1. It was a challenge understanding the Driver's English. 2. The Driver had no microphone 🎤, and spoke directly to his windshield. Because of that, customers asked him to speak up and repeat himself several times. 3. The mini-van started over-heating, so he turned off the a/c, leaving us 7 customers very uncomfortable. 4. The Driver didn't seem to know much about any of our stops; e.g., When we passed St. Patrick's Cathedral, I asked him the significance of that church. His response: "It's an old church." 5. A customer asked the Driver if Luna Amusement Park was open. Driver's response: "No. It's closed for repairs." (I visited that amusement park the day before and the day after the Tour. It was wide open and in full operation.) 6. It was VERY DIFFICULT understanding where the Tour's Pick-Up point was exactly located. I texted/called the Driver 3x for Pick-Up specifics before the day of the Tour, and was given 3 different pick-up locations, all within Federation Square. Because of the misinformation provided to me by the Tour company, I arrived at Federation Square 90 minutes early in an effort to locate the Tour van. The only benefit of this "tour" was being driven around Melbourne instead of having to walk everywhere. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS TOUR! 😕 ***************** One other thing: The Tour van Driver left 2 paying customers behind at the Pick-Up location because they were very late arriving. Everyone on this Tour was late arriving at the Tour's Pick-Up location, except me, because the Tour Company was unable to clearly communicate the specific Tour Pick-Up location within Federation Square to the customers due to misinformation provided by the Tour Company.
first of all thank you for your feedback, we have spoken to the driver and ofher customers as well in regards to your opinion and asked for clarification. In regards to the “leaving paying customers behind” we waited for 15 minutes and the driver has maintained commincation with the customers through text and phone calls. The tour starts at 9 am and it is clearly described in the viator tour listing description. The affected customers was still 15-20 min away from federation square and we have another tour running after this tour so thats why we have to start strictly at the time given. It is within our policy for late arrival that the bus cannot wait any longer than 15 minutes and the affected customers are invited to meet us at the next stop. In regards to St Patrick cathedral the driver has given enough information needed about it that it is the largest cathedral in Australia and it took 80 years to build and when your group arrived there was a mass in progress and it was just in time after all passengers came back our driver went and check and informed you that the side door is open so your group can come back and see the inside. He made an effort to make sure your group can see the inside of the cathedral. We do have to appologise for the microphone the driver indeed forgot to take his microphoe with him that day and he expressed his sincere appology. The aircon was turned on the whole trip and he recalled you asked the aircon to be turned on at the start of the pick up from queen victoria market. Please note that the bus will not cool down instantly after the engine is turned on. As for Luna park. It was indeed close for short maintenance in previous days and although the driver might have skipped it due to his understanding that it is still closed due to renovation Luna park is actually optional as we dont actually stop there. We only do a pass through. In regards to your claim that our direction caused you to arrive 90 minutes early, we admire your effort to make sure you re not late although it is in our opinion is a bit extreme as you certainly dont need to arrive 90 minutes early to locate the pickup point. we have carefully checked the communication and messages on our system and all we tried to do is to help you locate the pickup point by giving you some pointers. They re not separate locations but a landmark to make it easier to spot. Nonetheless, we have very clearly stated in our tour listing that pickup location is at front of ACMI federation square. If our effort to help you locate was too confusing and made you arrive 90 min early we do appologise. Once again we appologise for the inconvenience caused. However apart from the microphone issue we have served our service to provide a 4 hour sightseeing Melbourne sightseeing tour. Please bear in mind that this is not a full day comprehensive nor an educational tour but rather a short introduction to Melbourne city to give tourists from all around the world some ideas what they can do in their time should they still have few more days to spend in the city. We do not provide detail information on every sightseeing attraction.We focus more on the general knowledge how customers may enjoy their sightseeing time, that is to enjoy the beauty of Melbourne city visually rather than indulged in a very detail information and at the same time once again to give them an idea of what they can do after the tour is finished. If you still need more clarification on this matter please do not hesitate to contact viator by email and we are more than happy to provide explanation
