Viator

Many people here on the forum recommend dealing with the actual tour provider rather than a 3rd party such as Viator.
That said, the take away here is to carefully check your information before clicking the buy button, and checking the return receipt for mistakes. I can't imagine that a quick response from you wouldn't have been handled better.

I have had good success with Viator on a number of trips so as others say please be more careful. I screwed up once too and it was a lesson well-learned.

I have used them on and off for years. No complaints.

The issue in this case was not the experience provider, they were great, when I eventually managed to find them and contact direct they rebooked the experience with no issue. My complaint is about Viator, I selected an experience for a date, the 14th, and was booked in for the 11th, I know you’ll assume that was my mistake, it wasn’t. There was an error on my booking and the customer service from Viator I felt was very lacking. Less than 24hrs after booking I contacted them and the response from the customer service was not good enough in my opinion. Any purchase should have some comeback within 24hrs. For them to tell me there’s nothing they can do, the money is gone, is not good enough.
I waited for them to get back to me, or contact the vendor, then tracked it down myself.
The isssue is Viator customer service in the event of an issue like this, the takeaway is not that you should be extra careful or suffer the consequences. The issue is that a customer should never be treated with the poor attitude and “there’s nothing we can do approach”

I won’t be using them again, it’s a third party ticket vendor and lacking the customer service to warrant their cut.

I have a strong, strong preference for booking directly with the tour operator. On the rare occasion that I have used Viator, I have had no trouble.

If the story is truly as you tell it, I would agree that the company should have better protections in place for consumers.

It is a little weird, though, to post a rant on a forum in which you've never participated -- feels more like you yelled "I'm going to post on every social media site I can find not to do business with you" into the phone than like you have a genuine desire to warn other consumers.

I’ve found so many negative reviews online that I only wish I’d looked them up before using them.
I’m pretty sure there are legal protections for purchases of an issue is raised within 24hrs…… sadly “company policy” says there’s nothing they can do.

The agents cutting off the cart after giving responses that clearly showed they didn’t care was the final straw to send me looking for places to review them, rarely do I bother, but the attitude of the company in this instance 100% warranted me taking the time to ensure I shout from the rooftops about how poor my experience was as a first time user of the service.

Thankfully the vendor was much more helpful!

Welcome to the forum!

It’s unfortunate this happened to you and it’s one of the reasons I never use a third party reseller

It’s unfortunate you are just new to this forum and haven’t seen all the warnings typically given to other posters who inquire about using Viator or other third party sites like Get Yoir Guide, Expedia etc

In the future- you can usually find the name of the actual tour operator by drilling down on the third party listing.

It sounds like there was no loss on your part, just disappointing service/policies from Viator?

I hope you enjoyed the tour you took!

I was told by a vendor that Viator takes 30% of the price of a tour. However, the small tour companies couldn't survive without the Viator network. And yes, I always book directly. Safe travels to all!

We've seen a lot of cases like yours. You are really lucky that the actual tour operator could accommodate you. It's too bad that Viator got a cut of your money.

Viator and Get Your Guide have inundated the logarithms so American customers can't find the independents. It's terrible for the little guides, old-fashion, small Bed and Breakfassts, etc. If they don't pay, they don't play.

I recently did a search for an English speaking guide in Lyon on Google.com it was impossible to avoid those companies. I changed to Google.fr and easily found several independent, English-speaking guides.

Anyway, from now on, stick around here, learn from us, we'll learn from you and help people have good travels.

Most of my experiences with Viator have been positive.

The only negative was a tour booked in Rome where the guide did not show up at the meeting point and the actual tour company was not answering their phones. When I contacted Viator about the problem, they immediately refunded my money.

I use Viator listings to look for key words to find the actual small business providing the tour. Not only does that give me the actual business (and more details about the location, etc) who provides additional information, they save money, too.

I used this route to find a wonderful artist instructor in Bergamo, Italy! We ended up having a couple of solo custom instruction classes instead of the Viator offering.