Tauck - You never cease to amaze.

OzJohnno

As I type this it's 11am on Thursday 15th May and the postman has just been. She delivered my secure post documents for our 40th Wedding Anniversary trip that starts in Edinburgh on the 10th August. It's 84 days before we fly out of Australia and Tauck have shipped our travel documents half way around the world. Now that's service. On our last Tauck adventure in 2011 their "must not name" agents here in Australia got our documents to us with three weeks to go and they had to be sent back because they got our names wrong. I am so pleased we chose to ignore them this time and booked direct with head office. All of our arrangements were done via email and to have our documents safely in our hands this far out from our departure day is amazing but no doubt normal Tauck service.

If I could I'd shout you all a beer. Well done Tauck and a special well done and thank you to Emily who held our hands and calmed us down when we got too excited. I always find it a shame that so few Australians know about this great tour company. Again thank you for such great service. Now all we have to do is wait another 83 sleeps.

Rod

British

Congratulations on your anniversary. We await the documents for our 40th wedding anniversary trip in July!

jdurkin

Hi Rod,

The other crowd got the docs to you three weeks before you left? And they only got your name wrong? Gee, you did really well, then, didn't you! Don't mention the war … er, fx. And you survived the trauma to see the light. Good going, mate.

On a happier note, are you flying straight to Edinburgh? Time to have a little wander about and partake of a wee celebratory dram to two before the kick off? I hope you haven't forgotten to get some of those Scottish bank notes in before you leave?

Oh, and prepare to be even more amazed. Sounds like you are in for a fabulous trip.

Cheers to you both,

Jan

AlanS

Congrats!

In just under four weeks (26 days, 12 hours, 16 minutes, and 23 seconds) we will be headed a bit further east- to Munich for the start of the Ultimate Alps tour. And yes, 1974 was a good year for marriage- my wife and I are also celebrating our 40th this summer!

jdurkin

British wrote:

Congratulations on your anniversary. We await the documents for our 40th wedding anniversary trip in July!

Gosh, 74 was a really big year! Besides my first trip to London, of course!;) Congrats to you guys, too!

Cheers,

Jan

OzJohnno

jdurkin wrote:

Hi Rod,

The other crowd got the docs to you three weeks before you left? And they only got your name wrong? Gee, you did really well, then, didn't you! Don't mention the war … er, fx. And you survived the trauma to see the light. Good going, mate.

On a happier note, are you flying straight to Edinburgh? Time to have a little wander about and partake of a wee celebratory dram to two before the kick off? I hope you haven't forgotten to get some of those Scottish bank notes in before you leave?

Oh, and prepare to be even more amazed. Sounds like you are in for a fabulous trip.

Cheers to you both,

Jan

Hi Jan,

Yes we're flying via Singapore and Paris into Edinburgh a couple of days early (about 39 hours all up) and having a wee dram or two is certainly on our agenda. We decided that we'd forgo the Scottish Pound and rely on the Sterling. This will probably be the last trip we will be able to afford so you can bet we'll playing up ... just a little bit.

Seems like 1974 was a good year for tying the knot for a lot of fine people. Just a shame though that I can't remember the 60's ...

Rod

jdurkin

AlanS wrote:

And yes, 1974 was a good year for marriage- my wife and I are also celebrating our 40th this summer!

Goodness me. Quite the trend, huh? Happy anniversary to you both as well!

Cheers,

Jan

jdurkin

OzJohnno wrote:

Just a shame though that I can't remember the 60's ...

Well, you know what they say, Rod …. if you can remember the 70s you weren't there. You are just being a trend setter.

jdurkin

OzJohnno wrote:

It's 84 days before we fly out of Australia and Tauck have shipped our travel documents half way around the world. Now that's service. On our last Tauck adventure in 2011 their "must not name" agents here in Australia got our documents to us with three weeks to go and they had to be sent back because they got our names wrong.

For those who need to know:

The Australian home page of the Tauck site, on the very first line, top right, says:

Call Tauck at 1300 732 300 or your travel agent

This is not the number for Tauck. It is answered by "must not name" as referred to above. If you want to call Tauck from Australia, use their free number: 1800 122 048, while being mindful of international times. Tauck "answer" this number with advice that this number is staffed 9-12, Monday to Friday mornings, particularly for Australian callers. Leave a message if the human isn't there.

Cheers,

Jan

Garyben

My husband and I agree about 1974 being a great year as we too got married then. We will on the Grand European River Cruise and I can't wait. We'll be there in a little over 5 weeks. Yeah! Tauck has some fantastic trips and this will be our first one.

Nancy and Gary

Garyben

My husband and I agree about 1974 being a great year as we too got married then. We will on the Grand European River Cruise and I can't wait. We'll be there in a little over 5 weeks. Yeah! Tauck has some fantastic trips and this will be our first one.

Nancy and Gary

jdurkin

I'm sure you will have a great time, Nancy & Gary. And congrats to you, too!

Cheers,

Jan

Irenen

To others who have had problems with the "unnamed" Australian operator, I'm jealous that you received your documents 3 weeks early. When I had to remind the TA that the date she needed to remind me to pay the balance of our tour was about to pass, I immediately received an email telling me the date for payment of balance was close at hand ( as in TODAY). The invoice she included had the WRONG amount on it, by about $5,000. Seems she had included airfares for flights for which I had asked a quote 7 months earlier and advised we would be making our own flight arrangements, the day after the original quote. Seems she never cancelled the flights. But when we still hadn't received any documentation a week before departing Australia, and I emailed her, we received an electronic version the same day, with a message that perhaps they had gone astray in the mail. Yes, they had certainly gone astray, especially as the house number was listed as 212 instead of 21. And these are just the mild errors. Every single communication has been full of errors. I really don't understand how Tauck, which is such a magnificent company, continues to deal with such a sub standard agent. Surely it's time to do better. I felt I was forced to deal with them, as going to a private TA just meant adding a 3rd party to each transaction.

Now I'm thinking of dealing directly with Tauck next time, if others feel that this is a better option.

British

I always book with Tauck directly and I live in the US by the way, any time I have been on a tour and someone has had a glitch during the booking process or not received documents or things like a duffel bag in advance for some tours, it has always been somebody who has used an agent.

Richardb

I live in England and for our six Tauck Tours we have always booked directly with Tauck. The service is excellent by return email and payments can be made directly to their direct secure site. On the one occasion when a duffel bag was needed that was handed to us by the Tour Director at the tour reception meeting. Never had any problem and best of all it avoids any Travel Agent charges.

rogfam

One major reason of using a qualified private TA is if there is a problem with Tauck itself. Taken two tours and nothing but praises, with two more in the near future. However, if a problems develops the TA will be another voice helping resolve the issue.

AlanS

Rod- post trip report???? or are you still on the road? We loved E,S,L last year.

jdurkin

Irenen wrote:

To others who have had problems with the "unnamed" Australian operator, I'm jealous that you received your documents 3 weeks early.
Now I'm thinking of dealing directly with Tauck next time, if others feel that this is a better option.

If it's not too late, call Tauck now!!!
As I have said elsewhere, I don't pretend to understand the ins and outs of international agency agreements. All I know is that in the past, too many Australian travellers have predicated their view of the Tauck product on the service (euphemism alert!!!) provided by the unnamed Sydney travel agent. All I can say …. please re-consider the Tauck travel products. As a discerning, experienced Australian traveller … I know you will appreciate a professionally presented travel experience … that anticipates the little things …. and doesn't charge you an arm and a leg as an added extra each time! Enough said, really.

The very best of luck!

Cheers,

Jan