The Review of Say Hueque Tour Company

[TroubleT]

Choosing Say Hueque for our 7 day staying in Buenos Aires wasn’t my choice. Unfortunately, I had to be with the group and they already committed to this company. I didn’t mind working with Say Hueque based on the reviews on TripAdvisor. However, our experience was a completely different from most of the reviews.

 

1. Planning and communication: In general, this process was smooth. However, the communication could be better sometimes. If the time difference between our countries was 12-14 hours that would be totally understandable. But it is only 3 hours' time difference and sometimes it was taking days and multiple emails to get ahold of somebody from Say Hueque office. I also understand the cultural thing of the South America - life is not as fast and dynamic as in the North America. But since that company deals with the clients from all over the world certain things should be adjusted and should be up to the world standard. The last day in Buenos Aires and Tango show is a perfect example of a total disaster in communication. I will get back to this problem in details later in my review.

 

2. Meet-And-Greet at the cruise terminal in Buenos Aires and city tour. We arrived to Buenos Aires via cruise ship. It was our disembarkation port. Long hours of waiting was totally cruise line and port authorities fault. Finding Say Hueque representative was easy. Augustina (our guide for the day) was absolutely fantastic! What a sweet person with tons of knowledge and information about everything in Argentina and Buenos Aires! We just loved our guide! We had an excellent tour of the city with lots of stops and enough time to take pictures and to see everything. A nice touch was a gift from Augustina: wine for the guests and empanadas at the local restaurant.

 

 

3. Two days trip to Iguazu Falls. Pick up service was excellent. The car arrived on time. The ride to the airport was uneventful. Check-in process was pretty easy. We met Adrian our guide for two days at the airport - again it was easy to find him. He gave us time to change at the airport. I must say that we were lucky to have such a great guy as Adrian: cool, very professional, with lots of information. He really took a great care of the whole group. Iguazu Falls trip was a highlight of our stay in Argentina. The whole group agreed that the trip was fantastic, but we also agreed on the point that the time planned by the company (not the guide!) was very inefficient. I realize that every tour company wants to make money and try to sell all possible plans/tours to the guests. But Say Hueque should work on the tours for different groups of people: considering their age, health condition, interests. Our full two days trip could be easily done in one day or one and a half day. The Argentinian side was easy. The Brazilian side doesn't have to be all day long. If we were warned that we had to take 4 different routes and some routes were a few kilometers long then we'd definitely decide on one route only. I think Say Hueque should work on and offer a compact tour of Iguazu Falls: Argentina side and Devil's Throat on Brazilian side. The rest of the park is very optional. Our flight back to Buenos Aires was delayed. It's not Say Hueque fault or problem. But the tour company should treat its clients like little kids. Based on the experience Say Hueque should know that flight delays happen all the time and it was not doable to have a full day tour with early start the next day. We got to the hotel by 2 AM. Of course, we couldn't wake up for our 9 AM tour. It was our responsibility to cancel it. Again, the communication problem was right there. I sent Say Hueque multiple emails about delays and a possibility of cancelling the next day tour at the Farm. And yet the tour company was ringing the doorbell at 8 AM in the morning. Don’t they have some kind of process in place to communicate with the third party they hire for tours?

 

4. Full day Farm Day Fiesta Gaucha tour. The situation with that tour was absolutely unacceptable. The cancelation policy of all the companies I used to deal with was at least 48 hours, sometimes it's enough to give a warning 24 hours before the tour. I emailed Say Hueque 9 days (!!!) before the tour with the request to cancel it. And the answer that it can't be refunded is a clear scam. How difficult is it to create a refund through PayPal? I had similar situations so many times. Tours are cancelled all the time for so many reasons. And Say Hueque should have a procedure in place in the situation like this one.

 

 

5. Tango Show… Dancers and performers have nothing to do with Say Hueque - it's a different business and I should give them a big credit - they were fantastic! But the rest of the tour was a catastrophe! Starting with a two hour waiting time in the lobby of the hotel and no communication whatsoever! I had to call Say Hueque office and the on-call person routed me God knows where. Basically, the representative didn’t even want to deal with my issue. She gave me the phone number of a contact person from Say Hueque. She wasn’t available. I had to get hotel manager involved into this fiasco! Taking a taxi in the middle of the night wasn't something I was planning on doing in Buenos Aires. The Tango Show company paid me back - at least it was a good move on their side. I've been to so many Shows and perfectly understand the concept of "touristy trap", but that show topped everything! The food was awful, the service was inattentive, the place was cold as an igloo! And again another mistake on Say Hueque side: knowing that their clients have an early flight they should have advised on the late hours of the show. I couldn't stay till the end of the show. Knowing the situation with pick up service I couldn't afford to wait or be on the bus till 2 AM when I had to get up at 4 AM for my morning flight. Again, I had to take a taxi back to the hotel and pay out of pocket. I must say that it was a completely ruined day, a very bad experience and a waste of my time and money.

 

6. Airport transfer. No complaints here: the car was on time. Good service of the driver.

 

Conclusion: We loved Argentina and Buenos Aires, but we paid big money (and looks like we are not the only ones who complaint about overpriced tours provided by Say Hueque) and expected everything working smoothly. I don't have to place multiple phone calls, deal with taxi, worry about flights. Did I have high expectations? Yes, based on the price I paid. Was I satisfied with the service? Most of the times - no. The company is not flexible in changing the itinerary at the last moment. Cancellation policy doesn’t exist. Customer is not valued and ignored when critical situation happens. For my next trip to South America I will definitely use a different tour operator with better customer service and friendly cancellation policy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[alicat58]

Hi TroubleT

 

I have not booked anything for our upcoming South America cruise with Costa.

 

Are there lots of taxis at the ports offering tours and can you haggle with them? Looks as we will steer clear of this company!

 

Is it worth going to one of those Tango shows?

 

Alicat

[SayHueque]

Dear Tatiana, 

It saddens me to know your opinion about our company. It is the main goal of Say Hueque to create the best Travel Experiences, and we understand your expectations were not fully satisfied.

As a differential service and for which Say Hueque stands out as the leader in local operator for 20 years, it to offer our passenger a personal and authentic Experience to all our clients. That is why we offer a constantly trainee to all our guides and Travel Advisors. We appreciate you for mention our guides who are  really professional, always  smiling and giving the best.

We are experts in Argentina and Chile destinations, so we set up our itineraries with the enought time/days we think is convenient for each destination to have a relaxed and stress-free experience in case of cancellations or incidentals during the trip.

Our Terms and Conditions policy and cancelation policy are published on our website for everyone who is interested in having full knowledge about them.

Regarding your comments we have found a difference with our records of emails we have exchanged with you. It is true that we received an email 9 days before requesting the cancellation of Colonia Day Tour, not Fiesta Gaucha. As you may understand, Colonia Day Tour (Uruguay) involves international transportation from Buenos Aires that can not be cancelled with such a short notice without a full charge.

Regarding Fiesta Gaucha tour we received your cancellation request by email at 1 am, when the pick up time was at 8 am, the same day. Unfortunately, there was not enough operational time to cancel it.

As you mentioned we are use to receive grattitude and nice comments about our work.  We really care, and it is our main concern, your opinion. So, of course, we highly appreciate you take the time to write to us.

 

  

 Noelia Juarez | Sales Manager

 Say Hueque | Argentina Journeys

Exploring Argentina & Chile since 1999.