Dream Tours = A Total NIGHTMARE

[sakaara]

We decided to use Dream Tours after reading glowing reports by trustworthy cruise critic members here on the Silversea board.

We booked Dream tours for an airport transfer from Nice Airport to Our hotel the Royal Riviera in Cap Ferrat as their return quote was €110.00 and our hotel was €170.00 each way.

On arrival at Nice on 29th May everything went smoothly. Our driver Frederic was pleasant and he offered to take us on the scenic route. No problems except the mini van was just ok. A Fiat that had a very strong cigarette odour.

 

For the return on Monday 02 June I confirmed a 12.00pm pick up and also enquired if this was sufficient time for a 3pm flight. I was assured it was.

On Monday morning we were contacted to advise that our driver was delayed in traffic in Cannes and would pick us up at 12.30pm. We were assured not to worry we had plenty of time.

At 12.35 I was worried as there was still no sign of a car. I called Alain who assured me all was ok, he would ring me straight back and advise where our driver was. Alain called me and said our Lady driver was at Villa Ephrussi just beside our hotel.

By 12.45 still no driver. I called Alain again, I was very upset and annoyed by now. He gave me her number but not her name.i couldn't reach her as she wasn't answering her phone. Alain then called to say she was at reception but we had already left! I told him I was standing in reception and no one had come in! Lies, Lie, and more Lies!

We asked the concierge to call us a taxi. Our transfer arrived at 13.10 and concierge cancelled our taxi.

The Dream Tours car was better this time, an Estate black Mercedes.

We asked our driver if he could drive as quick as possible and explained our previous car hadn't arrived. He apparently had NO English! shortly after leaving our hotel we arrived at a dead end!

I didn't know if he was trying to delay us further or if he honestly hadn't a clue where he was going…It was a scary situation.

We demanded to be brought straight back to the hotel, and I rang the concierge at the same time to reinstate our taxi. This was so embarrassing as i had previously cancelled our transfer with the same concierge. I felt like a cheapskate and a total idiot.

 

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because both the concierge and our subsequent taxi told us they noted the licence plate of our driver, (I photographed his licence plate too), it had EP 60 on the side which is a EuropCar rental. An Illegal driver! Rental cars have numbers 76,01,60 as a way of identifying the rental company.

Apparently there is a big problem in France, whereby a lot of non licenced people rent corporate cars and travel down from Paris and Lyon for work but have no Insurance to drive people.

The driver is insured but not the passengers in the car. This was widespread during the taxi strike at the most recent Cannes Film Festival our driver explained to us. He also advised me to contact Alain in Dream Tours and find out who would have insured us in the event of an accident… Would Dream Tours ?

Alain was really useless as far as i am concerned. I would never use them again and I highly recommend others not to either.

Alain never replied to my question about insurance or where our first driver disappeared to. With regard to the driver who got lost, his explanation was laughable… Dream Tours use 2 other companies the trust when they are busy

and our driver was new but he is also a body guard, with a licence. He must think we are idiots!

We luckily didn't miss our flight as thankfully it was delayed until 4.20pm. I was never so thrilled to see a flight delayed!

 

I wanted to advise prospective cruise passengers to be aware of the dangers of booking through a company such as Dream Tours that uses second and third party companies with unvetted cars and unlicensed drivers, and finding out the hard way that a missed flight would be the least of your worries, having no insurance is a very serious position to unknowingly be in should there be an accident.

 

Should anyone be in need of a reliable, safe , luxurious transfer from Nice or a driver around the Cotes D'Azur , our Driver was Andre From Andre Taxi who owns the main company for taxis around St Jean - Cap- Ferrat.

He is a charming man who also drove us to VilleFranche for dinner one evening

and who the Hotel Royal Riviera uses as their taxi company. Incidentally he charged us €70.00, an excellent deal.

Andre - +33(0) 6 84 78 16 84

+ 33(0) 6 99 37 60 60

 

andretaxicapferrat@gmail.com

[SarniaLo]

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because both the concierge and our subsequent taxi told us they noted the licence plate of our driver, (I photographed his licence plate too), it had EP 60 on the side which is a EuropCar rental. An Illegal driver! Rental cars have numbers 76,01,60 as a way of identifying the rental company.

I am really sorry about your ordeal and certainly your words of caution are wise. There is indeed a big problem in France with unlicensed transport companies (currently there are big protests of taxi companies because of this).

 

However just to add something to the above quote. License plates in France have numbers (60,01 for instance) that actually refers to where in France the car got registered (60 is for the Oise department, located north of Paris, 01 is the Ain department, in Northern France and so on. A license plate from Paris would have number 75, from Nice number 06... there are 95 departements in total in mainland France and Corsica). Rental cars are often registered in department number 60 for tax reasons, so indeed a car with a number 60 on its license plate is more likely to be a rental car (even more so if the car is in Nice, so far away from "home"...), but there are private cars also with the number 60 and to my knowledge there is no way to tell from this number which rental company the car is from.

 

This doesn't change much actually to your bad experience, and I'm pretty sure the car was indeed a rental car with no insurance for carrying paying passengers. I'm glad it ended up OK for you.

[Hlitner]

What an unfortunate tale which would certainly leave a bad taste with anyone! I guess the sad answer, which is oft used here in France (where we are currently on a long driving vacation) is "it is France." When things go wrong here, the reaction is often a shrug with little regret. It seems to be the nature of the culture, and we actually have learned to enjoy the French culture with all of its frustrations. So here is a recent tale that happened to us this week. We spend a few days at an excellent 4 Star hotel in Chamonix. Upon arrival (on Sunday morning) the hotel manager told us their credit card machine (provided by the bank) was not functioning and he was having a difficult day. When we checked-out on Wednesday the same manager said they still could not process any credit card transactions and now had over 50 pending transactions on his desk (and he added one more as we checked out). Their bank-owned machine failed on Saturday afternoon and they called the French bank. The bank was just closing and refused to help. On Sunday the bank was closed and Monday was some unknown French Bank holiday. The bank does not provide any emergency services on weekends or bank holidays, even for their best customers. On Tuesday the bank was open, but told the Hotel they had 3 days of work to catch-up and they would send somebody to the hotel ASAP. By noon on Wednesday they still had not sent anyone, and refused to tell the hotel manager when they would come fix the problem. The Hotel Manager happened to be German and said this would never happen in Germany or the USA, but in France it was just one more case of "its France." So yesterday we checked into another hotel in another city and the internet did not work. Not just for our hotel, but for several hotels in the neighborhood. It had been out for most of the past week (destroying the hotel's online reservation business). It finally got fixed today (after nearly a week) and was caused by a bad circuit board on a utility pole at the street. Ahh, but this is France :).

 

Hank

[sakaara]

Thanks Hlitner, and SarniaLo for your kind words.

As they say in France C'est La Vie!. Wow Hank trouble seems to have followed you this week! But you do let it all go when you have the fine food, wine and scenery.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

 

Regards

M

[sakaara]

SarniaLo, I believe the EP with 60 underneath stands for Europcar or so our Taxi said?

 

Thanks

M

[frenchrci]

Hi,

 

I'm very upset that you had such an horrible experience here....

 

I'm so sorry for you but i'm glad you didn't miss your flight.

 

I am really sorry about your ordeal and certainly your words of caution are wise. There is indeed a big problem in France with unlicensed transport companies (currently there are big protests of taxi companies because of this).

 

However just to add something to the above quote. License plates in France have numbers (60,01 for instance) that actually refers to where in France the car got registered (60 is for the Oise department, located north of Paris, 01 is the Ain department, in Northern France and so on. A license plate from Paris would have number 75, from Nice number 06... there are 95 departements in total in mainland France and Corsica). Rental cars are often registered in department number 60 for tax reasons, so indeed a car with a number 60 on its license plate is more likely to be a rental car (even more so if the car is in Nice, so far away from "home"...), but there are private cars also with the number 60 and to my knowledge there is no way to tell from this number which rental company the car is from.

 

This doesn't change much actually to your bad experience, and I'm pretty sure the car was indeed a rental car with no insurance for carrying paying passengers. I'm glad it ended up OK for you.

 

I agree at 100% ! (je ne suis donc pas le seul ici !! :eek: )

 

 

When you see a recent car with the number 60 in the south (for example), it is in general a rental car.

[SarniaLo]

SarniaLo, I believe the EP with 60 underneath stands for Europcar or so our Taxi said?

I honestly never heard of that. You said you took a picture, could you possibly show it?

(again, it doesn't change much to your ordeal, I'm just curious).

[Keith1010]

Sorry to read about your problems.

 

Keith

[sakaara]

SarniaLo, I will try and see if I can post photo from my mobile phone online.

 

Keith Thank you for your kind words, much appreciated.