Columbus Travel

Reviews 4

WI

William Smith

The short version of my review: If customer service is important to you(which is why I used an agency), I would recommend looking for another travel agency. If you want to know why I rated it low, please read below. I was recommended to Columbus Travel by a friend. Though I was happy for the information that was given about our planned trip, the customer service really was terrible. I called to get a quote and they said they would email it to me after talking to them for 40 minutes. They never emailed me the quote. So I called the next day and the representative told me that it failed to send. But then she tried again and it magically worked. She didnt ask for a different email or anything. So I couldnt believe that the email failed to send the first time. Then after being on the phone with her again the quotes were all for the wrong days. So I did the research on their website. It is a really nice and user friendly website. So I planned the trip I wanted on the website, but I had a couple of questions so I called back to the agent that had been helping me. After talking to her for 45 minutes, I realized she didnt know the answers to the questions I had. So I decided to book the trip, she sent me over a final quote and said she would call me back after 1pm, once she looked to see if she could get a better price on an attraction we wanted to do. By 4:30 I still had not heard anything, so I called back. She apologized and said she still had not looked into it yet. Thankfully I had and learned I could get a better price by buying it directly myself. As I was paying for the trip, the agent informed me that the next business day there was going to be a promotion to save $100 dollars. She promised me that she would do all she could to "beg" to get the $100 dollars applied to my purchase. She promised me that she would call me back the next business day. And as you can probably guess, she never did. So 3 business days after I made the purchase, I called back to try to get my $100 dollars. She didnt answer so I left a message. I received a call back informing me that she was sorry she hadnt gotten back to me. And that it was on her list of things to do that day and unfortunately she couldnt get the $100 back. Im sure well be happy with our vacation, but the customer service was absolutely horrendous. If customer service is important to you(which is why I used an agency), I would recommend looking for another travel agency.

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NO

Noel Vallejo

How is this for spontaneous. On Friday June 17, 2016 at 4:30 PM I decide to take my 16 year old son to Costa Rica for some father son bonding time. On Saturday June 18, 2016 at midnight we are on a plane. I just had a feeling like I needed to spend some time with my son and I usually listen to those feelings. Mom was headed to girl’s camp and my other son was leaving to scout camp. So the boys and I took a trip. The boys are Eli my son, Eli’s grandfather and my brother Keith. Who do you call to make a trip like this possible? No plans just some time and a feeling. I called Columbus Travel and spoke with Mark Faldmo one of the owners. Within a few hours we had our six day trip planned. In the past I’ve taken trips with Columbus travel and they have always taken care of me. So I knew I could trust them. The people at Columbus suggest that before you leave on your trip that you lay out all your clothes on your bed that you plan to take and then lay out all the money you plan to take on the bed. Then they recommend you take only a third of the clothes you have on your bed and double the money you plan to take. Great advice, it works. When we landed in Costa Rica, Mark from Columbus Travel had a guide and a driver waiting for us at the airport. I’ve always heard that your accommodations and the food can make or break a trip. Well the places we stayed at were fantastic and the guide took us to eat some great food where the locals eat. This made the trip a success. There is no question in my mind that if I had to find our way around Costa Rica on our own it wouldn’t have been a success. The guys at Columbus are the experts, I’m not. Swimming in a hot spring under a live volcano that was blowing out smoke, a two hour zip line through the jungle, fishing on the coast, an ATV ride in the jungle of Costa Rica and watching a TV show with my son in our hotel room was the best. Now could we make it home before Mom gets home from girls camp. Well we almost made it home in time. I am lucky to be married to a forgiving wife. Buy the memory, be spontaneous, take a trip of a life time, you will have a blast, just remember to call Mark at Columbus Travel. Thanks Mark, you made it all happen. A trip of a life time for me and the boys.

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AM

Amy Oliver

If I could give zero stars I would. Asked to be contacted via email and they called me anyway, during my work hours. I told Elaine that I was at work and had already asked to be contacted via email. She said she would call me back later. I told her no and that I wanted to be contacted via email and she said she couldnt so I told her that I would use another agency and hung up. She promptly EMAILED ME and asked me for a ton of information that took me a half hour to type up for her. She didnt bother to mention to me in her first email that shed be trying to financially blindside me the minute I had invested time into talking to her. She emailed me back and all she said to me was that she needed an $800 non-refundable deposit to start researching my trip. Ummm no way! She couldnt even tell me whether or not they could accommodate what I had asked for and wanted me to make a huge non-refundable financial commitment. Not going to happen. If she had even given me some sort of overview of whether they could accommodate my requests and an overview of the range of costs I might be looking at, then I might have been willing to put down a deposit. But why would I want to give my money to someone who is coming off sleazy, untrustworthy and incompetent? Totally stressed me out to the breaking point. You lost my business Columbus Travel, and Im telling EVERYONE that you dont listen and that you dont communicate. And those are two of the most important components of booking a trip! This is why I avoid travel agencies. You dont care about me. You care about your bottom line.

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BE

Becky Johnson

We had a family of 10 traveling. I did not understand that Columbus travel is an agent for Funjet vacations or I would never have used them. When our flight was cancelled because of weather I waited on the phone for a very long time (45 minutes) to get the flight rebooked. I ended up having to wait in line at the ticket counter because the agency couldnt make changes in a satisfactory manner. If had just called United on the phone directly I would not have had a problem rebooking. As it was we ended up having to fly into a different airport, rent cars that cost more than double the amount I had paid through Columbus (they could not transfer the car rental or even help us find another car) I used a travel agent because I thought it would be less stressful for me boy was I wrong. Just talked with Judy and she offered me a coupon for future travel.

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