Vantage & Att. Gen. Office

[azcaptainbob]

Since discovering that the advertised ships Vantage had for 4 Egypt trips scheduled For Oct. and Nov did not match with the ships schedule on Lake Nasser and the Nile River., I contacted Vantage. For over two months I attempted through phone calls, and emails to ascertain exactly what ships we were scheduled to be on.After stonewalling, no-responses, and lies I filed 2 complaints. One with the Better Business Bureau of Boston and the other with the Attorney General of Mass, Boston Office. It was extremely disconcerting to read that the trips taken in January and February were downgraded without any prior knowledge and the downgrade was so severe it actually placed passengers in cabins where they were exposed to smelling toxic diesel fuel vapors/exhaust whereby people were complaining of headaches. Now 4 and a half months after booking the itinerary has been reversed to match the advertised ships schedule, however, we are still waiting for confirmation on the exact ships.

 

In my conversation with the AG's office it was relayed to encourage people who feel there has been false advertising, deceptive practices, etc involving any trip file a complaint. It can be easily done on line http://www.mass.gov, search "consumer complaints", hit file a complaint.

 

The AG's office gives you a case # and determines if there is any merit but also looks for a "pattern". For example the advertised ships are Al and Bell but every complaint states they were on the downgraded Clide and Edith. There were 25 complaints over a 6 month period showing every sailing was downgraded.

 

As far as I am concerned anyone forced to breathe diesel fuel vapors/exhaust in their cabins should file with every agency there is. No business should endanger someone's health. Environmental health concerns and toxic chemicals information are on the National Library of Medicine ,

http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov

[npphotog]

Hi Captain Bob - Sorry to hear about Vantage Travel. We have made three great trips with Vantage. 2005 on the Holland to Hungary river cruise, 2007 on the China/Yangtze trip and this past May to Greece. All have been really great tours with fantastic tour directors, good food. Noticed that the Greece trip has been deleted for 2009 and they have sold at least 2 river boats, and possibly leasing the others (not sure about that). The economy has to be part of the problem but in the future we may look into another tour company. Sad about that. Willard

[orchestrapal]

We too contacted the Att. General's office when we were the subjects of bait and switch and were hving a devil of a time getting our deposit back.

We were told that they had had many complaints and were looking into the matter. With our response in hand we spoke to the Presaident of Vantage's assistant and were finally given our deposit back.

Can't understand why anyone would want to travel with a company having such troubles that returning $2000 could be a major deal.So glad our dealings with them are over.:D

[azcaptainbob]

Our traveling companions on this trip to Egypt(if it comes to fruition) have also taken 3 trips with Vantage and never had a problem. It appears to be hit or miss...really wonderful or absolute nightmare with nothing in between.

 

If we had chosen a Sunday departure it appears that all would have been "golden". But the Wednesday departures were going to get substandard downgrades and it would be the "vendor's fault".

 

The fact that for at least 6 cruises, perhaps more, Vantage subjected some of their customers to 3 nights and 4 days of breathing diesel fuel exhaust/vapors is simply negligent. Endangering someone's health is "bad faith" at best and criminal "at worst".