Old City Tours of St. Augustine

I purchased the following for Nov. 29, 2019: *** Boat Tour $29.00 & Up ------------------ 50% off with code "***": 3x Passenger, 3x Trip Protection
I also purchased for same day: *** $29.00 : 3x Passenger, 3x Trip Protection - Per Person

I lost my job, therefore we were not able to go. I requested to move dates to Nov. 27, 2020.

By mistake they booked one tour for Nov. 27, 2019 but never responded after I replied to their email.

I desperately contacted this business by email several times one week before the Nov. 27, 2019 date
but did not receive a response whatsoever.

On 6/10/2019 we received an email from this business stating that they refunded our tickets in the amount of $109.37 because the boat was broken down and they were unable to provide the boat tour. Despite repeated emails, our credit was never received. Now, they will not respond to us. It is now nearly 2 months without the promised refund.

On July 22, 2019 I had a reservation for a sight seeing cruise that had been cancelled, I had not seen the email that was sent to me, so when I arrived at the location I called the company to find out what was going on. The did not answer the phone, but did reply to an email I sent, with the message that they had sent me an email and it was unopened. After locating and reading the cancellation, I replied asking about a refund. No answer. I called, no answer, and left a voice mail inquiring about the refund. They then emailed me to call Groupon about the money. They also stated that they would NOT be contacting me. I had paid an additional fee for trip insurance, which they did refund. The problem, is that after refunding the insurance money, they charged me $44.64 for 2 full price tickets, which I did not order. They have refused to provide an explanantion as to why they would charge me after cancelling the trip and they did not offer to refund that money. I reported it to my bank as a fraudulent charge.

I purchased a 90-minute dolphin tour for 4 using Groupon on May 9, 2019. I had purchased the tour on May 21, 2019 and paid additional taxes and fees of $8.02 and scheduled the tour for May 27, 2019. On May 26, 2019 I received an e-mail from Old City Tours, LLC that tomorrow's tour (5/27/19) is cancelled due to mechanical issue. I attempted to first re-book and then to request a refund and have not received any contact from them. I contacted them via e-mail and phone ***. This was supposed to be a Mother's and Father's day outing for the whole family and I am very disappointed that this matter has not been resolved at this time.

I purchased a Groupon for a dolphin sighting boat tour. Prior to purchasing the Groupon I checked the schedule on Old City Tours website and found that there was availability for my party of 4 on the date and time needed. I proceeded with the purchase and booked directly using my Groupon number directly on Old City Tours Website, in addition I used my credit card to pay the 2.00 per person booking fee which was not included in the Groupon price. Several days prior to my scheduled tour they emailed me and told me they were having boat problems and would need to move my tour time. Unfortunately the time did not work with my schedule which I explained to them. I do not live in St Augustine and my family was only there for the day. We decided to just skip the tour and I didn't even ask for a refund from Groupon or ask Old City Tours which technically since they cancelled I should have been entitled to . I figured I was just going to have to suck up the 56.00 I paid for the Groupon and the 2.00 booking fee I paid per person in addition. The day my tour was supposed to have taken place I received an email from Old City saying they charged me 40.00 on my credit card the invoice included said nothing except for "addtl. fee 40.00." I immediately emailed them back asking what the charge was for and where they got off using my credit card number with no authorization from me. They responded and said that they put me on for the boat tour later in the day, the one I told them I could not make. I was absolutely shocked that they charged me a 40.00 rescheduling fee for a tour that they cancelled. Additionally I did not reschedule it ( even if I had you should no charge a customer to reschedule something you cancelled) and I NEVER gave them permission to use my credit card. They obviously went in and took the number from when I paid the 2.00 per person booking fee. I emailed them back again demanding an explanation and telling them I was alerting my bank to fraud. I began pulling up multiple review sites and have found out they steal from many customers, this is common practice for them to use peoples credit cards with no permission. In total I am out 104.00 for a tour that they cancelled that I opted not to reschedule ( because it was not possible) . Using someones credit card number for something other than what they authorized, is theft plain and simple. There was nothing stating it would be kept on file or be used for anything else other than the 8.00 I had authorized . I would take legal action against them if I could, after reading these other reviews they need to be put out of business.

need to report Old City Tours of St Augustine. I purchased a Dolphin tour ride for them using Groupon On April 9th, 2019.

On April 19th, I found out my flight to Jacksonville, FL was cancelled as I was boarding the flight due to weather and wanted to see if there was any way to book a tour for another date. I emailed the company and told them that I did not purchase the trip protection, but since my flight was cancelled I asked if there was anything that could be done so that I did not lose out completely on my purchase. They then told me to choose a new date after asking me several questions.
I chose May 11th and they changed my tour date. The next day, April 21, noticed that without my authorization they had charged me 24 dollars for a new tour. I never gave any permission for the new charge and I did not even know they still had my info on file. I was under the impression a new booking was in place of the one I could not make it to. I then emailed again and requested my money back for this new unauthorized charge. The company proceeded to argue with me about an hour and go back and forth placing blame on me, asking me question after question, again bringing up the trip protection which I already said I did not purchase. They even asked to see my receipt and after I sent that sent me a very disturbing email accusing me of trying to book 4 free seats and claiming I was trying to take them out of business when I just politely kept asking for my money back for the unauthorized charge. This was a very disturbing experience and I still have to call my bank to get my money back. I not only missed out on 29 for my first trip because they refuse to accommodate, but now another 24 for the illegal charge. This should not be allowed by any business.
I contacted my bank as soon the amount posted and reported him for fraud and was able to get my money back.

I was very disturbed by this interaction as it was extremely unprofessional and a company should not be able to charge me illegally like and get away with it and speak to me the way they did through email. It was a terrible experience and the policies in place seem to be very loose.

I have also attached parts of the email correspondence below I had with this company. This is an ongoing Groupon deal and I also reached out to them to make them aware as well.

*** <***>
Sun, Apr 21, 8:02 AM (8 days ago)
to Old

I reached out to you about this trip because of the circumstances If you were going to charge me a 2nd time you should have made that clear. Yes I read it and then reached out to you and explained the circumstances. I did not authorize this charge I will not keep going back and forth about this . Refund or I will report you.

Old City Tours
Sun, Apr 21, 8:06 AM (8 days ago)
to me

This is not a Buy 1 Get 1 Free, then book 2 seats and reserve them so no one else can, then cancel your reservation at the last minute and ask us to now give you 2 more seats on another date for FREE. We can't give you a total of 4 seats for the price of 1 and stay in business. Why did you not spend $2.00 at the time of the reservation and purchase the trip protection after reading the part of the re-booking fee of $15.00 per ticket?

Thanks

I booked the Nights of Lights tour for Dec 21, 2018; it was cancelled due to inclement weather (which, it WAS very windy). No problem with that.
I was told to contact Old City Tours via email ONLY, which I did, that evening. Over the course of the past month, I've emailed them 5 times, called their office & left voice mails (they don't answer their phones or return calls), and contacted them via Facebook.
I did NOT purchase my 5 tickets through ***r or via a ***, I purchased directly through their site. I spent $145 for the 5 tickets; I selected trip insurance for 4 (as I purchased the 5th one separately, several weeks later, in my car, and wasn't able to see things very clearly). I also feel that trip insurance shouldn't be required if the business is the one cancelling the trip.
At this point, I can only imagine that they are planning on going out of business this year. I think they assume many people who purchase tickets from them are tourists who a. won't push too hard for a refund and b. won't be back next year.
*** is full of similar complaints.

My husband and I took a boat tour through Old City Tours to see the Night of Lights in St Augustine on November 30, 2018 at 8:45 p.m. We were not extremely impressed with the tour and we each wrote a review about it on Google. The response to our review was appalling. We were told that we were not on the list of passengers, which we definitely were (we have two different emails and bank records) and we were accused of libel and being competitors. This is not how business should be done. Looking back, the company is rude to everyone that writes a negative review. This needs to be changed. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and freedom of speech and they are interfering with that. We did not post anything bad on our review, we just gave our honest opinion. Now it looks like on google that I write false reviews and that is defamation of character.

I had booked a tour on Sep 1st and they cancelled it. I booked again for Sep 13th and they cancelled it again. After that I asked for a refund with Groupon. Groupon refunded the money but Old city tours charged my credit card in US$ 30.00. I've sent them several e-mails and phone calls requesting a refund. Nothing so far. Their customer services are the worst. They don't return your call at all.

I tried several times to redeem a Groupon with this company. When I could not redeem the Groupons I tried to call the company. I could not reach anyone live. I left several messages requesting a call. I got a text back saying to reserve on-line! Well if I could do that, I would have!!! I texted back to again request a call. Their response was "What is the question". Really!!! I said the question is: could someone please call me back. Their response was "All booking is done on-line...Thanks". How can a business like this remain in busness, when they obviously could care less about their customers?