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There is a fine line between being understanding and rolling with the punches when it comes to going on a “camping adventure to Tantou, Island in Ningbo” and feeling that you were “ripped-off” maybe not intentionally but because of the lack of organization and professionalism from a tour organizing group. Just so you don’t think this is written by a fussy Doll who is used to “5 star hotels and whatnots” (as one of the organizers Chris retorted when a traveler just asked if she could go eat somewhere else) let me tell you the story of our trip to the Island this last October holiday.
Based on their website, they post pictures of this Island to make you think it is so beautiful with white beaches and blue water when you finally get to the place you will see the sand is grey and the water is brown. (See comparisons below)
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| OK, Deal! Club's advertised photo | Real life Tantou island (picture by the author) |
But that was only the tip of the iceberg. Due to no prior ocular inspection, bus inspections or what not our supposedly 5 hour trip to Tantou Island became 12 hours which left us arriving to a pitch black island and queasy from a rough boat ride. Also, in the email sent about accommodation pricing for 3 accommodation options (tent, hostel room and hotel with ac and bath) were not followed. In fact, on the island we had to pay more and watch the organizers try and negotiate with the screaming landlords over the price but we still ended up having to pay more than what we agreed on via email.
Also, during the breakfasts especially, the way they organized it made you feel so awkward trying to grab food from other tour mates tables and you always felt they were depriving you of food despite charging 690/head including the meals (we were about 45 people and you can guess that each of the organizers profited roughly 8,000 rmb for the trip. (This is a months worth of work for some teachers in China which they are getting over 3 days) Also, when you try and complain a voice out that this is not what they promised they always try and say that we should understand because it is not a “5 star hotel”. When we booked the trip, we did not expect a 5 star hotel. We just expected them to fulfill what they promised. Another thing that topped things off was they asked other travelers to carry their baggage of food and drinks from Shanghai because they had to buy things at a grocery. (the nerve…travelers become their ATMs and their pack mules as well) They even let a traveler who was disabled carry their things and walk back to port instead of bringing the shuttle back to take us to port. Oh yeah, and their so-called “hotel with independent bath and air conditioning?” The bathroom had no door, no actual tap only a shower head connected to the tap and they only turned on the air conditioning once for 3 hours. To be honest though, I think what really takes the cake is watching your one of the organizers drink herself silly and puke in front of your room-and yes her name is Summer.
Of course trying to be positive people, many of the travelers tried to make the most of whatever we got but I’m sure many will tell you that they came out from the trip feeling cheated and no amount of “enough alcohol to get you drunk” could make up for false advertising, bad customer service and organization. Instead of being able to sit back and relax because they organized things for you, you end up having to fight for what you paid for and still come out on the losing end. Being in Shanghai, there are places that make you think that customer service is improving in China and standards are beginning to rise, but there are organizers (or should I say disorganizers) like Ok! Deal which I now like to call Ok! Duped that fall so far below the standard it’s almost like a satire. I would never travel with them again after this experience.
Comments
Being an unprepared tour leader I'm responsible for the poor weather and the bus breaking-down, luckily we got there as I contacted 3 local small buses.
I am always asking friendly travel mates to help me out with the bags, I wish I don't have to if I got 20 hands. Sometimes I carry bags for some angry people just because they don't want to do it themselves, and the funny thing is coming from some well-educated country they sometimes forgot to say Thank You, and failed to realized we have 10+ bags to carry.
Regarding the food I mentioned clearly in the trip notice it's a lot seafood, if you don't like it that's very fine, I didn't promised any food that you like. Also, this is not a five-star hotel because I seldom find anyone yelling tons of F-words all the way on the trip and ruined the great mood of other people so successfully.
Meanwhile, I feel like its too irresponsible and ridiculous when you mentioned Okdeal club cheating and using customers as ATM Machine, if we were doing that we might not had our travel business running up for 4 years and with hundreds and thousands of international people joint, and for Toutan Island we have organized every year for almost 10 times from 2008 till now, even we had some people following us and go there again,how could you explain that if people feel being cheated by us?!
The reputation and word-of-mouth is the most thing OK,Deal! Club are paying attention to, however we cant make every trip perfect, I think it could be professional if you show your name and contact in the after-trip online survey when complaining about our service, we could find out the way of how to avoid this problem happening again next time and how to making up to you, its just useless to bitching on another website with a hidden ID.
Also the power made by generator is limited |||||-||-|| ||t||h||e||r||e|| ||a||r||e|| ||s||e||v||e||r||a|| l|| ||l||a||n||d||l||o|| r||d|| ||o||n|| ||t||h||e|| ||i||s||l||a||n||d|| ||b||u||i||l||d|| ||u||p|| ||t||h||e|| ||h||o||s||t||e||l|| s|| ||b||y|| ||t||h||e||m||s||e|| l||v||e||s|| ||w||i||t||h|| ||l||i||m||i||t||e|| d|| ||r||e||s||o||u||r|| c||e||,|| ||v||e||r||y|| ||s||i||m||p||l||e|| ||d||e||c||o||r||a|| t||e||d|| ||a||n||d|| ||e||x||p||e||n||s|| i||v||e|| ||p||r||i||c||e||s|| ||o||f||f||e||r||e|| d|| ||c||o||m||p||a||r|| i||n||g|| ||w||i||t||h|| ||o||t||h||e||r|| ||p||l||a||c||e||s|| ||-||-|| ||w||h||i||c||h|| ||m||a||d||e|| ||u||s|| ||a|| ||b||i||g|| ||h||e||a||d||a||c|| h||e|| ||t||o|| ||h||e||l||p|| ||g||u||e||s||t||s|| ||l||o||o||k||i||n|| g|| ||r||o||o||m||s|| ||a||n||d|| ||c||h||e||c||k|| ||i||n||,|| ||t||h||a||t||s|| ||a||l||s||o|| ||w||h||y|| ||w||e|| ||k||e||e||p|| ||o||f||f|| ||t||h||e|| ||a||c||c||o||m||m|| o||d||a||t||i||o||n| | ||f||r||o||m|| ||t||h||e|| ||t||o||t||a||l|| ||p||r||i||c||e||,|| ||s||i||n||c||e|| ||i||f|| ||p||e||o||p||l||e|| ||l||i||k||e|| ||t||o|| ||s||t||a||y|| ||i||n|| ||t||e||n||t|| ||c||a||m||p||i||n|| g|| ||o||n|| ||b||e||a||c||h|| ||,||t||h||e||r||e|| ||w||o||u||l||d|| ||b||e|| ||n||o|| ||h||o||s||t||e||l|| ||p||r||o||b||l||e|| m||s||.||
And the author was complaining about that to the trip leader Chris and was replied with " this is not five-star hotel", and she felt like been offended and was pissed off ,always stick on this sentence for complaining ( She also complaint that into our trip survey after, using the same sentence and still with ID hidden)
1,The photos - I cant deny we used some beautiful photos to grab peoples eyes and attract the members to join us, but the authors photo is quite a particular one, I am not feeling like give much comments on this, just want to paste some the previous OKDeal Tantou Island Photos Album links that people will figure out by themsleves.
3-Day Tantou Island Trip 2nd-4th Oct. Holiday 2010
http://www.okdealclub.com/photo/albums/okdeal-club-3day-tantou-island
OK,Deal! Tantou Island Trip 6th Aug. 2010( mostly a raining day but people still had fun)
http://www.okdealclub.com/photo/albums/201086-okdeal-tantou-island
OK,Deal! Oct. Holiday Island Trip 1st Oct. 2009
http://www.okdealclub.com/photo/albums/2009101okdeal-oct-holiday
1,Large travel group with 45 people and two trip leaders from the three staffs are fresh.
2,Unexpected issues such weather was raining and the bus broken on the way(its the first time happened during the 4 years of my trip organizing)
3,The island hostels price is quite flexible that out of our control, and the trips leader girls also spend lots of time try to negotiating withe them for the guests, for this we will make a trip notice and remind people next time.
First of all, for the author’s disappointing travel experience with OK,Deal! Club I feel really sorry about that, I agree it was a disaster, even I was upsetting for a long time about trip after, there are something we didn’t do well which are
Regarding asking their guests to carry/do things for them, from my experience, I've never seen or heard them force anyone to do stuff. They sometimes ask, as in a favor, but if the person declines, they don't push it. In fact, capable guys in the trip usually volunteer to help carry things.
Things don't always go as we expect them to be, and I'm sorry for the inconvenience and ill feelings the author (and all other travelers with her/him who share the same sentiments) experienced during the trip, but I do believe this kind of anonymous posting (in this social website where most people aren't hiding their identity) and bashing is uncalled for.