Rick Steve's warnings about Viator

What warnings about Viator? I must have missed them. I live in the USA and have booked via Viator and have never once had the least bit of trouble with Viator. You do know that TripAdvisor and Viator are the same company, don't you? Tripadvisor bought Viator last year. I do prefer to make reservations directly when I can and skip the middleman (which is what Viator is). I posted the Tallinn HOHO operator for you on your other post in the Estonia section.

I missed those Viator warnings, too. Several friends have used Viator to book tours and were very happy.

I did a quick search and didn't see warnings about Viator. Where could we find these?

I think domwild is confused about this site. A couple of months I remember a poster complaining about Viator so assuming that domwild has taken that as a warning from Steves. Viator are a resell and the earlier complaint was caused by the end tour company and not by Viator. Viator is a middleman.

I'm probably one of the ones that warned against Viator. I had a number of problems with them, as did my sister. I now book services direct with the provider as a result.

The problem was with them and not the provider - because (according to what I found out when I had my problems) they don't book anything on your behalf until you phone them once you are at your destination, despite having charged you way back when you thought you were purchasing the service.

It's easy to find earlier discussions of this company if you enter "Viator" in the grey Search box, above.

I never heard of pre-booking for a HOHO bus tour and I'm guessing that Viator might only be selling an undated voucher that you trade for a ticket when you show up.

Yes, you can book the HoHo bus with Viator. It doesn't have very good reviews, so not sure why you would want to spend your money on this tour.
http://www.viator.com/tours/Tallinn/Tallinn-City-Hop-on-Hop-off-Tour/d4147-29162916TALLINN

Look at all these other tours you could do instead.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g274958-Activities-c42-Tallinn_Harju_County.html#TtD

Hi,
Thanks for replies. Did not know that Viator was bought by Tripadvisor. I wish I could direct you to the many complaints about Viator and a few commendations in the minority. Customers there complaint about Viator not publishing negative comments. My experience as listed on top cost me a lot of time and frustration for not even being able to book on-line with Viator to avoid the queue at the Tourist bureau, when the Regal Princess arrives with 3,500 passengers.

Ringing a New South Wales number from WA with an expected wait of more than 10 minutes to inform Viator of software problems is a bit much. But I am not the only customer complaining about emails not being returned or money. There is even a claim of a hacking of Viator's database with its credit card numbers.

Glad to read there are a lot of happy Viator customers.

Hi,

Thanks for help with the Tallinn HOHO agent. Viator's web site seems to be down and if you enter "Viator+Problems" into Google you get a few hits. 1.4 Mio. credit card details were hacked is one entry I remember.

When you take the excursion Princess sells you, then you get dumped at the foot of Toompea Castle in Tallinn and have to climb 200 steep steps, while other buses are parked on top; not good for elderly tourists. It is difficult to get info where the bus will take you from agents, who only sell the tickets and their web site is down.

I also replied to your duplicate posting in Estonia section--try EstAdventures, you can book them online and they also work around your cruise itinerary. They are wonderful and I think you'll love them--owned by an Australian expat!

I booked a day trip on Viator last summer and shortly after their site was hacked, all that happened to me was a $29 charge that my card company quickly reversed. I've never had a problem before, and have enjoyed several successful day trips with them in Austria and England.

Agree with others. We went to Rome to see the Vatican that I missed because one of mt kids got sick at the Vatican during our tour. So our return trip years later we used Viator prepaying and we beat he lines, relatively small group . No hassles. For the Vatican Trip in Rome, no problems

You booked with Viator and beat the lines to the Vatican, did you?? You booked with Viator, they bought the tickets directly from the Vatican (just like you could have done at www.vatican.va), Viator marked up the price and gave them to you.

Do you see a problem here? Hint: There's not need for a middleman.

I'd suggest just buying the tickets for your HOHO bus tour when you arrive at your destination, directly from the operators of the service. For that sort of thing, there's absolutely no need to book in advnace, especially when it involves a "middleman".

The Tallinn HOHO bus line claims to have three lines and the ticket is valid for all three BUT the Green line does not leave any more at the advertised 4:30 slot from the former communist cultural centre.

Beating queues at the Vatican in Rome? No way? When you get there there is a queue regardless of if you have a ticket or not. First a scammer will try to sell you a ticket by telling you they are closing soon, forget it and tell him you will call the carabinieri!

When cruise liners arrive these days with their 3,500 passengers avoiding queues is impossible anyway.

Regards
Dominic