This email is regarding the tour package that I had bought from site www.europeandestinations.com on May 17.
Halfway through my tour, on July 25, I reached Mallorca, Spain and took taxi to the hotel Verimar listed on the voucher. I was horrified beyond belief that not only the description and surroundings of the hotel were nothing as mentioned on the site, but even worse, the dilapidated building called Verimar had a For Sale sign on it in Spanish. My only saving grace was that the taxi driver knew a bit of English and suggested that I get back to the airport and talk to the woman at the hotelbeds kiosk (hotelbeds is listed on the voucher that you provided). The woman refused any assistance as the package was brought from europeandestinations.com company. So, I was left in a foreign country, without any knowledge of local language or a place to stay, in the middle of the night.
That is when I called up (using taxi driver's phone) europeandestinations.com number listed on the voucher 1-877-267-2247 and talked to one of their customer representatives, who wanted me to call after a few minutes. I explained that I did not have a phone, and it being way past midnight in Mallorca, there was no general or tourist information bureau. But she said that she needed to make a few queries before she could help me.
Eventually I found a machine for international calling cards and for the next almost 3 hours, I was trying to get in contact with the europeandestinations.com company and a place to stay, while totally baffled that I had booked my tour well in advance to avoid this kind of stress and mismanagement.
Eventually, their customer representative told me that I could myself try to get a room either at Lido Palace or Hotel Linda and that your company would reimburse full hotel expenses. But she did not assist me getting the actual room. She said that I would have to make calls myself and find a room, and bring back invoice.
So, I was left on my own to now look for a hotel room, with no contact information for either of the two hotels. So, till around 3:30 am, I was struggling to find a place without any phone directory, local language and any other assistance. I can surely say that this was the worst experience of all my travels.
Eventually, a local who knew a bit of English found a phone number for Lido Palace and booked a room there as per your representative's directions. But then I found that this hotel was on the other end of the island in Camp de Mar - farther away from the location where I had initially booked my place keeping in mind the activities and taxi fare. But now, I ended up in a place that had nothing for my taste and I had to cancel all plans to visit the famous Mallorca caves as they were now half the island away, while my taxi bill ran up.
In addition to putting up with extreme stress and discomfort, I basically had nothing to do on my holiday, except to cancel plans for the world famous caves. So, in addition to the reimbursement for the hotel bill, I should also be reimbursed for taxi fare and phone.
After getting back to US, I called up their rep, sent emails, and asked for what all I needed to submit. I followed all the instructions and submitted all documents for reimbursement totaling 559 Euros, including $669.81 just for the hotel ($650.30 hotel $19.51 transaction fees.)
After much patience, and many emails, the company declines to refund me in full and by some vague calculation came up with $392.92. I have told them that that it unacceptable.
So, not only the company www.europeandestinations.com defrauded me into paying for a hotel that does not exist; it left me stranded in a foreign country in the middle of the night; and then misled me again by lying that I would be refunded my FULL hotel expenses.
I have been very patient and reasonable with their reps and clearly that was a mistake to begin with.
I need to know what action I can take against the company and how. I would appreciate any guidance in this regard.
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