So the travel company--I won't name them since they're huge and then I'd end up getting traffic I didn't want right now--who's doing our New York trip today tells me when I PHONE THEM that there's a problem since there's no other group to pair us with when we plan to go. Yes, we're not a huge group, but I was never told that would be a problem--there are 14 of us travelling all together. Anyway, the choices that her company seems to be giving us are
a) go during the spring, say March. NO THAT WON'T WORK WE HAVE KIDS ON BAND TRIPS AND THAT'S WHEN OUR SHOW IS.
b) cancel the trip outright and they'll refund our money. LOVELY--MY FIRST BIG TRIP AND IT FLOPS; WON'T THAT MAKE EVERYONE WHO'S LOOKING FORWARD TO IT HAPPY.
c) do it as a "private" tour, which means we add an amount per person to do that--she suggested $150 per person. RIGHT--HEY FOLKS, JUST THOUGHT I'D TELL YOU WE NEED MORE MONEY FROM ALL OF YOU WITHOUT WARNING--YOU'RE OKAY WITH THAT, RIGHT?
Sorry--I hate capitalization yelling, but this is crap. I told her to work really hard on that number for the private trip and get back to me. I'm not happy. If I wasn't already paying the 99 bucks per for everyone's comprehensive travel insurance package and doing the subsidies for all my program kids, it might be easily done. As it is, when I catch my breath and think about it, I know I can probably pull it off.
It just cuts into money that should be there for other things.
It's also too late to switch tour companies, as has already been suggested to me, and arranging a tour ourself at this late date isn't possible for the price per person we'd have to work with.
The company isn't some little mickey mouse one--it's the same one that did Kate's school trip to Germany a few months ago. I wonder how long it would've taken for them to spring this on me if I hadn't phoned today?
*sigh*
5 comments:
That's bullshit. Find the person whom you spoke to's supervisor and raise holy hell until it is rectified....and continue up the chain of command until someone fixes the problem.
I agree with ella - take it up the managerial food chain. The louder you get with the higher-ups the better response you'll find. At least, that's how it's worked at the places I used to work. Screwing a bunch of kids is BS.
bksin - the crime against your soul for eating at Burger King.
I can't believe YOU had to call THEM. What if you hadn't called? You'd all be stranded at the airport.
Like I said before... kill 'em. We don't play with that shit, man.
Thanks, guys--I should turn you all loose on them.
It looks like things are going to work out fine, they have rethought things.
Meanwhile... it's less than three months away which is kind of exciting. Ella--meet us for lunch?
J.
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