Here's how Mango Tours ruined our honeymoon. We wanted to go to El Nido for our honeymoon and were recommended Mango Tours from a relative. They had good deals on packages that included flights, transfers, room and board, so it seemed like a simplified and cost-effective way to plan the trip. It took a few calls to the office in Queens to get through, but I finally did and put in a quote request for a week-long stay at El Nido Resorts Apulit and El Nido Resorts Miniloc.
Almost a week after not receiving anything from Mango Tours, I followed up and spoke with the same representative. I later found out (from corporate) that she only started the quote after that 2nd conversation. She told me that we'd have to wait for the Manila office to process the quote, they'd send it to her and then she would get back to me. It seemed inefficient, but at this point we were getting close to the holidays, so I wanted to get this booked. I checked the El Nido Resorts website directly to make sure they still had rooms and was relieved to see that they did. Again, after days of no communication, I reached out to Mango Tours via phone, email, and Facebook Messenger.
Almost a week later, I finally got a response from the agent with the quote containing 2 different package options. My husband and I responded immediately with our choice. The agent quickly responded with next steps. Again, we immediately responded, sending over our passport information, discussing payment - the usual travel booking process. We were ready and excited to lock this in.
2 days later, we received a brief email saying that the package was no longer available and the agent had instead booked us for option 2 but in a different room than quoted...with a $1,000 USD mark-up. We fully understood that the rates were subject to change from the time we got the quote to the time we booked - less than a 48-hour period. However, this seemed like bait and switch.
We called the agent to try and sort this out, but got no response. We emailed and it bounced back. We then called the 800 number that goes to Mango's Manila office and spent about an hour on the phone trying to get answers from another representative. We tried to send her the email chain so she could see what happened, but her emails were bouncing back too. We tested our emails to see if the issue was on our end, but it wasn't. For some strange reason, Mango Tours email system was no longer working. The Manila agent quickly ended the call when she realized that we weren't going to just accept the marked-up option.
Because of Mango Tours we're a week away from our honeymoon with nowhere to stay. We started planning well in advance, but now are unfairly scrambling to just find somewhere decent to go. It's easily the worst travel company that I've worked with. I am not a troll; I review plenty of businesses positively and honestly. This company has no integrity or regard for their customers. Please beware.
Fast forward to 2018: my parents recently used Mango Tours for a trip to Vietnam (because they couldn't find another company with the tour they wanted). Guess what happened? Mango booked their return trip on a flight that doesn't exist! Not exactly sure how that happens, but my parents went to the airport in Hanoi at midnight only to find out that the flight on their itinerary only runs on Sundays and Wednesdays (it was Monday). They got in touch with Mango and ended up having to pay for their own ride back to their hotel and the room for that night. Mango picked up the cost for the other night and their ride to the airport but in my opinion that doesn't even come close to making up for the massive error. read more
