Beware of Booking Ramses - Failed to Refund Deposit Upon Itinerary Change

[dp203]

Beware when booking a shore excursion with Ramses, their "guarantee" of not needing to pay until the end of the tour is not true. They required us to make a 40% deposit for an overnight shore excursion from Alexandria to Cairo. Unfortunately, our itinerary was changed and the ship no longer stopped in Egypt. While all of our other tour guides (including those in Israel) promptly issued refunds, Ramses has failed to refund us our deposit. I've booked numerous excursions with numerous tour companies over the years and have never had to write a bad review. However, my experience with Ramses has been so bad that I had to write this review to warn any future travelers. Any promises of satisfaction guaranteed and no need to pay if your itinerary changes are all not true. Consider any deposit paid to Ramses forfeited if your plans change. I would highly recommend looking for another tour guide that is much more trustworthy. 

[Fletch1]

Thanks for posting. Is this the same company as Ramasside Tours in Egypt?

[dp203]

I believe they are the same company or at least run by the same company. The excursions are exactly the same on each website. If you are booking with them I would recommend not paying anything in advance and securing the hotel on your own. I along with multiple other folks on my cruise have not received a penny back from Ramses when Celebrity re-routed our ship. 

[sb4851]

I'm in the same situation.Only meaningless mails which do not allow to advance the refunding. Be careful with Ramses.

[John Bull]

On 11/18/2023 at 7:08 AM, Fletch1 said:

Thanks for posting. Is this the same company as Ramasside Tours in Egypt?

 

Several pharaohs were called Ramses / Ramesses & other spellings, it's  a boy's name (son of Ra, the Sun God). So a great many tour operators incorporate it in their name

 

JB 🙂

[dp203]

9 hours ago, sb4851 said:

I'm in the same situation.Only meaningless mails which do not allow to advance the refunding. Be careful with Ramses.

While I still have not received a refund, they did reach out again with all sorts of promises when I posted a negative review on TripAdvisor. They seem to take their reviews very seriously so it might make sense to post one there too and if enough people call out these bad practices, we may actually get a refund! 

[9tee2Sea]

And that is the reason I only would only book an overnight tour with the cruise line shore excursion.  It may be more expensive that going private, but if anything changes, you get a refund in some form

( either an OBC, or charge back to form of payment).   I had a vacation booked to China, had to pay a 50% deposit up front.  Then Covid came around, and all travel was a cancelled ( especially to China).  I pleaded my case to the travel company, but they gave me credit, good for 1 year to put on another trip.  Well, obviously I could go in the time frame, so I lost my deposit.  I took that as an expensive lesson.    Even the negative Yelp review did not sway them.  Hope it all works out for you.

[themob]

On 11/13/2023 at 8:22 PM, dp203 said:

Beware when booking a shore excursion with Ramses, their "guarantee" of not needing to pay until the end of the tour is not true. They required us to make a 40% deposit for an overnight shore excursion from Alexandria to Cairo. Unfortunately, our itinerary was changed and the ship no longer stopped in Egypt. While all of our other tour guides (including those in Israel) promptly issued refunds, Ramses has failed to refund us our deposit. I've booked numerous excursions with numerous tour companies over the years and have never had to write a bad review. However, my experience with Ramses has been so bad that I had to write this review to warn any future travelers. Any promises of satisfaction guaranteed and no need to pay if your itinerary changes are all not true. Consider any deposit paid to Ramses forfeited if your plans change. I would highly recommend looking for another tour guide that is much more trustworthy. 

I sent a cancel request Oct,31,2021 and received this email yesterday

Dear Michael

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to follow up to inquire whether you have received your refund yet. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced due to the delay in processing your refund.

Over the past few weeks cause of the war in Palestine we have been inundated with a high volume of refund requests, totaling more than 1000 transactions. Unfortunately, this surge in refund requests overwhelmed our payment gateway, causing delays in the processing of refunds.

If you have already received your refund, please disregard this message. However, if you have not yet received it or have any questions or concerns regarding your refund, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

 I have not received refund

When did you cancel tour?

[Fletch1]

20 hours ago, themob said:

I sent a cancel request Oct,31,2021 and received this email yesterday

Dear Michael

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to follow up to inquire whether you have received your refund yet. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced due to the delay in processing your refund.

Over the past few weeks cause of the war in Palestine we have been inundated with a high volume of refund requests, totaling more than 1000 transactions. Unfortunately, this surge in refund requests overwhelmed our payment gateway, causing delays in the processing of refunds.

If you have already received your refund, please disregard this message. However, if you have not yet received it or have any questions or concerns regarding your refund, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

 I have not received refund

When did you cancel tour?

 

Sounds promising......wait and see I suppose! Good luck.

[dp203]

On 11/28/2023 at 7:34 AM, themob said:

I sent a cancel request Oct,31,2021 and received this email yesterday

Dear Michael

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to follow up to inquire whether you have received your refund yet. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced due to the delay in processing your refund.

Over the past few weeks cause of the war in Palestine we have been inundated with a high volume of refund requests, totaling more than 1000 transactions. Unfortunately, this surge in refund requests overwhelmed our payment gateway, causing delays in the processing of refunds.

If you have already received your refund, please disregard this message. However, if you have not yet received it or have any questions or concerns regarding your refund, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

 I have not received refund

When did you cancel tour?

I canceled our tour on October 9th (as soon as we found out we were no longer going to Egypt). I would suggest starting a dispute with your credit card as I feel like that is the only way we will get our money back from Ramses. 

[themob]

On 11/28/2023 at 7:34 AM, themob said:

I sent a cancel request Oct,31,2021 and received this email yesterday

Dear Michael

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to follow up to inquire whether you have received your refund yet. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced due to the delay in processing your refund.

Over the past few weeks cause of the war in Palestine we have been inundated with a high volume of refund requests, totaling more than 1000 transactions. Unfortunately, this surge in refund requests overwhelmed our payment gateway, causing delays in the processing of refunds.

If you have already received your refund, please disregard this message. However, if you have not yet received it or have any questions or concerns regarding your refund, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

 I have not received refund

When did you cancel tour?

 

[themob]

Dear Ramses Tours Valued Customers

I am George Whitby, the Quality Control Manager at Ramses tours. During the past month, our team encountered an unprecedented situation where we had to process an exceptionally high volume of over 1000 refund requests within a single week. This surge in refund requests was primarily due to numerous cruise cancellations in Egypt, stemming from the unfortunate events related to the conflict in Palestine and Israel.

To shed light on the delay, it is essential to mention that Stripe, our American payment gateway partner, experienced an overwhelming influx of refund requests from our end.   

Consequently, the sheer magnitude of these requests led to processing delays.

Please understand that the timeline for refund processing lies outside our sphere of control. Our responsibility begins with initiating the refund procedure through our payment gateway, a task that we have executed with utmost diligence.

We fully empathize with your frustration and acknowledge your legitimate concerns regarding the delay in receiving your full refund. I want to assure you that we are wholeheartedly committed to resolving this matter promptly and to your complete satisfaction.

If there are individuals within your cruise group who have also not received their refunds, we kindly request that you encourage them to reach out to us without delay.

I want to assure you, without a shadow of a doubt, that I will personally oversee the follow-up process for every individual who has not yet received their refund until we can confirm that each and every one of you has been rightfully refunded. 

Once again, we apologize for any inconvenience this delay may have caused you. We are actively working to expedite the refund process and appreciate your patience in this matter.

 

Sincerely,

 

George Whitby Quality Control Manager

 

Sent from my iPhone

 

I RECEIVED MY REFUND TODAYI

 

 

 

 

 

Will do. Done. Thank you, I will do that.