SPAMMERS

drjoe11

Dear Tauck Family:

You really, really need to put some software blocks on the forum. The spammers are ruining the forum for the rest of us.

This latest instance is an indicator that the idiots are relentless in their pursuit of ruining websites and information sharing forums and such.

Here is another start to a weekend that these folks have destroyed. I personally like to communicate with folks who will be traveling on the same trip that my wife an I are. It is great to make new friends and Tauck has provided an avenue to do just that.

Now we get these idiots or idiot that is trying to ruin it for everyone.

Please do something about this. Get your web developers on this and put some security in place.

Thank You,

Dr. Joe Bono

HuskerBob

Agree. See multiple casino spam entries made on 9/7 on this forum.

[Deleted User]

Tauck:

No other travel forum I frequent has the problem you do with spam (e.g., FlyerTalk, CruiseCritic, etc.). They vet users by quarantining their first posts. This works. Really. The time needed to quickly read the 50 new users' posts which you say sign up daily would take, maybe 5-10 minutes...probably less since the titles usually are usually dead give-aways.

You must see that this uncontrolled spamming is lousy PR for Tauck which I clearly think is a great company (8 past trips and 2 upcoming). It makes you look very amateurish.

Please fix this!

Crackeroo

Portolan,
I agree 100%. The website and forum, in general, does not match Taucks high end status.

TauckTim

Hi all,

I'm sorry you had to deal with the spammers this morning; as you've probably noticed by now, the spam has been deleted, and the spammer has been blocked. We're currently looking at products that will do the sort of thing you're talking about, Portolan. I agree wholeheartedly that the spammers are a serious problem, and you can rest assured that we will do whatever is necessary to deal with them.
If you have any questions, please shoot us an email at esupport@tauck.com
Thank you all for understanding and for being patient as we work on this issue.

-Tim

crackers54

This is not even the weekend yet and they have messed with the forum.

AlanS

The last two incidents were close to being "denial of service" attacks. I watched for awhile and saw each one pop up. It appeared to go on until after 4:00 AM. The attacks appear manually generated and not sophisticated, but it is hard to tell. It is also hard to tell if it was a direct attack or they had already compromised a legit user's computer to do their dirty work for them. I wonder if they are probing- getting ready for a massive attack or getting ready to steal personal info? I'm starting to get a bit concerned.

[Deleted User]

Unfortunately, this forum has been lost to the spammers each weekend.

No value in checking for recent posts to the trips we are following on the landing page since it becomes nothing but spam. Checking each individual trip by drilling down to it just isn't worth the effort.

RJS666

This may not be spam. IT should check their Cisco switch to see if these posting occured during maintence calls

ndvb

I have traveled with Tauck six times since 2011 and have enjoyed them all (Treasures of the Aegean, Best of Scotland, Wales, and England, Best of Ireland, Tanzania and Kenya, Yellowstone in Winter, and Antarctica). On all but one I have had GREAT tour guides and on the other one the tour guides were GOOD (I think that one is because of the type of trip and who controls the itinerary, not the tour guides themselves). Every trip had some type of issue arise, but nothing to really complain about. The tour guides, where they were able to, took care of making things right immediately. However, (there is always one of those, isn't there) I have noticed many of us who have been on a few Tauck tours have used the phrase "not quite up to Tauck standards." I see it more and more. I don't know if our expectations are too high or if things are changing at Tauck. I have only been on one other trip with another company, so I don't know that I have enough information to really know how Tauck standards stack up compared other companies. The company I traveled with was probably a step below "Tauck Standards." But, they were very good and when you added up the "extras" the price was close. I have been on two other cruises and the first one was just mediocre. The second one was fantastic (yes, Disney does know how to do things right, too).

To get to the point, I have stopped coming into the forum very often just because of the spam. I used to check things in here often because I really enjoy the information that is given. Many of the Taucktorians (I didn't coin that word and forget who did) give great help in planning, purchasing, packing, and enjoying the many trips they have been on. However, lately, as has been written about ad nauseam, a little has changed. I am sure Tauck has the resources and personnel to attack the spamming issue. If they don't have the personnel, they can hire an IT consultant who can clear it up. It has gone on for as long as I can remember, but is getting worse. I keep seeing the Tauck Representatives coming in and saying, "We are working on it and will have it taken care of shortly. Thank you for being patient." It is time to get it done, period!!!

I am looking at two more trips that will probably cost around $25-$30K after the Tauck charge, insurance, airfare, etc. I am waiting to book these until I see that Tauck takes care of this issue. It may seem petty, but I am also looking at other vendors for these trips. I want to see what their "standards" are too. I don't have many others to compare and have never doubted Tauck as a company I want to deal with. That is changing too.

ndvb

I jumped in this morning to see if there was any comment from Tauck and found a new page of spammers. I figured I'd bump this post back to the top and see if anything happens. I'll check back in a month or so to see if Tauck has done their job here. See you in late October. I'll hold off on any reservations with them until they have solved this problem.

British

Tauck hotel standards--- Tauck always state that they choose hotels for a variety of reasons, often it is location rather than anything else, which on a tour should be the prime reason for choice. Let's face it, we spend very little time in any of the hotels. We just returned from the Puglia tour. We arrived at our final hotel around 3pm. After a tour with blistering heat, as we arrived, the sky went black and the heavens opened. No one else but us, because we pre-stayed at this hotel, would have been able to do the hotel justice, go to the beach, enjoy the swimming pools, walk to the hotel 'village' or even try the amazing fish restaurant there. So it was one of my most favorite ever hotels but most people were leaving early the next day and would barely get a chance to even see it in it's entirety. While I do expect a certain standard from Tauck, I would rather continue to get the outstanding 'touring' part of the tour with the Tauck only exclusives than focus on a hotel that might not be up to some kind of perceived standard. I am also fearing that Tauck may pull out of their land tours in the future, or considerably reduce them because some people do not see the benefit of staying on land rather than going back to a ship. We spent Saturday night strolling through the streets of Lecce amongst all the locals, returning to our hotel quite late, we really enjoyed it and would have missed this experience on a river cruise.
We spent some time this trip trying to count how many Tauck tours we have been on, and can't remember, that's how many tours we have taken with Tauck. Some of our most memorable have been in the National Parks so of course the 'hotels' might not be up to the so called standard, but the location could never be matched.
River cruising--- I think it is time for Tauck to split their forum up into a River cruise forum and Land Cruise forum. The spammers, omg it's getting crazy. I am not up for a River cruise as yet, so I'd love to see a split in the forum.
In the past I have been a frequent participant in the forum, not now. Some may think, good, got rid of her, but I do believe the majority of my posts have had useful information. I just can't take any more 'jacket' questions and I also miss the participation of Jan from Australia, I think the second reason I tuned in so much, where are you Jan, are you Ok?
I hope a few people found my Puglia review useful and I look forward to my next Tauck tour. Now I'll just try to get back to sleep, ah the joys of jet lag!

rabo

I'm confused!

Several posters who have acknowledged that Tauck is the best company to travel with, and provides the best travel opportunities, but indicate that they would not travel or make reservations with Tauck if problems continue with the web site. To me, this is "cutting off your nose to spite your face".

The travel experience, not the web site, is why most of us use Tauck.

Crackeroo

Hi Rabo,
I was thinking the same thing but I think we all know there are comparable travel companies. Most have great websites and forums. I think people may be thinking if Tauck can't control and enhance an important technology in today's world, what other aspects of the travel experience may be deteriorating. We are leaving in eight days for the Spirit of the Desert and are booked on the June 11th Rome, Amalfi and Sicily tour. We'll be looking for any changes in the normally wonderful experience we have with them. Have a great day.

judy05

rabo wrote:

I'm confused!

Several posters who have acknowledged that Tauck is the best company to travel with, and provides the best travel opportunities, but indicate that they would not travel or make reservations with Tauck if problems continue with the web site. To me, this is "cutting off your nose to spite your face".

The travel experience, not the web site, is why most of us use Tauck.

We are just back from Rendezvous on the Seine. The American Cemetery was closed the day we visited the D-Day sites in Normandy because of a downed wire and no electricity. It was a huge disappointment to many of us. Sure enough -- several hours after we returned to the ship there was an announcement that they knew many were disappointed about not being able to visit the cemetery so they arranged for a bus to take anyone who wanted to go back the following day from the next port. We know that a tremendous amount of work went on behind the scenes to make the cemetery visit a possibility. THAT is why we choose to travel with Tauck.

jdurkin

rabo wrote:

I'm confused!

Several posters who have acknowledged that Tauck is the best company to travel with, and provides the best travel opportunities, but indicate that they would not travel or make reservations with Tauck if problems continue with the web site. To me, this is "cutting off your nose to spite your face".

The travel experience, not the web site, is why most of us use Tauck.

I'm confused, too, rabo. But then ... so many things about the forums confuse me. I have concluded being from a different tribe really does matter here.

Cheers,

Jan

jdurkin

British wrote:

I just can't take any more 'jacket' questions and I also miss the participation of Jan from Australia, I think the second reason I tuned in so much, where are you Jan, are you Ok?

Hi British!

I guess it takes quite a while to bounce back from a very difficult trip. My ill-fated trip ended on the 10th of September and I arrived home on the 16th. France, what little I saw of it, was delightful. Dealing with a sick boat, sick passengers, another plague-ridden boat, a sick TD (at least they knew we weren't malingering ... egalite, fraternate, liberte and all that ... ) made it very difficult for a solo traveller to be patient with social-with-everyone-else and basically uninterested fellow travellers. Harsh? Very likely, but being sick for most of the trip does that to a person. As soon as I left the boat, I could feel I had turned a corner with the plague. It doesn't take very much experience with epidemiological studies to see how things are. It just takes a good memory for detail and a sympathetic ear (on occasion!) with other sufferers. Next time ...(??) I'll take antibiotics for both kinds of infections, a puffer and cough mixture along with the dynamite throat gargle. And possibly a surgical mask! Oh, and the knowledge that the Mistral wind can definitely harm your eyes if you are a contact lens wearer. Still coughing but at least I can sleep at night when the jet lag allows.

I haven't been posting because, frankly, being abused by spammers was the last straw. But naturally, that was my fault. Go figure.

I very much enjoyed your Puglia post, British. It was very helpful, particularly regarding the weather. I know it wasn't typical September weather, but Europe has suffered so many plagues this summer, hasn't she. I am hoping that a future April might work for me. Not sure about some of the local foods, though. I'm not good with gizzards & guts, edible or not. And for some inexplicable reason I don't like squid. Or the ink. :-(((

Cheers,

Jan

[Deleted User]

My two cents worth. I am annoyed by the spammers as well, but I think this part of the Tauck experience is very minimal. Very few people use this site on any sort of regular basis. As much as I would like the Spammers to be gone, I am not at all concerned about how this reflects on Tauck in general.

crackers54

This spammer is way past annoying.

[Deleted User]

whw wrote:

As much as I would like the Spammers to be gone, I am not at all concerned about how this reflects on Tauck in general.

I agree that the ongoing, every weekend spam attacks don't reflect on the quality of the Tauck tours. However, we know that having travelled with Tauck many, many times.

My concern, other than the inconvenience of not easily being able to see new posts on topics I'm interested in, is how this looks to a new potential customer. If I didn't know anything about Tauck, I'd have to be concerned when I see that they can't control their web site.

I want Tauck to remain a premier tour operator. For that they need new customers. This isn't helping.

I spend a fair amount of time on many travel related forums and NONE of them have this level of issues with spammers.

British

I agree with everything that Portolan says, but I still think that the majority of Tauck customers do not know about the forum or don't use it. I am checking in way less these days, there is so little traffic on the site. Tauck Tim just a few months ago said that fifty people a day sign up for the forum, where are they? With a good list of 'question and answer' on the website and a slightly improved 'Need to Know' area and a more comprehensive final documents booklet I question once again the need for a forum. Most of the questions asked can be found on the Tauck web pages or on -line generally. If anyone is savvy enough to sign up for the forum then they should be able to do some discovery surfing.
While I have thoroughly enjoyed the more lively topics and information I have learned here, most Tauck customers manage to enjoy their chosen tour without this facility?