My wife and I were in Melbourne the last week of May to attend the Rotary International 2023…read moreInternational Convention and we met up with another Rotarian couple that we've known now for several years to see a little bit of the area around Melbourne. We decided on a tour operated by your company, Sightseeing Tours Australia, for the Full-Day Great Ocean Road and 12 Apostles Tour, for Tuesday, May 30th, 2023, Itinerary Number 1404753517, Booking Reference 1017395301. From the onset of the tour, we were very disappointed in the attitude, lack of professionalism and downright rudeness and disrespect/racist attitude of the driver/tour guide, a "John O.", or something to that affect. We, along with our friends, and a number of other passengers, including other Rotarians from other parts of the world, were subjected to this individual's verbal harassment and inhospitable attitude and I am writing this message to let the company know that this individual not only did a disservice to your company, but also to the overall impression of people who were in your country to experience its beauty and culture, only to leave with a feeling of never wanting to visit Australia again.
To begin with, when he came to the stop we had indicated to our friends we would meet the bus, where we had been waiting for over 15 minutes, he came off of the bus accusing our friends, who had booked the itinerary, of being late and was very rude to a number of the other people that were there trying to ascertain if this was the bus they should be on. Our friends had indicated via chat with your company that they would be at Her Majesty's Theater at 7:10 am the morning of May 30th, but were called that morning to change their pickup location, which they did. When they got to their new pickup location, there was a bus there, but it was not the bus for our tour, but the driver was kind enough to take them to our pickup location, The Great Southern Hotel, where they arrived 5 minutes after the designated pickup time, just after we boarded the bus. I explained to John O. that they were en route, as I had called them once John O. informed us that they were not on the bus. When they arrived, he proceeded to berate them very rudely about them being "30 minutes late", which they were not. It was very unprofessional and very rude the way in which he was addressing them and he essentially made a scene about it in front of the entire bus passenger group.
A little while later, John O. was giving some instruction to the group on the bus, and he stopped in mid sentence and started scolding a gentleman about something he may have had audible on his phone, threatening him to "take him to a police station and have him arrested" for allowing whatever it was that was audible on his phone, which no one else on the bus could hear. John O. stated to this gentleman that "this was a public bus, not his own private tour", and that he had no right to have audible what he had and that it was illegal for him to be doing whatever it was he was doing. Most of the bus passengers were in total shock about this blatant threat to a passenger, who was non-white, possibly did not speak english very well and was not at all being a nuisance to anyone else on the bus. Despite the intent of the comments, its impact definitely had serious racist undertones and created a very unsafe environment for an event we all paid for but felt as if we were prisoners in our own recreational experience. My wife, who was closer to the gentleman in question said that John O. seemed to be targeting this gentleman, as he had said something else to him a little while earlier in a threatening tone, and that John O. was totally inappropriate for chastising this passenger, a paying customer, in the way that he was, in public, in front of other passengers. In addition, his accusation to this gentleman was totally hypocritical, as John O. was playing (apparently) his own selection of music throughout the trip throughout the bus's sound system, and at one point turned up the volume on a particular Beach Boys song, encouraging everyone to sing along (which no one did). A number of passengers throughout the trip discussed among themselves this threat to the passenger and how inappropriate it was, but did so somewhat fearfully, as John O. might retaliate some of the same threats to them as well.
At the stop labeled "Koala Cafe", myself and one of our friends had walked up the hill to try and see koalas in trees and walked back to the bus, keeping track of the time that had been allotted to be back on the bus. As we approached the bus, John O. started berating us for being late and my friend state that we had been conscious of the time and we were on-time. John O. started yelling at us "Oh, well I guess all of the other people on the bus are wrong, huh?" and then cursing at us "Don't give me that bullsh!t" as we got on to the bus. My friend replied "Don't yell at me" very calmly, despite my desire to argue...
