Our tour consultant with our clients on departure
Tourist Line Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 1-5 employees (Founded in 2020)
- Tour Types:
- Custom budget & mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $100 to $200 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
IE
Email Kalle | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Possible scam and fraud. We feel ripped off
Be aware, possible scam, fraud and very dishonest people!
Dream holiday turned into a nightmare!
First and foremost TouristLine safaris is not a tour operator but an agency within an office with numerous other seemingly fake agencies all under the names of Fiona, Lilian and some guy going only by the name of Daniel! Among others those agencies include tourist line safaris, absolute holiday safaris and big time safaris!
We be booked a 13 day safari tour through Kenya and Tanzania for 4000usd p.p and paid 30% deposit. After paying the deposit, communication abruptly stopped. We didn't think much of it yet but were already concerned. At no point they provided further instructions and/or asked for hotel name to pick us up etc. We contacted them instead twice to confirm the hotel name for pick up and they confirmed pick up time. When we arrived in Nairobi I again confirmed hotel name for pick up. Among day of pick up after 1h there were still nobody, I contacted them and they said someone just left the office. Half hour later, still nothing. Then apparently it turned out the driver went to a different hotel. Long story short we ended up already 3h late that morning. After paying the rest of the amount the problems started.
They started changing the plans and tried to cut off game drives.
The safari car was in a very bad condition. It was falling apart and my partner even hit her head the first day on one of the many loose nails/screws. She bleeded and got a big bump on the head. The car was filthy, almost all windows broken, no handles, no A/C and so on.
On the second day every 10-15min the driver started checking under the car. He told us apparently the brake oil was leaking.
On the third day in the middle of the road the breaks stopped working, and the driver was then driving only 10-20km/h because he couldn't use the breaks and was looking for a mechanic. We lost overall 3h that day. The next day without any communication or warning he drove into a mechanic shop again and put the car with us inside into the forklift so that the mechanics can check something. We didn't know what's going on. He didn't even ask us to leave the car in the meantime. We were literally left inside the car not knowing how long it might take or so. I was looking at all the other tour cars the vast majority were really good. Only a handful of cars were equally bad
Because of the car we lost multiple hours of game drive.
Also the driver/guide was constantly late in the morning and we were the last to leave the hotel and usually the first to come back. He literally the whole time on the phone, didn't communicate anything with us and even worse, was picking up people and doing some extra stuff despite having a private tour.
Until now we thought it's just bad service.
However, when we were about to go to Tanzania only then we were told that the Tanzania part will be with a different tour company. Something we were not aware of at any stage prior to paying full amount. Once we crossed the border the actual real and big problems started.
It turned out tourist line safari is not a tour company per se but hires different companies to do the safari.
The tour company that picked us up in Tanzania had a completely different plan and way worse hotels. E.g. instead of staying in nysa lodge, rhino lode or sangaiwe lodge which cost around 200-400usd a night, we stayed in octagon lodge and charity hotel in Arusha which costs only 30usd a night.
We immediately started calling TouristLine safaris and told them this is not what we booked and paid for. But they just said that they booked different accommodation as per availability. However this was never communicated with us before. They didn't inform us about all the changes and thus we completely overpaid. I asked for either doing the tour we actually paid for or get a refund for the Tanzania part because this was completely different and low budget. They first said that they will refund but then immediately said that its not possible etc.
The agency in Tanzania was also lying to us and was constantly contradicting themselves. First they said they told tourist line that they can't book the accomodations we paid for and blammed TouristLine. TouristLine safaris at this point stopped responding to us and just said this is now the tour and not their responsibility anymore, we can either do this safari with the changed program and accommodations or come back and loose all the money.
We were left with no choice but doing a low budget safari. We lost overall at least 2 days worth of game drives and stayed in accommodations worth much less.
We started doing some research and found out that numerous tourists were scammed this way. They suddenly change the plan and put tourists in cheaper accommodations blaming one and each other and nobody actually feels responsible. They sell tours and accommodations that they never actually booked or even had.
We also found out that they operate under several different tour agency names.
Unfortunately we feel scammed and our dream holiday became a nightmare. We were left with a tour that was not what we booked and the frustration and disappointment is huge.
We also overpaid by a big margin.
When we arrived back in Nairobi we went to the office and there were different people actually saying that TouristLine Safaris doesn't operate here but after they realized we won't get scammed so easily they started arguing and after 2 hours they agreed to refund us very little amount not even covering the difference of one accomodation. There were so many men in the office and we felt threatened and in danger. We were then forced to sign some paper that we agree not to sue them. It seems this is the way the silence people and keep scamming tourists.
Please guys be aware and don't book from this agency and any other one under the names of Lilian, Fiona or daniel. We are not even sure if those names are real or who we were actually talking with on the phone and in the office.
Reply from Tourist Line Safaris
Posted on Sep 26, 2023Hello,
First, we take this chance to apologise to this couple for this experience.
Second, we would like to put some light on the following points that they mentioned:
We are not scammers, we are registered with the government of Kenya as a company and we offer services professionally as we are supposed to, without compromise. What we advertise, is what we sell.
Our terms and conditions state that if for example a luxury/midrange accommodation facility is fully booked, we suggest a higher class facility or similar. This is exactly what we did, and also briefed the clients before hand and they agreed to partake the safari.
During safari, the clients ran out of cash and were constantly borrowing money from our tour guide to buy souvenirs multiple times, and of course our guide could only come in handy for so long, till he couldn't. From here, the clients started to ignore the guide during game drives and stop overs when it was time for lunch, started to shout at him and caused a fuss. This followed by them demanding for refunds through emails while they were still on safari for the "stress" they had experienced from one of them being hurt by a door. Our vehicles are also well maintained, and we really wish you attached the photo of the luxury land cruisers you used during the safari.
For the better part of the safari, all we received from them during safari is: "We will sue you to the tourism police and our embassy as well if you don't refund us our money for the stress we are going through...." When we asked to seek understanding since everything had been provided as per the contract, there were no reasons, they were just angry. At some point while they were still on safari, we were willing to refund them full amount since it was getting bit hard to satisfy them even a little, no matter what we did extra. Then after a 5 hours conversation with them on phone, they decided to do the safari to completion, and they were satisfied.
So the end of the safari came and we brought them to our office. It is true that Lilian, Fiona and all the other ladies were not in since it was a Sunday, and only the gents report to the office on Sundays. (The ladies take breaks on Sundays and the gents on Saturdays so that the office remains always open every day of the week). When they got to the office, our operations manager David, not Daniel as they call him, wanted to hear from them and to also make sure they were fine as we always do for all our clients at the end of their safari. They demanded for a 10% ($800) refund of the total amount they had paid, which was definitely not going to be fair for us since all the services had been provided accordingly. The lady started crying and banging our table and threatening to call the police. It was starting to get uncomfortable for other clients who were in the office. This was very unfortunate, and as a diligent company, we came down to their level and in as much as it was going to take a toll on us, that refund of $800 was initiated.
The reason why they signed upon refund is not to silence them for any reasons but because, as per our office policies: if/when any amount of money is extracted from the accounts department, be it of any use, that is utilities, refunds or any other causes, a petty cash document is signed to ascertain that the money was actually used for that specific purpose.
It is very unfortunate that this is how it ended up with these clients, it does not make us happy, and this is not what we do.
However, Tourist Line Safaris takes this opportunity to own accountability of where the clients felt like we did not meet their expectations. Our aim is to always give the best to all our clients, to give them quality services and make their holiday vacations exceptional and memorable.
Every single day, we strive to offer quality services to our clients and they have always felt happy with our services. This has always been our ultimate goal and satisfaction.
With kind regards,
Tourist Line safaris
PT
Email Inês Ferreira | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
This is a total scam!!! The fotos are not from the hotels you stay, there are extra costs everyday!!
This company puts fotos of magnific hotels and then leaves you on a terrible hotel. There are extra costs everyday, the meals are terrible, the facilities totally not clean, the guide is very rude. Please don'´t book never ever with this company!!!
Reply from Tourist Line Safaris
Posted on Dec 28, 2021Hello Ines,
We hope our response finds you well.
We would kindly like to address this review.
This particular client booked for a budget safari. Which means, camping & budget hotels. The safari was very much comfortable, as we always give the very best to our clients. However, she wanted a luxury accommodation facility that she saw on our luxury packages online, for free. As a company, that's difficult to do. At this point, this is where she began naming our budget hotels "terrible" and hating on everything, for no particular reason.
The extra cost she is talking about is the PCR tests while crossing the border from Kenya to Tanzania, which is obviously known that we are going through a pandemic, and tests like these are important and mandatory, especially while travelling. Everyone understands this.
In every slight situation even as small as doing a quick picnic lunch, she kept on threatening the driver and yelling at him, telling him "I will call the police!" texting the office on the same as well. We took it light, and tried to make her safari as comfortable as possible, which includes even changing her hotel in Amboseli NP to an upgrade, for free. Still this wasn't enough.
We are highly offended by this client calling us all sorts of names despite us trying our best to make them comfortable. Our clients whom we have served before and even after them, know that we provide the best and quality services at very friendly prices.
Thank you.