We scheduled an overnight with Clipper for my wife (me) and her grandma who was visiting from Minnesota. At the time we were experiencing the worst snow storm in Seattle in 20 years (12/2008), however the Nat'l weather service had been predicting a change to rain a few days before our scheduled departure.
The afternoon before we were scheduled to leave, out of nowhere we got blasted with another 5" of snow on top of our already 19" snowpack, and we were stuck at home.
I called Victoria Clipper to cancel and request a refund, since this was obviously an extreme circumstance (at this point the Governer of WA had declared a statewide state of emergency because of the snow).
Long story short, we got the run around, and my wife was spoken to rudely and at one point hung up on. They offered us 2 bad options: 1) reschedule for a 15% fee....which was stupid since the trip was for my wife and her VISITING grandma who was leaving soon thereafter. OR 2) cancel and send in a refund request with NO guarantee that a refund will be issued.
It was bad enough being snowed in but then to have this sorry excuse for a travel company holding our money hostage made it even worse. They could have earned a customer for life if they would have just played fair. We even called the hotel directly that we had booked through Clipper Vacations, and they agreed right away to cancel and give us a full refund do to the extreme circumstances (this was Mike at Executive Suites in Victoria...they were awesome to deal with, and they aren't even in Seattle!)
We decided to cancel and send in the form, so now we're in the waiting period to see what they say....it can take up to a MONTH....like they're some national travel agency. What do they do all day, sleep? Anyways, we filed a complaint with the Better bus bur and will be doing more than that if they refuse refund. Nobody should have to gamble their money away on 'maybe's' when they are already facing a difficult situation.
SHAME ON CLIPPER. WE WILL NEVER TRAVEL WITH YOU OR RECOMMEND YOU TO ANYBODY, EVER!
Addendum:
We did finally get a voucher but it is not enough to cover a new trip. Which would not involve my grandma anyway since she can not afford to travel back to WA.
Pros: None!
Cons: See the review for the many cons
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