Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  11/14/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Date of Service: November 12, 2022 Our group (22 people) made a reservation for November 12 with Forestiere Underground Gardens. Because of our large group, flights delayed from Singapore to United States, we asked the business on the day of if we can be reschedule to an earlier time. Business refused and did not provide any alternatives until after email was sent to Director of Tour Operations. Tickets were fully paid and no services provided. Booking was made over email and Tour Director did not state any policy for cancellation, rescheduling or rebooking. No acknowledgment was made of us agreeing to any booking policy with the business.

  Business response

  11/22/2022

  Below is the our statement about the incident:

  
  

  **** ****** made a reservation via email for 25 people in mid-October for a 1:15pm and a 1:30pm tour November 12th. She called and paid a discounted group rate over the phone for those people. She later requested to add 2 additional people to her reservation making it a group of 27. She reconfirmed all of this information via email and said she would call to pay for the 2 additional people on November 3rd. She called the morning of November 12th to pay for the 2 additional people and at that time requested that their group be accommodated earlier than their confirmed reservation. One of our team leads, Shawn, was on that phone call and informed her that we did not have space to accommodate her group of 27 people earlier than their confirmed time as it was a Saturday, our busiest day of the week. She said that was fine and proceeded to make payment for the 2 adults. She then arrived at the Underground Gardens approximately 15 minutes later (more than 2 hours before her reservations) and demanded her group be accommodated immediately because they needed to make it to their hotel in Sequoia National Park to check-in. She also insisted her entire group of 27 people all be kept together on one tour, even though when she made her reservation she was told we do not put more than 18 people with one tour guide and her group would need to be split between 2 tour guides with tours beginning 15 minutes apart, which she agreed to. When it was reiterated that we would not be able to fit them in earlier than their reservation she left and sent an email stating her group did not want to go on tour anymore because our staff (specifically Shawn) were rude and demanded a refund. Shawn responded to her email stating we would refund her the 2 adults she had paid for that morning as a courtesy but would not be issuing a refund for the others as it was their decision to not come to their tour and we have a 24 hour cancellation policy (which can be seen on our website here: https://undergroundgardens.com/faq/ and here: https://undergroundgardens.com/garden-tours-in-fresno-ca/ ). He also told her we could issue her a credit to use at a later time. I sent her a separate email stating that we would be able to assist her with fitting her group in on November 13th or November 14th but would not be issuing a refund. Her response to me was showing she had filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Because of her seemingly erratic behavior of saying something was fine and then shortly after demanding the opposite, our leadership team felt they must still hold her reserved tour times in case they did indeed show up for them. Unfortunately they did not show up so we had 2 tours we were not able to fill because they were being held for her group. **** states in her complaint that no services were provided, but that is because her group did not show up for the tours that she confirmed 3 separate times (October 11th, November 3rd, and November 12th).

  
  

  On a personal note:

  I do not know this for a fact, but the feeling I get about the dynamic of this group is that **** is a travel coordinator of some kind, that she did not communicate properly with the group she was supposed to be planning a trip for, is trying to make excuses (as we now have at least 3 different ones on why her group did not do the tour, not including the new one about flight delays in her BBB complaint), and that she does not want to be out the money so she is looking for loopholes. She states in her complaint that our cancellation policy was not stated to her, but we have our policies regarding many different concerns readily available on our website for any visitors that have specific questions regarding their visit.

  Customer response

  11/22/2022

   I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Reservations were made and due diligence were done for those reservations by paying them. One email from the Director, ****** F, stated that I did not have to pay for the reservation since it’s under my name. I still made the effort of making sure that they are paid regardless of her message. Due diligence. If I didn’t pay, and cancelled the day of, what would been done? 

  
  

  Money was exchanged and no services rendered. 

  
  

  Please don’t provide information about nothing you know of. Tour coordinator? I am merely making reservations for my family. A large group and have screen shot and forwarded all messages to them. The lady who went to the business was my aunt and she did not demand anything. She merely asked your employee, Shawn, if our tour can be rescheduled for an earlier which he rudely I might add, made a snide remark that it was already told on the phone that it cannot be done. Understand, she left upset and told our entire group if that’s the way asking question is being treated what more on the group tour. 

  
  

  Your policies are never reiterated to myself or anyone in my party. If you believe that each guest should click on your policies first before booking, be my guest. No one stated any cancellation policy and it was never acknowledged by myself or anyone from my group. 

  
  

  Money was exchanged and no services rendered. 

  Business response

  11/29/2022

  We are a small, family-owned business that prides itself on our customer service. We do not believe that our staff was rude or snide to any member of your party and that these descriptive words are being used simply because your party's last minute request to change your tour time by several hours on our busiest day of the week after you had already confirmed your original tour time on 3 different occasions was not granted. Additionally, because of the indecisive behavior you and your group displayed the day of your tour, our leadership team did not feel comfortable filling the tour slots that were held for your group in case you changed your minds once again and chose to show up for your originally scheduled and thrice confirmed tour times, thereby causing us to turn away other potential visitors. Additionally, our cancellation policy is listed in multiple places on our website. You seem to pride yourself on due diligence, and yet it seems you did not take the time to look into this. We also have policies about pets, strollers, wheelchairs, smoking, dress code and behavior, etc. that we do not list out to each individual that makes a reservation as we believe it is their responsibility to look into these things or ask a member of our team should it apply to themselves or their group. It is unfortunate that your group missed out on the inspiring and welcoming experience we provide to our visitors because you were not granted your last minute request and chose to forego your tours. Services were not rendered because your group chose not to show up for your tours. Despite all of this, we don't believe your family from Singapore should be penalized for the way you have handled this situation and therefore we will be issuing you a refund for the discounted rates you paid for your group nearly 7 weeks ago. We hope that you will treat employees you interact with in the future with more respect than you did ours when your wishes are not granted.

*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. ↩