Bait and Switch for Switzerland Tour of September 7 to 17 2023
We booked our trip more than a year ago. One of the featured excursions was a trip on The Glacier Express glass-domed train through the Alps. The week before we traveled, we got a short email stating that they weren't able to get tickets for the train and they were transporting us a different way. Turns out, they put us on a regular train and a very long bus ride. AND, as a special treat, we got a tour of the basement of a cheese factory. Yes - that's right - they substituted one of their featured events for an hour of walking through a cheese and yogurt factory. We objected via email and they blamed the train company. They offered no compensation. To make things worse, we learned on the bus that some couples got compensation. When we complained again, after a month of back and forth, they offered a small voucher that we could use AFTER we booked another vacation. I am not sure that I can trust them again......their featured itineraries apparently misrepresent reality and they refuse to own their oversight (why didn't a professional tour operator of their caliber book tickets LONG in advance?) and offer actual compensation.
Think about it. Would anyone sign up for this tour if the Day 7 featured event was an hour in the basement of a cheese factory and an entire day on the bus? I just got a new catalog in the mail. The Glacier Express is still featured on that trip. Not someone handing out miniature yogurt samples in a basement.
We all deserve a partial cash refund.....not a voucher.
Comments
We were on the September 10-20 Switzerland tour and rode the Glacier Express. We didn't have glass domed cars, just standard train cars. It was okay, but certainly not the major event of the tour.
I agree that Tauck should have given you prior notice, but I probalby would have preferred to visit a cheese and yogurt factory, depending on how much they told us about the process. I'm interested in how cheese and yogurt is made, especially commercially.
The train ride was just a train ride. The scenery was nice.
Thanks Mike. I look forward to seeing Tauck's next brochure with people standing in a dingy basement sampling yogurt with tiny spoons instead of looking gleefully at the Alps through the roof of The Glacier Express. Truth in advertising.....let's see what that does to sales.
I agree with Mike Henderson. The Glacier Express was like a regular train ride. No domed roof. There were some nice views, but you could get the same views from any train. I would have booked the trip even if the Glacier Express had not been publicized. And I would have liked to see a cheese factory! I'm sorry that you were disappointed, though.
Someone here has made one visit with nothing but complaints. I think I’m having a “Yelp” experience.
Dsyoung joined in 2016, so must have felt some justification for posting here.
We all have different expectations for a tour. For example, Switzerland would have been of no interest to me. I’ve been to Zurich and Basel on a river cruise, that was enough. Oh. Cheese and yoghurt tour would have been interesting.
2016 yes. I can read the website … one visit, four posts, all vitriol.
It doesn't matter to me that someone posts negative comments but, rather, how the individual words those negative comments. To emphatically state that Tauck engages in bait and switch tactics is disingenuous and absurd.
I, too, would be thrilled to visit a cheese making facility in Switzerland, especially when it was in addition to a train excursion that likely traversed through the same beautiful countryside as the Glacier Express.
Obviously some one prefers a train ride over a cheese factory tour. I prefer a cheese factory if I am in Switzerland.
You can ride a train anywhere. You can ride that Glacier Express any time yourself. It is not easy to walk into the basement of a cheese factory without going with a tour.
Again, the clientele!
The fact that I haven't made 4,757 visits to this site over the past decade doesn't change the facts and doesn't negate our feelings. We were ripped off - plain and simple - and Tauck didn't compensate us properly for changing the agenda at the last minute to a substandard excursion.
The Glacier Express ride is advertised prominently on this website as an activity. We booked our trip 15 months in advance, so Tauck had plenty of time to buy tickets. They waited until the very last minute to inform us that they would be substituting the transportation....and even then, they waited until after the trip started to tell us that we were going to a cheese factory instead of riding the Glacier Express. My guess is that they were so embarassed by the substitution, they felt obligated to conceal the cheese factory switch.
We spent most of the day on a bus. Eating yogurt in the basement of a cheese factory from a dixie cup with a tiny spoon is no substitute for an iconic train through the Alps......a train ride that Tauck advertised heavily to entice people to select this journey. If Tauck had advertised "Day 7 is a delightful journey all morning on a motor coach with a stop in a factory at lunch time to linger in a basement and eat cheese and yogurt for an hour before spending 4 more hours on a bus" we might have selected another trip. That would have at least been honest.
We are just as entitled to our review of this trip as you are entitled to spend your entire free time blathering tirelessly about your trips, Sealord. I have a lot of other interests and things to do and frankly have no interest in socializing with close minded people like you.....my goal is to warn other travelers that Tauck prints fancy brochures and promises events - but freely substitutes those events from substandard activities that I could do any day in Wisconsin. Period. That happened - and it was unacceptable - whether you like it or not. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. Whether I post often enough for you is irrelevant.
Oh my! Well I for one, love reading all the information the regular posters have to offer. This forum is incredibly helpful to those of us who travel with Tauck only occasionally but need and want answers to questions we have about various tours. And the well traveled are incredibly kind and helpful, and sometimes provide a bit of comedic relief when required. I actually enjoy just going to the forum for information on places I might be interested in traveling, even if not with Tauck. The previous poster is one of those who the waiter might have to ask “Is ANYTHING alright “, instead of “Is everything alright “? Thanks to Sealord and all the rest who post. I’m certain the majority of readers here appreciate their input.
Oh my (again). As the saying goes “life is just too short” and it’s wonderful when the cup is half full instead of half empty. When traveling, it’s an attribute to be flexible to be able to have the ability to see the positive side and appreciate seeing the world even when things just go a little astray. Just look at what the Tauck travelers in Israel went through. Nothing is etched in stone.
Well, when I couldn’t sleep last night, I decided to look this controversial train up. It is not a ‘domed’ train, some of the carriages have glass roofs, that’s all. You have to get on a long bus ride anyway after the ride. So annoying as it was and I guess not good for Tauck, you really did not miss much, plus, when I read the description on the tour page, it certainly would not be a highlight for me. At least you did get the factory tour. How did other people n the tour feel about that?
I wonder if you were thinking the train would be like the train in Canada with the domed roof? That tour doesn’t get good reviews either.
The tour we felt cheated on was the Alaska tour last year. Our group missed the scenic train ride altogether, one of the lodges was closed, the stop at Ketchikan was eliminated, we were notified just before that, the alternative was Butchart gardens which we had been to before and finally we arrived in Vancouver hours late and it was hit and miss whether we got our flight or not. We contacted Tauck and at least got the money back from the missed train ride.
Don’t even get me started on being on a tour when a third of the group had Covid.
I believe there have been other posts from travelers on previous Switzerland tours who were not able to take the Glacier Express due to ticket issues in the past so I am not sure what is going on that Tauck is unable to get tickets. We took this train in 2021 when we went to Switzerland and I enjoyed the scenery on the train. Hopefully the pic I took of the train comes thru to show what it looked like. My only negative about it was the sun. I just put my hood up as the sun directly on my head makes me a bit nauseous and there was no area to get shade. I have to say, I would have probably preferred the train over the bus, but that’s just my opinion, which everyone is entitled to.
dsyoung422, you have every right to your opinion and your less-than-stellar review of your premium-priced trip. We Tauck cheerleaders sometimes lose sight of that fact, and defend Tauck vigorously, to say the least. You felt cheated because of the substitutions and then learned that other members were compensated for the lost experience, while you were not. Keep contacting Tauck and let them know how you still feel. While you may have to book another trip to get the credit offered, for the most part Tauck really IS a wonderful tour company, but we all need to remember they are not perfect.
We really enjoyed the train ride. The scenery was spectacular and it was very comfortable.
Brenda Anderson - I think your comment is spot on and I would hope that they give Tauck another chance, especially if that was their first trip w/Tauck. I do believe they do their best for their customers and obviously take care of them when a situation arises, such as Israel, or many years ago the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand which a friend of my family was on and what prompted us to start traveling w/Tauck. She could not say enough about how Tauck handled getting them out of the country when all of their belongings were in the hotel and then they hired a company to pack up their items and ship them after they were already home. It was a great recommendation to get us to book our first tour w/Tauck which was the Australia/New Zealand trip in 2011.
My final thought.....
When we sign up for a tour, we are also acknowledging that Tauck has the right to modify an itinerary at any time. They are very transparent about this.
Very well said. Flexibility is the key! Tauck has the right to modify the itinerary at any time. It is always common to have last minute change due to any unforeseen circumstances at any tour with any company.
Again, I don't think it is Tauck's loss other than a few hundred dollars. Quality speaks for itself.
Some years ago on the Classic Italy tour, we had a last minute change in hotel on the Tuscan coast. We were told that "a conference of Cardiologists needed extra rooms". The substitute hotel was lovely, and we were each given a beautiful, flowing letter of apology from the hotel and a 100 euro note as a refund for missing the pricier accommodation. This was minor compared to the disappointment that was faced by dsyoung422. It doesn't matter if the train ride is no great shakes. What matters is that it was the reason the trip was booked, and mattered to dsyoung422. The reasoning for the cancellation is also murky. I suspect the reason had more to do with money, such as an unexpected last minute extra charge, than it did with a booking error.
Last year, again in Italy, exactly 8 hours after our final dinner, 7 out of 21 guests developed vomiting and diarrhea. One guest spent the next 3 days in a hotel room when she was supposed to be touring, and another guest passed out just as she was arriving at the airport. Another guest took 2 weeks to recover. I don't know the details of the Tauck response, but I was told by one fellow traveler that they received each a check for the cost of the meal only. It was obviously not Tauck's fault and the perfect situation for the hotel to pass the blame onto the supplier, and the supplier onto the farmer, etc. And yes, I do recognize that this is where travel insurance comes in, but the travelers felt that there should have been more of a response from Tauck, and I agree. In Tauck's defense, this all happened on top of Covid last year, which drained the travel industry. Top that off with whatever losses travel companies are incurring to get their travelers out of regions in conflict. Couldn't have been cheap to get the Israel travelers out of there this month.
To summarize my soapbox, yes Tauck and other travel companies could probably do more to compensate for changes in itinerary but it looks like those days are over. The trade off is that they got the Israel travelers out.
Perfectly said Kathy. We learn from one another.
@taxare
An unexpected war that Tauck didn't initiate and couldn't predict is entirely different than an unexpected change in itinerary that was entirely within Tauck's ability to control. Tauck didn't order train tickets because Tauck dropped the ball. Then Tauck put us all on a substandard excursion that was completely inconsistent with the brochure. Then Tauck didn't offer our group adequate compensation - also entirely within Tauck's control.
Apples and Oranges.
@Sealord
Someone here has made one visit with nothing but complaints. I think I’m having a “Yelp” experience.
YOU are the Yelp experience because you are trying to bully me into silence. I have every right to my opinion and to post on this forum since I have a Tauck account, have traveled on Tauck and was disappointed.
If you don't like it - go post elsewhere.
Both of you should take your "sniping" at each other elsewhere!
No both should be able to express what they want. But SeaLord always makes weird comments so don’t take anything personally. Every time someone posts for the first time negatively, he makes the same observation don’t you SeaLord. When things go wrong, people have strong feelings and want to vent, that’s normal and ok! Making other assumptions is not normal without knowing the facts.
Clearly Tauck knew way in advance about this situation.
Personally, we really enjoyed the glacier express. Although, my husband referred to it as the “non-glacier express” because there were no glaciers. It was a beautiful, fun train ride and Tauck had it’s own car. It was definitely a highlight for us, but you have to be flexible. On our tour last year , Tauck changed 2 of the hotels. In Lugano we were in the Grand Hotel Castagnola and in Lucerne….. we weren’t even in Lucerne! We were 20 minutes outside of Lucerne in Engelberg at the Kempinski palace. At first we were pretty annoyed. But …… those turned out to be our two favorite hotels of the tour. Engelberg was completely lovely ( think Mt. Titlus) and we would have rather been there than Lucerne ( jewelry stores and restaurants ). Everyone on our small group tour ended up being happy with the change. Sorry you missed the Glacier Express. The ball was definitely dropped on that and they should have made it up in some other way.
We were on this tour this past June, and while the Glacier Express was certainly enjoyable, it wasn't the highlight of our trip. We really liked going up to the Jungfraujoch, visiting Zermatt ,Lucerne, Bellagio etc.
That said, I recall reading here about cancellations this past spring, due to difficulties securing reservations. Our TD confirmed this - he was quite relieved that he had gotten our tickets, even if it meant us leaving the hotel quite early that morning (but we DID have bagged breakfasts!) to catch the train. Apparently not all the Tauck tours were as lucky. He implied that it was not for a lack of effort on the part of Tauck, but rather a Swiss problem.
While I probably would have been disappointed if we had missed the Glacier Express (FOMO!), I knew there might be a possibility based on earlier posts here. Still, it would not have changed our decision to go.
I am grateful for every opportunity to see the world, have new experiences, and travel in comfort and safety. If that means being flexible and open to changes in the schedule, so be it.
There's more to Switzerland than those mountain views. Just back from a self-designed art tour of Basel and Bern. Amazing museums, esp. Zentrum Paul Klee and Kunstmuseum Basel. Switzerland has wonderful cheese; I would have enjoyed that visit. Btw, the Met just opened a Matisse-Derain Fauve show curiously similar to one currently in Basel.
Just wondering if dsyoung thought the other ten days on the tour were terrible? Jungfraujoch? Lausanne? Zermatt? Lugano? "Bait and switch" is a rather strong statement for one mess up. Yes, this was to be a highlight of the tour, but there were certainly many mountains to view along the way. Definitely you should talk with Tauck again to bring your dismay to their fullest attention. It is too bad that this day has very likely put a pall upon all of the other memories you may have of the tour.
@mazalea Other than the poor substitution for the Glacier Express, the trip was mostly as anticipated. The hotels were very nice. The dinners were good to very good. Breakfasts were ok. The sites were lovely. Our Tour Director did a great job. Of our 3 Tauck trips, I would rate this lowest because I felt we were on the motor coach too long. If we travel with Tauck again, we will go back to river cruising so there are fewer long days on the bus and less packing and unpacking. Many of the other guests also expressed disappointment that we didn't spend any time in a major city like Geneva or Zurich. That might have enhanced the trip.
I agree with this. All we did in Geneva and Zurich was go from and to the airport. It would have been nice to spend at least one day in each city.