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Canceling Tour With The Roman Guy

I am trying to cancel a catacomb tour I booked with the tour company, The Roman Guy. The catacombs in Italy are closed, so I figured this would be easy to cancel. I have emailed them, texted them and left several voicemails over the past four days, but as of yet, have not received a response from them.

Their cancellation policy for this tour is that you get a full refund if you cancel at least 24 hours in advance. The tour is scheduled on March 13th so I'm well within that time frame. Their parent company is The Tour Guy and they seem to be a reputable organization. I know Italy's travel industry is going through what must be a devastating time, but this still surprises me. Has anyone ever had any difficulty canceling tours with this company?

Posted by
26840 posts

My bet is that they are being run ragged. But I agree that four days is a fairly long time, and you've tried three different ways of reaching them. Is there a "Contact Us" link on their website that you could try?

Posted by
4540 posts

I have had multiple situations where I've tried to use one email address to contact a hotel or book an activity and it wouldn't work or I didn't get a response. Using a different email address, it worked just fine or got a response. It's possible the booking engine or spam filter doesn't recognize the email extension.

In my experiences, my gmail address typically worked even when others would not.

Posted by
35 posts

I can't find any other email address for their Italian tours. I might try their parent company's phone and email. When you call you're asked to direct your call by the county your visiting. I'll call again snd this time press the option for Paris and see what happens!

Posted by
501 posts

My sister just cancelled her tour with them and they are holding back 30% or you can rebook at a later time. The contact person today wrote they are somewhat overwhelmed with cancellations.

Posted by
4540 posts

Sorry, I wasn't clear....what I meant is that you might try sending your email from a different email address to see if that gets past spam or system filters. For example, I've had cases where my "@sbcglobal.net" email address would not work but my "@gmail" address would work.

Posted by
35 posts

Thanks everyone for the great suggesons. I hope there's not a 30% cancellation fee for my catacombs tour since all the Italian catacombs are closed!

Posted by
10120 posts

Take screen shots of their cancellation policy. Holding back 30% is theft if their written policy is 100% refund. This way if it comes down to notifying your credit card, which is a last resort, you have the oroof of policy and your dates on your emails.

I’m in a tassel with Emirates right now who is also not adhering to its written policy regarding charges for rerouting away from Singapore. They too disappear and make contact with the correct people difficult.

Posted by
15679 posts

My sister just cancelled her tour with them and they are holding back
30% or you can rebook at a later time.

To be fair, refunds depend on what sort of tour was booked and/or at what point the client was wishing to cancel. Just lifting a couple of disclaimers from the cancellations page:

The Tour Guy offers a refund on cancellations made more than 24 hours
prior to your tour, with the exception of Trip Planning (article
9), Private Tours (article 6 & 6.1) and Colosseum Underground Tours*
which includes Colosseum Underground plus Belvedere* and VIP Colosseum
at Night Tour*.

Refunds may be subject to a cancellation fee, which may vary by tour,
situation, or case. Fees are not limited to, but could include the
ticket cost for tours that require the purchase of a ticket in
advance.

It's very possible that the 30% was to cover the cost of advance tickets which had already been purchased for an attraction included in the tour, the cost of which was non-refundable to THEM by that attraction.

Posted by
71 posts

We have this tour booked in May. What do you mean the catacombs are closed? Was it the Italian gov't that made this call?

Posted by
2 posts

I used City wonders which I believe is dark Rome for a Vatican tour and Colosseum tour. Our trip was canceled and I received emails back within an hour acknowledging my email and within 24 hours I received an email back confirming I was getting a full refund

My host for Airbnb was also extremely gracious and gave us a 100% refund once Airbnb confirmed that travel company cancel the trip, not me

Posted by
1674 posts

If your communications haven't resolved the issue by now, I would dispute the entire fee with my credit card company, attaching a screen shot of your cancellation rights.

Posted by
6 posts

Tell your credit card company your situation. They will reverse payment and it will be up to the tour company to prove you were in the wrong if they want to get paid. This happened to us on a cruise a number of years ago. It was too rough to port. We had a tour scheduled and they refused to refund our money. Our visa company came through for us and reversed payment.

Posted by
1613 posts

I just cancelled a tour with them--not because I'm not going, but because I decided to reorganize my plans a bit. It took a couple of days to hear back, but I did. They did say they have been quite inundated with cancellation requests and apologized for the delay.

Posted by
1 posts

Don’t use the Tour Guy. They don’t stand behind their cancellation policy. I cancelled 30 days before the tour and they will only issue credit vouchers, no refunds. When I booked the tour in January 2020 their cancellation policy was a full 100% refund if cancelled 24 hours prior to the tour. I cancelled on Mar 12 for a May 15 tour. When I cancelled I was told I would get the full refund in 30-90 days. Now they say I can only get a credit voucher and changed their cancellation policy on their website this week (6/1/20) so they don’t have to issue refunds. I’m out almost $700.

Posted by
1 posts

I know this is about trying to cancel your tour but i'm with tfm1953. I cancelled by reservations with them on April 14 for tours on June 5th and 6th. I was sent an email from the company stating that I would be receiving a full refund including the exact amount they would be refunding. They did inform me it would possible take between 30-90 days which I completely understood. On June 4th, I received another email from them informing me they are now giving me a credit. Not only did they not follow their previous cancellation policy which I did print out, they are not standing by what they sent me in a email stating a full refund is being sent.

To be fair they are trying to give me a full credit plus 25% which can be used or transferred to another person for the next 3 years but due to health reasons I am not sure when or if I will ever be able to travel their in the future. I have not given up I am still going to try to fight for it but with everything that is going on I just hate that I have to fight for something which I was already promised. Not good business at all.

Posted by
2 posts

I am in the same boat as the previous replies. They are refusing to refund us, even though their policy clearly stated that cancellations outside of 24 hours would get a full refund. They say that they have had to "reach down into our fine print" to only offer refunds. Of note, apparently sometime in the past month, they have changed their policy on their site. A bit of a "bait and switch" if you ask me. I would not use this company again.

Posted by
391 posts

The Roman Guy is a good company.

Think about it - if you universalize your (justified) "demand" for a full refund, they would not have the resources to pay it and they'd go bankrupt. You'd get NO money at all.

So they did something that I think is very good.
I thank them.

Evan in Minnesota

Posted by
26840 posts

I'd put it like this: You can't get blood out of a turnip.

I'd be frustrated and mad, too, but the reality is that a lot of the companies in the travel industry simply don't have the money to make all the refunds due.