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Gary G
If I could, I'd give 0/5. Where do I start with this review, I honestly cannot convey my anger and frustration with Viator, but I’ll try my best. I purchased the ‘Skip-the-line entry with host to Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill for our city break to Rome. I purchased this on 27/3/19 via the Viator website for 2 people on 10th of May at 10:30am which came to £50.13. I then confirmed this by email with Viator on the 30th of March. On the day, we arrived 45minutes before to give plenty of time to get tickets and find the meeting point. We had to meet at the ‘Roman Empire Tours’ shop (Address – Via Capo D’Africa, 15 A 00184, Roma) and hand over our Viator voucher in exchange for the tickets. We handed the confirmation and voucher over to the man at the reception who then spoke to another lady in Italian for 2/3 minutes before telling us that they no longer accept this voucher and haven’t for the last 2 months. I showed him the email confirmation, the voucher and any other details I had but he had zero interest in anything we said. When we were leaving, he started to laugh, smirk and speak to his colleague in Italian – I cannot explain how angry I was at this man who is an ambassador for this tour company as well as Rome. The shop window even had Trip Advisor stickers and adverts saying that they do tours on behalf of Trip Advisor. At the very least I thought he would have perhaps looked into this a little deeper or suggest another tour which etc, but we didn’t get any of this. Also, to add, another couple left the shop after us and looked like they had a similar problem which made them to start taking pictures of the store front. This led to a man come out and, to me, looked like he was trying to intimidate the two ladies. Roman Empire Tour – Sort out your customer service! I tried to contact the Tour Operator, who in this case was ‘History Group’, on the contact number supplied - +390693574837. It didn’t even ring and then dropped out. Obviously, this was a fake/wrong number. So, I then phoned Viator direct on 02033180421 and got through to an advisor. I explained the situation to the advisor, what was said etc and confirmed all the details. The advisor told us to hold the line while he called the Tour Operator. After a few minutes, the advisor came back on the line and told us that the tour had been cancelled for some reason. Understandably, we were left angry and frustrated as this was our last day and one of the reasons we came to Rome and more to the point, no one contacted us about the tour being cancelled – so unprofessional. The advisor told us he would be able to refund us (I’d like to think so!!) as there was no other tours available that day apart from a similar tour which was in French or Spanish at £74 per person!! The advisor did apologise but to be honest that really meant nothing and it had wasted our last day. So, we were left on our last day with no tour and unable to get into either the Colosseum, Roman Forum or Palatine Hill unless we waited in a queue for 2/3 hours!! After speaking to Viator Advisor, we went back on the website and this tour is still be advertised and what is even more confusing is that someone has left a review in last week of April. This is after we have been told that Roman Empire Tours haven’t accepted this voucher for around the last two months. Someone is lying somewhere. Out of curiosity, we walked over to the departure point at Metro Station, Colosse, Line B just to see if we could say the tour operator (History Group). There we several tour operators there, none called History Group – surprise. I stopped one of the tourist information guides, showed them the confirmation and details. Straight away as soon as I mentioned Viator she said that there had been many cancellations/issues with Viator and told us of an issue with a group of 8 Americans who had booked an underground tour of the Colosseum for there visit and when they arrived, they were told it had been cancelled. She advised us to contact Viator and get a refund asap as she said it would be more difficult the longer we left it. And to add to this, she said that of all the time she had worked there, she had never heard of the tour operator ‘History Group’ and she even tried to phone them off her personal mobile. We there managed to see someone standing with a sign which had a small Viator badge on it, so we asked her if she could help any. She briefly looked at our voucher and told us she doesn’t know. So, we were left on our last day, with no tour or even tickets to get into the Colosseum, Roman Forum or Palatine Hill. I’ll be honest, this has really wasted our city break as this was one of the reasons we choose to visit Rome. The chances are that we won’t be back to Rome again or anytime soon and Viator feeling angry, frustrated and let down. We were left helpless on a street in a foreign country trying to sort our booking issue. The reason I choose Viator was because it is a TripAdvisor company – what a disappointment. Overall, I have only used Viator one and it will 100% be the last time. If anyone is looking to book tours, I highly advise you not to use viator and to back up my statement, have a look through reviews left online by others. I’d also stay clear of Roman Empire Tours. Shambolic is a good word to describe Viator. Not sure if I will hear back from Viator but I just want to make people aware of the issues I’ve experienced. Viator Itinerary No – 1096887666 Booking Reference – BR-692742580
5 years ago
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Viator has a 2.2 average rating from 1,102 reviews

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