Part III of the Terrible Tauck Debacle

Should You Travel With Tauck?

No, I recommend against giving them your business.

This is the final chapter of the debacle because none of the agencies I’ve contacted for help are interested in doing more than shuffling messages between me and Tauck. That is not really helpful.

To read about the beginning of the mess, please click here. Part II outlines the remediation I have pursued. Click here for that story.

An Abbreviated Synopsis of What Happened

(Again, I recommend you read the two other blogs linked above.)

I gave travel company Tauck almost $12,000 back in October 2019 for a trip in December 2020 to the Christmas Markets in Germany for my daughter and me. It was cancelled due to COVID. I rolled the money to Dec 2021. One day before my plane left to meet my daughter at her home so we could fly to Europe together (end of Nov 2021), Tauck cancelled the trip. We were unable to roll the money to Dec 2022 because Tauck had sold every spot on the trip. They tried to convince us to go on a DIFFERENT trip to a DIFFERENT place. When I refused, they kept $1,398 of the money they had been holding for over two years. Let me reiterate: Tauck cancelled the trip. We were packed and ready to go and our flights left ON TIME. They were not cancelled.

Tauck insisted this money they kept was for “insurance,” but we were not told this when we paid for the trip. All the money was through Tauck and went directly to Tauck. So if it was insurance, I asked Tauck, will you refund my airline tickets (nonrefundable from Lufthansa and well over $5,000) and train tickets (a couple hundred)? “No,” said Tauck.

So it isn’t REALLY insurance at all, is it? It is simply a way to keep 10% of my money through underhanded, dishonest marketing. To this day, Tauck has never refunded a single cent of my airfare or train tickets. Not a single cent. I lost thousands.

Tauck customer service was rude and nasty; I outlined all this in my first blog. This final blog about Tauck is to address some of the Tauck customers who have responded to my many posts on Facebook.

A Final Note to Mary L. F. and Others Who Like Tauck

I am genuinely delighted for anyone who has had a great travel experience with Tauck. Good for you! I do NOT try to argue with you or minimize your happy experience because I had a bad one. I hear your stories of praise, but that is not my experience. My late husband–a USAF NATO fighter pilot and test pilot–used to say that true character is revealed when things go bad. That might be said of companies as well.

In my second blog I outlined what Tauck customer service might have done. Certainly, there are wonderful companies out there who have stepped up during Covid and done the right thing. Tauck could have been one of them, and they would have had my support and loyalty forever. I love writing good reviews. Just ask Africa Dream Safaris! You really need to travel with those awesome folks. Or ask MIR–another wonderful company.

It isn’t just that Tauck kept my $1,398. If it was REALLY for insurance, then why did I lose well over $5,000? Why wouldn’t Tauck help with a single cent? Tauck cancelled–not me–and since all the spots were filled for next year, shouldn’t they have refunded my money based solely on that? Is it REALLY reasonable to insist I take a different trip to a different place? Please read my first blog about why this trip was so important.

No. Tauck did not do any of the things a great company would do, and their customer service rep Courtney was nasty and rude, telling us we were “nobody special.” This has happened to others. I have heard from some of them, but I can’t publish their names due to privacy issues.

Mary feels there aren’t many unsatisfied customers. I wonder how she knows. I also wonder why she is so busy defending Tauck. Perhaps it is because she had a good tour guide once and feels I might be personally attacking him/her. Perhaps Tauck asked her to post. Perhaps she works for them. This is all speculation, of course. I don’t’ know anything at all about Mary.

Mary and others want to defend Tauck because they had a nice trip, but they want to make me feel as though I am the one at fault here. Hmmmm. I believe there is a name for that sort of behavior.