Following my negative experience on my Antalya and Cappadocia tour with WOW travel, here is the email I wrote to their customer service team:
Dear WOW Travel team,
I hope this message finds you all very well today. I'm writing to inform you that I am very unsatisfied with my experience on my Antalya to Cappadocia tour that I participated in on the 26th of October to the 2nd of November, 2014.
I purchased the tour as a deal on Wowcher.com. I felt that there were details NOT included in the description of the tour on Wowcher that I would have appreciated knowing prior to purchasing the tour, and if I had known the full information about the tour would not have purchased it.
Firstly, I found it extremely rude that during our transfer from the Antalya airport to our hotel, our tour guide announced we pretty much had no other choice but to purchase a €199 package with our dinners and lunches included - among entrance fees which we believed were already included - because the hotels were "outside of the city center" and thus too far from any restaurants. It is extremely inconsiderate of your customers to virtually leave them a choice between paying this high rate and starving. If hotels are outside the city center and thus an expensive package needs to be added on to the price already paid for the tour, your customer should be allowed to know this prior to purchasing.
Furthermore, the description of these packages we were informed of during our transfer made no mention that all of the lunches and dinners that were included would be buffets. The breakfasts at the hotels were buffets as well, and halfway through the tour I was sickened and feeling terrible from eating at buffets for every meal everyday. The only hotel which had a quality buffet was the Arcanus resort which we stayed at. Our hotels in Cappadocia and Antalya both had food that wasn't even labeled, and the things that did look safe to eat were mediocre at best. I felt like I basically paid a high price for bread and cheese for the majority of my meals. One of the buffets we stopped at on our way from Cappadocia back to Antalya had FLIES all over the food - needless to say that is dangerous and disgusting. My friend and I refused to eat there, but when we asked for a refund for that part of our package, we were told by our tour guide that there was nothing he could do.
Second, we were under the impression that "tours included" on the wowcher description would also include our entry fees into the museum of Mevlana and underground city. However, we had to spend an additional €30 each to see these sites, which were disappointing in themselves and not worth €30, in my opinion. Perhaps if the names of the excursions had been listed in the wowcher description, I would have made a different choice for myself.
I was also not impressed with your choice of tour guide, Cesari, for the trip. He did know a plethora of history, but he did little to make our experience enjoyable, or even make us feel like he cared about experience at all (see above with the buffet issues).
My friend and I both signed up for the hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia. Cesari told us the price would be €150. Another person in my group brought up why the price listed online on Rainbow Balloon's website listed it as €100 - Cesari explained that €100 would get you in a basket with 20 other people. However, during our trip, we were still in a basket with 20 other people. Either there was a miscommunication somehow, or Cesari pocketed the extra cash for himself. Not only that, after he had taken our money, he gave us no information about where to meet the hot air balloon company, how long it would take, ect until we took it upon ourselves before walking up to our hotel room after check-in at Cappadocia. Had we not asked, he would not have provided us with the information at all.
Needless to say, I am very unhappy with my experience, and will let all my well-traveled friends know to avoid your service.
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Jeanine Wilson read more
