On MARCH 1 we booked a JULY 12, 2024 11:30am Quebec City tour with Local Food Tours and received…read moreconfirmation with instruction to arrive 15 minutes early at Restaurant La Buche, 49 Rue Saint Louis.
On July 10 at 12:23pm we received an email message that our tour was being cancelled "due to circumstances out of our (the tour company's) control." The company asked if we would be available on July 11 or July 13 for rebooking (we were NOT available). Less than one hour later (1:09pm to be exact) we received another email stating "You can disregard my previous email. I was able to find a solution." We responded, "Thank you. We will plan on our original reservation."
On the day of the scheduled event (July 12, 20024) we arrived early at the restaurant for our 11:30am tour. At 11:22am, seeing neither a tour representative nor other tour participants, I telephone the tour company but only got an answering machine message, spoke in French (which I could not understand). At 11:29am I sent an email to the tour company stating, "We are waiting at La Buche but see no guide. Please confirm today's tour is planned as originally scheduled." Around the same time we learned from the guide of a different food tour group (but with the same tour company) that the starting point of our tour had apparently been changed. WE WERE NEVER NOTIFIED !!!
At 1:10pm I finally received a call from a company representative who apologized for the situation. Our travel plans did not allow us to "reschedule" the tour, and by this time our disappointment and frustration at having been "stood up" led us to demand an immediate refund of the tour payment. We had believed this food tour would be a true HIGH POINT of our visit to Quebec City. Instead, it became a COMPLETE DISASTER. We have traveled to many places internationally over several decades and never, ever experienced such a failure to communicate