This is our first post on Cruise Critic. We rely on Cruise Critic postings and feel compelled to share our experience with NIE so that others are made aware of this company's practices before sending them money.
The bottom-line: We booked the Jewel Tour with NIE; tour guide did not show up; uncomfortable and frightening experience at meeting point; no reply from NIE after repeated email inquiries. Simply put, NIE is not a reputable company. We made our decision based on Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor reviews; we question whether the reviews are authentic.
Some more detail: On February 25, 2014 we placed a deposit on the Dominica Jewel Tour for April 10, 2014. We received an email confirmation from Donaldson Magloire of NIE on the same day. Upon arrival at the stipulated pick-up point and time, no one from the company showed up. (We did check our email to be certain we had not received a cancellation notification; there was not further communication from NIE of any kind.) Instead, when we arrived at the designated meeting point, we were consistently harassed by vendors saying they would call NIE for us. One handed us his cell phone saying that NIE was on the line; the person on the phone said that he was in an "important meeting" and could not pick us up, but that we should go with the guy who handed us the phone. (Hmmmmm....so, we should get in a car in a foreign country, with someone we don't know, who just handed us his phone with a guy at the other end saying he was from NIE..........) Needless to say, we got away as quickly as we could!
It is important to note that after returning from the cruise, we sent three emails to NIE (on April 15, April 21 and May 8) requesting a refund of the deposit we made on February 25. We received no reply from NIE.
The deposit (albeit small) was made using PayPal. We have filed a fraud report with them.
Nature Isle Explorers Tours
in Dominica
Posted
This is our first post on Cruise Critic. We rely on Cruise Critic postings and feel compelled to share our experience with NIE so that others are made aware of this company's practices before sending them money.
The bottom-line: We booked the Jewel Tour with NIE; tour guide did not show up; uncomfortable and frightening experience at meeting point; no reply from NIE after repeated email inquiries. Simply put, NIE is not a reputable company. We made our decision based on Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor reviews; we question whether the reviews are authentic.
Some more detail: On February 25, 2014 we placed a deposit on the Dominica Jewel Tour for April 10, 2014. We received an email confirmation from Donaldson Magloire of NIE on the same day. Upon arrival at the stipulated pick-up point and time, no one from the company showed up. (We did check our email to be certain we had not received a cancellation notification; there was not further communication from NIE of any kind.) Instead, when we arrived at the designated meeting point, we were consistently harassed by vendors saying they would call NIE for us. One handed us his cell phone saying that NIE was on the line; the person on the phone said that he was in an "important meeting" and could not pick us up, but that we should go with the guy who handed us the phone. (Hmmmmm....so, we should get in a car in a foreign country, with someone we don't know, who just handed us his phone with a guy at the other end saying he was from NIE..........) Needless to say, we got away as quickly as we could!
It is important to note that after returning from the cruise, we sent three emails to NIE (on April 15, April 21 and May 8) requesting a refund of the deposit we made on February 25. We received no reply from NIE.
The deposit (albeit small) was made using PayPal. We have filed a fraud report with them.