Horrible experience
Posting here and on the tour page for reach:
My family traveled on the recent tour with Rachel Peer as Tour Director in June. It was me (45F), my two teenagers, and my 77yo mother. This was a very special trip to celebrate my son's Bar Mitzvah. My son is neurodiverse and has special needs; if you meet him, you know instantly he is an interesting kid but not a typical 13 year old. He did not speak at all until he was four years old, and therefore, his accomplishment and even being able to tolerate a trans-Atlantic plane ride was a big deal for my family. We spent a lot of money to give him the one thing he wanted to celebrate all of it, which was to go to France. Our experience was awful because of Rachel and Tauck. I am posting here in the hopes of SOMEONE reaching out to us from Tauck to try and make this right before I escalate this further. I have given you three weeks since we returned from the trip to reach out.
The four of us filled out our evaluations, and recounted the negative interactions, but we also celebrated the positives (the local tour guides and Paddington the musical were favorites). I wrote that should Tauck be seriously interested in more of my feedback, they should call me at their convenience. It has been three weeks and radio silence. I wonder if our evaluations were even passed along to HQ?
On the first day, I wrote on the form for Rachel that this was a special family trip to celebrate my son's bar mitzvah. I said I wanted a Jewish component and asked for help planning an afternoon tour in Marais (the Jewish quarter) in Paris on one of the two free afternoons. That request was completely ignored, and from then on, my entire family was dismissed and treated rudely by Rachel. I suspect I know why and said as much in my evaluation. Family friends who made similar requests on previous Tauck tours but did not mention a religious affiliation were accommodated with white glove service and provided a private tour guide. These types of reviews were not from one family, but multiple, and why we chose Tauck -- and they are all shocked and appalled at my family's treatment. If Rachel had said, "We don't do that or provide that service," I would have accepted that and made plans on my own. Instead, I was completely ignored, and then treated like a virus on the trip, so I can only draw one conclusion here.
I have incurable cancer. This was my chance to take my children to Europe for their first time and experience it with them. My kids, especially my 15yo daughter, wanted to spend time as a family with their grandmother and their mother. Heaven forbid, my kids like us and want to spend time with me in the time I have left! My daughter did not want to sit with the other kids in an assigned seat all week -- she wanted to be with me. It's fine for a day or two, but Rachel treated the adults and children like toddlers who could not even function in the world leaving their own homes alone. When I told Rachel that my daughter wanted to sit with me on the bus and at meals, and would be doing so from now on, with no mention of my diagnosis, she basically shamed us ("Well, you signed up for THIS tour") and then put the four of us at a separate table from the group for the entire trip. She "othered" us, and we felt like we were singled out because my kids actually want to hang out with me? My kids felt it too, right away. She called my daughter rude in my daughter's earshot (my daughter wrote on her evaluation that her feelings were hurt, if those reached you). My son was sick one day, and I was scolded for tending to him on the bus and getting him water at the Gare du Nord. Another child got sick and was vomiting on the train just like my son (but my son could make it to the bathroom and that child did not), and Rachel was kind to that family and sent a doctor to the hotel for them. But when my son was sick, we were causing trouble and problems for her, and I was left to handle it alone and yelled at when I went to a vending machine to grab water so he would not puke again until we got on the bus. No one cared how he was or asked if I needed any help when he was repeatedly vomiting. Cancer or not, Jewish or not, no family should feel singled out or be made to feel less than the other guests.
I am telling everyone I know about my experience and to never, ever to use Tauck. I have a wide reach both personally and professionally as I am an attorney in a prominent political position in my state. I would welcome a discussion from your legal counsel, attorney to attorney. But more so, I don't want any family to ever have this experience. Money talks, and we certainly won't be back with ours. For the money we spent, I expected at minimum a phone call to follow up on my complaints. Or a call to my mother who voiced similar complaints? I can only assume Rachel tossed or destroyed our evaluations because why have we not been contacted based on the things we said? She did mention to the full group, quite unprofessionally, that Tauck often "bans" troublemakers from future tours. If I am on your blacklist now, that is not a problem since I won't be back, but I do expect that in a professionally run business with a reputation such as Tauck's, some customer outreach is warranted here.
I am asking Tauck to make this right. You have my contact.
Jessica
Comments
Jessica, have you called Tauck and asking to speak to Customer relations? That would be the first thing to do, not rely on the evaluation.
Tauck has a huge number of Jewish customers so I doubt you were treated any differently than anyone else on the tour.
The Bridges fours are different than the regular Tauck tours and the children are encouraged to interact with each other. I admit that on our first Bridges tour, my grandson who is an only child wanted to sit with his parents at the Welcome dinner, but all the children were put together and he was not given the choice of an adult meal which upset both him and his mother. After that, all the kids bonded at that table and had a great time , tears were shed as they parted company.
The tour directors do do their best to accommodate special requests from anyone, but they have a lot of work to do behind the scenes so I guess it is not always possible, especially for the Bridges tours which tend to be large groups. Their first priorities is to cater to the group as a whole.
I am sorry for your experiences but do call them, they will record your phone conversations and I’m sure try to find your written feedback. They will also speak to the Tour director who has to report any incidents to Tauck headquarters on a daily basis.
We are literally on our way to our next Bridges tour as I write this.
British is correct. Call Tauck with your concerns. Evaluation forms are read and changes are made as a result. But in high season, I cannot imagine how many forms Tauck receives and how long it must take to get through them all. Yours may not have even been opened yet!
Thank you for that, British, but we (and especially me) absolutely were treated differently. I do not throw out allegations of Anti-Semitism lightly. I will give them a call on Monday. And like I said, fine for them to have to sit with the kids for a day or two, but then let them, and us, choose where to sit -- we are not toddlers, and the adults had assigned seats as well. My kids did not vibe with the other kids and that's okay. For that money, no kid should be miserable and dreading each day getting on the bus to their assigned seat.
Did you do any research on what a Bridges Tour entailed? You might have been better off on a land tour in France.
I can't do anything to help, but I'm sorry you experienced what you did, especially facing your own challenges.
It's too late now, but perhaps a call to Tauck while you were on the tour might have helped. I hope you can get some response from Tauck. Please report back after you have contact with them.
Jessica, all Tauck land tours have a policy of seat rotation with no exceptions. I really love this about Tauck. You only have to experience other companies that do not do this to see how selfish people can be about hogging favorite seats and so on
. I am guessing you are new to touring with a company. There has to be certain rules for tours to run smoothly, safely and fairly for all.
I am assuming that the tour director got the vibes from your family that you wanted to be separate from the rest of the group and thought she was helping you by giving you your own table. I also assume that was the vibe that the other members of the tour felt.
Tauck does not routinely monitor this forum, so it’s unlikely anyone from the company has seen your review here.
From what I recall from reading the Bridges tour, it gives you a short glimpse of both London and Paris. As Goddess says,I too would have focused on a family four on our own to either one of the locations or making the vacation longer and seeing both. Both cities are some of the easiest to plan a vacation. My daughter’s family have done that for both cities and seen and done exactly what they wanted.
I am sorry your friends might have explained about Tauck a little more such as the assigned seating.
Do call Tauck, it will be interesting to see what they have to say.
It's unfortunate that you didn't have the tour experienced you'd hoped for. Unfortunately the forum isn't really the correct place to get relief. It's used by guests to share information with each other. Tauck doesn't really have customer service people monitoring it in the way you might expect. You need to call Tauck and select the option for recently returned from a tour to speak with an agent. Keep notes of name, time, what was said though keep in mind that calls are recorded so there is a record of what was said. Also write a detailed letter to Tauck.
While it might have seemed to be a good choice to pick a Bridges tour, they are different from other Tauck tours in the way they handle the family and children. Our first land tour (non Bridges) we had a family of 8 who they spent virtually the entire tour eating as their own group and having minimal interactions with the other 20 guests. The TD facilitated it at one part sort of rudely to the rest of us.
I have to say after 8 Tauck land tours and 7 river cruises I've never heard of a TD planning a separate guided tour for guests so your friends were very lucky. TDs have suggested additional activities and a couple of times said they'd reimburse for entrance tickets. The closest I can recall was a cruise where a group of men wanted to play golf and a TD called the golf course to arrange it and a cab to take them. That was on a cruise with 3 TDs and a Cruise Director.
I'm sorry that you had a bad experience, however it sounds as though you needed a private tour that was more customized. I went on safari with Tauck and there was a very sick woman on our tour who brought her family. Simply put, she required much more attention. It caused a lot of stress and we were genuinely concerned. She eventually had to leave the tour (a decision made by her family). Our guide did an INCREDIBLE job balancing her needs while also understanding that the rest of us had also made a significant investment and had expectations for our vacations. Your post screams entitlement to me, and despite your "wide reach," the dollars that the other guests spend are just as green. I encourage those considering a group tour in general, if you're not healthy, unable to keep up with the clearly defined level of activity listed on the itinerary, or can't commit to being punctual--then select a private tour. It's not all about you.
I agree with the entitlement assessment. A Bar Mitzvah is a right of passage that certainly deserves a special celebration. But that is a celebration that is the family’s responsibility, not Tauck’s. Knowing you would have free time in Marais, you could have easily arranged for a private tour in advance.
It disturbs me that when you didn’t get your way, you chose the antisemitism route and when that didn’t work you attempted to intimidate with threats.
Although I do not announce my religion while touring, I do usually wear a Star of David or Chai symbol. I have taken many tours with Tauck and have never experienced antisemitism from a guest or a Tauck employee. Never.
I am confident Tauck will take the correct course of action.
If Tauck showed any signs of antisemitism they would not still be operating. They have a large number of Jewish clients. Under your circumstances I sincerely feel bad for your experience but to blame antisemitism is completely incorrect.
Be careful. I'm sure Tauck corporate is not antisemitic. But the question here is how the family was treated by the TD.
Honestly, this is s very sensitive subject. I have never ever and I mean never felt that way from any TD while traveling with Tauck, A&K, National Geographic and other companies we travel with. I wish I could have been the fly on the wall to see what really occurred, I do not know what to think only that the truth is somewhere in the middle, if that.
For the first time ever, I actually decided to Google the tour director”s name and it appeared on AI. Just because of this one incident, it looks as if she has a bad reputation, but just from this so called one complaint on this forum.
It should be noted that the original poster has not been back to the forum since July 10th. It’s so sad!
Well, it's only July 12th today, two days since her last posting. She said she would contact Tauck on Monday (tomorrow) so let's see if she reports back after that.
I have been holding my tongue on this one but decided to chime in. I’m retired and when I go on Tauck trips I don’t wax poetic about my career - I’ll talk about it but don’t make it the focus of conversations for the most part. I will say that I worked closely with any number of attorneys at very high levels and the ones respected the least were the ones who threw their self-perceived status in our faces. It’s offensive and very telling about the persons sense of entitlement as others have commented on. But what is even more offensive is to come on a public forum name names, trash a persons reputation and potential livelihood and smear an entire company because of some warped sense of entitlement. From what I read she didn’t want to follow the process of assigned seats on a bus and at dinner tables which happen on any number of Tauck tours. And, she wanted a tour different than she signed up for - and did not understand the TD’s role. The TD’s aren’t there to make different outing arrangements for anyone. She then felt slighted and jumped to extremely harsh negative conclusions when the TD was likely very busy with other guests and their children and couldn’t baby sit this family. Announcing that she is trashing Tauck to everyone she knows sounds to me like she should receive a cease and desist letter from Tauck’s likely very capable attorneys for tortious interference with business relationships.
Chatty GPT claims (if you believe her) that this tour director had been with Tauck for 19 years. That’s a lot of years and that should mean she’s a good tour director with Tauck. It just takes one bad accusation to literally ruin someone’s livelihood they depend on.
As OurTravels34 said a bit ago, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. So I refrain from passing any judgement. But I was really stuck way back at how you would bring a special needs child on any group trip without finding out as many details beforehand as possible, especially being an attorney.