowledged that the error occurred with his booking agent and he would be sending the refund for the airline tickets in the amount of $1590.59.
He also told me that commission checks are issued 30 days after clients return.
This would mean that a commission check should have been mailed on July 30, 2010.

Since the beginning of July 2010, I have collected more than a hundred emails involving my requests for or information about refund and commission checks, and I always get the same answer, “in a few days, “ or “by Monday at the latest, ” or “as soon as possible.”

He stated on August 26th, “I will commit to sending the refund no later than Monday no matter what. I will also send you commission info on Monday.” I did not hear from him again until I emailed him on September 12th to say that I was going to report him to the BBB and Florida Seller of Travel. At that time, he still told me it would be taken care of “soon, ” and even told me he would come in over the weekend to “address the file.” Still, I have nothing and, since November 2010, Mr. Steinberger has failed to respond to my emails and phone calls. The only response I've heard from him is via Florida Seller of Travel in which he states that he is still working with the agent to resolve the matter. I don't understand what his definition of "working with the agent" is, since I haven't heard from him in 4.5 months and I still don't have the refund or the large commission check.

Four of us booked a trip to Ecuador & the Galapagos through Latin Tour Dimensions. While on tour, we each had to pay $100 out of pocket for a fee that should have been included in our trip. I informed Michael Steinberger, the owner of Latin Tour Dimensions, immediately upon our return & he agreed we were due a refund. It is now July, 2010 and we have yet to see the money. He is now no longer responding to me, even though he assured me that the checks were issued 6/1/10. He has been impossible to deal with and I wouldn't want any one else to go through what I have had to endure. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY when booking tours to Central & South America!