Beyond Boundaries Travel Beyond Boundaries... Beyond Pissed! Unresponsive, Unorganized... Customers? What Customers? Colorado Springs Colorado

This is a copied response to the client that we had sent and the client was displeased with out response.

BOLD is Beyond Boundaries response -  Italics are the clients. 

Lindsey  

Just some quick thoughts as below in Red, but first of all, Daniel did indeed ask the hotel to reserve an Ocean View Room for you at Kauai Shores, so the fact that you were not given one is of concern.

But another concern, Lindsey, is that we were never paid by you for the hotel upgrade to the Kauai Shores. So I’m not sure how we can be held responsible for something which we weren’t paid for, and you need to settle that amount before any further discussion on this.

For future reference, I’d suggest you call the tour operator in question to rectify something like that when it happens. Daniel was in very close contact with the hotel, so he or anyone else could have fixed the situation for you and gotten you what you had asked for.

Other thing I’m curious about and I go into detail below – your assertion that you were quite happy with the arrangements, but that somehow we had nothing to do with that?

In any case, further comments in bold as below:

Hi Daniel,

I just wanted to give you a review of our week in Hawaii.

Pono Taxi was really helpful. Nolan, our driver for the majority of the week, was a goldmine of helpful tips and suggestions that made our excursion much more fluid. We really enjoyed his knowledge of the island, as he is a Kauai native. However, there were several issues with scheduling. Pono Taxi claimed that the times, locations, and information provided by Beyond Boundaries did not make sense and caused a lot of disorganization and inability to schedule. Also, on the itinerary we were provided, our pick up time from the airport was stated as 4:45PM. Our flight got in at approximately 3:45PM but Nolan was told that he was supposed to pick us up at 3PM, as per the guidance from Beyond Boundaries given to Pono Taxi before our arrival. They did not have any of the times or locations that were listed in the itinerary you gave me, despite the itinerary explaining that Pono Taxi was aware of our trip and our pick up times. We managed, however, and just made daily arrangements with Nolan individually, but it really seemed like Beyond Boundaries failed to convey the proper times and locations to Pono Taxi in order to make this a worry-free trip for us.

In fact Daniel reviewed the documents sent to Pono Taxi and those do read 4:45 PM pickup as Daniel related to you on your itinerary.

As for your second point that Pono Taxi did not have any of the times or locations listed in the itinerary, we reconfirmed yesterday with them that in fact they had everything from us that they needed and that we said they had.

So, as you might imagine, we and Pono Taxi are confused as to your assertion to the contrary.

Next, Kauai Shores hotel was pleasant. The rooms were clean, the staff was pretty friendly, and the beach on the hotel property was fantastic. Their "continental breakfast" was disappointing, but that's no fault of yours. However, when you and I communicated about our room selection, I had requested the "ocean view" room. Our only view was that of one of the other buildings on the hotel property, which completely blocked any chance of having an "ocean view." I believe that I paid extra for this feature, and when I inquired with the front desk, they said that there had been no mention of a request for an "ocean view" when reservations were made by Beyond Boundaries. Needless to say, it was a little disheartening to find out that Beyond Boundaries had not honored our request.

Once again, my apologies for this situation as indeed Daniel had requested an Ocean View Room. But payment for the upgrade to the Kauai Shores also needs to be received before discussing.

Outfitters Kauai was a great business to work with. The bikes we rented were in great condition. The associates were friendly and took a genuine interest in ensuring that our trip and their service was everything we expected and more.

Very glad to hear that.

Finally, a night or two before we left, I tried to contact you in regard to the map files you sent me. I could not open any of the files. I tried emailing you, and was stunned to find out that you were on vacation during the entire week of our trip, especially since you were our point of contact, should we have run into any issues beyond our limitations. I tried calling the phone number listed in your auto reply several times, and no one answered. Fortunately, we are resourceful and decided to go out and purchase a guide book which contained several maps of the island. We relied on that completely to help us navigate the island. The sites and our rides were all beautiful, the beach was relaxing, we attended a luau and it was an all around really great trip, thanks to the wonderful people we met, our guide book, and the businesses we had the pleasure of working with.

Very sorry Lindsey, that you weren’t able to connect with me or Daniel. I was not on vacation; Daniel was, but we were in fact available before the trip on the office line and on the cell phones which were provided to you, and were receiving calls from other customers on those lines. In addition, we always respond quickly to e-mails, especially to customers who are traveling.

All of that being said, I calculated the typical nightly rate offered by Kauai Shores (although I'm sure being a travel company, they offer Beyond Boundaries a discount of some kind) and the cost of the daily taxi rides (between $ depending on the location), both of which were "included" in the cost that we paid to Beyond Boundaries for this trip. I also added in the cost of the bikes and flights, which obviously weren't included in what I paid Beyond Boundaries, and it made me wonder what I actually paid Beyond Boundaries $$ for. Just to break it down for you:

Hotel costs $$– you’re not including the extra costs for taxes, resort fees and breakfast, so this is not an accurate calculation.

Taxi- costs $$ – this is nowhere near what we have paid Pono Taxi, nor is it anywhere near what the cost actually is

Bikes (not included in cost)– As you mention, this was not included in the cost.

Airfare – Again, not included in the cost.

I had to fight tooth and nail to hear back from you initially in order to get some semblance of an itinerary and packing list so that I could get my wife's gift together before the holidays despite the fact that I booked this nearly 5 months in advance, our taxi service was not properly scheduled by Beyond Boundaries, our requests made through Beyond Boundaries for our hotel accommodations were not conveyed to the concierge of Kauai Shores and our "trip adviser" was out of the office the entire week of our trip without any follow on contacts who would actually answer their phone in case of an emergency. Not to mention the fact that if we hadn't purchased the guide book, we wouldn't have had any idea where we were going! Essentially, I paid Beyond Boundaries $728 more than what the actual costs were so that I could receive less than mediocre service from your company and that hardly seems fair. My wife and I are both active duty soldiers. When I booked this trip, we were both actually deployed. It sucks to be ripped off by a company on a trip that was intended to be a gift of love and appreciation to my wife. We didn't get to go on a honeymoon because we both came down on orders to deploy, so this was also supposed to act as a honeymoon of sorts. And while we had an amazing time, it was- quite honestly- in no thanks to Beyond Boundaries. I didn't even hear from you after our trip to see if it had turned out well.

I intend to write a review of your business on as many websites as possible and I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau in hopes to at least save other potential customers from being ripped off, if nothing else. While I was not disappointed with our trip, I am extremely disappointed in the service I received from Beyond Boundaries, and would've been better off planning this excursion on my own (which I basically wound up doing anyway, in the end)- at least I wouldn't have gotten ripped off and I would've saved some money.

Obviously I don’t agree with you, Lindsey.

Daniel indeed had difficulty connecting with you, and your communication situation was not really easy to manage either.

Daniel being in office or not was of no consequence. Others were indeed in the office and would have been ready to answer any calls from you had you called. I handled many calls for Daniel personally while he was away, and resolved any situations for him during his absence.

I suggest you consider caution in claiming a so-called “ripoff” in any posts to other sites…….those could and will be considered slanderous and unfounded remarks that we will certainly counter in a more serious way.

Honestly, Lindsey, arrangements like these do not happen on their own, and Pono Taxi and Kauai Shores have been quite happy to support us in that assertion…… knowledge of the area, choosing the right partners, research and the work that goes into creating a package among the hundreds of options available  –  there is a value to the work we do to put all of this together!!

Best Regards

Doug Lofland