Although the pedicab drivers themselves were great, I would rate this business zero stars overall for the extremely poor customer service experience/scam the management tried to perpetrate on us. Again, this is no reflection on the drivers themselves, including a great guy named Saeed who did his best to make things right and ensure we got our tour, but I have to warn people about the management of this company since they are unethical and totally unconcerned about the safety of their customers as well as their drivers. The tour we booked just happened to be scheduled for a time when a major storm was headed for Manhattan. When we saw the weather service alerts and we could see the dark clouds gathering, about 30 minutes prior to our tour starting, I called Viator to find out about rescheduling due to the weather. After waiting on hold several times for about 30 minutes I was finally told by Viator that it was up to the tour operator and that the tour operator was planning to operate as normally scheduled despite the oncoming storm. The drivers themselves understood our concern, particularly because we had two very young children with us, so Saeed called his boss to ask for a reschedule on our behalf. Saeed’s boss then told him we can only reschedule if we agreed to pay an extra $50 each per pedicab. We had already prepaid for the tour via Viator and I was told our payment was nonrefundable so we were left having to choose between paying an extra $150 to reschedule our three pedicabs or going ahead with the tour as scheduled with dark storm clouds and heavy rain barreling down on us. Not wanting to the pay extra fee we reluctantly told the drivers, fine then we will go ahead with this ridiculous tour as planned and we jumped into the pedicabs. At that point the drivers realized how insane this was as the rain began to come down heavily and dark clouds told anyone with common sense that lightning strikes were also imminent. Saeed then told us he would make sure we could reschedule for the following morning at 8 am, which we had to accept as it was the only time he had available, and he would ensure we were not charged an extra fee. So the company did their best to rip us off, but luckily sane and sensible heads prevailed. I would never book with this company again and I would warn anyone else against doing so as well. There is no way you should book a tour with a company that threatens to consume your entire prepaid fee if nasty weather interrupts the tour unless you pay an additional fee like this. Absolutely horrendous. Although we did not want to do an 8 am tour the next day, left with no choice we did it anyhow and the tour was great. Saeed and his two colleagues were very well informed, courteous and professional. We enjoyed our time with them greatly. They deserve five stars, but their unethical company deserves 0 stars.
Thank you for recognizing that our drivers were courteous, professional, and did their best to help you. They represent our company, and people naturally judge a company by its drivers. That being said, you booked this tour approximately 45 minutes before the starting time. Why didn’t you check the weather or simply look at the sky before booking? Once you booked, we immediately assigned 3 drivers. They traveled from 59th Street to 83rd Street to pick you up. We had already committed to paying them $150 for that trip. Then, after they arrived, you asked to reschedule because of the incoming rain. If we rescheduled, we would have had to pay our drivers another $150 for the additional trip. You paid approximately $180 for the tour. Why should our company have to pay $300 in driver costs because of a last-minute decision that was made by you ? We did our part. You booked the tour, and our drivers were there for you. When Saeed called us, we explained that rescheduling was possible, but the additional driver cost had to be covered. You should learn paying off your mistakes. You spent a great deal of time writing about our company, but unfortunately did not mention your own responsibility in the situation. You also arrived 25 minutes late the following morning, which affected our drivers and our schedule. We appreciate your kind words about Saeed and the other drivers. They truly did their best. But the full situation should be presented fairly. If we could, we would also rate you -0 stars as a disrespectful customer!!! Thank you for your time, and we hope you will read this from our perspective as well.
