Boat tour dispute -- Is it me being too picky or ...?
 

Before anything -- I certainly don't think Chase's decision to not to uphold my dispute is unfair; however, I do acknowledge I may have been having an unrealistic expectation from the beginning. That's why I'm interested in what YOU think about this issue...

I booked a 3-hour lake cruise for my group of 8 family members and friends, and paid with CSR. Reservation was made literally hours before the cruise departed. The cruise was called "lunch buffet and sightseeing cruise".

Hours later, we boarded. The boat departed. The lunch buffet? Tortilla chips with salsa; a dozen of miniature cupcakes stormed by kids aboard in a split of a second (by "miniature", I mean -- quarter $ sized), and ice water. Deck temperature was about 20F, cabin was 50F. Wanted anything hot? An 8oz plain coffee cost $8. The "sodas, juices included" as advertised could be found nowhere.

Maybe this was my wrong step #1 (booking this cruise was wrong step #0) -- I didn't want to spoil our Christmas tour so I didn't bring this up directly to the crew while we were on board. The next day I complained to the travel agency, and certainly didn't hear back anything.

So I turned to Chase. Disputed the charge under the reason "I am not satisfied with the product/service I received". I asked for $25 refund for each person, which was about 1/4 of the ticket price. Had to speak to a dispute specialist to provide details -- and I clearly described how the actual service differed from the advertised.

A couple of days later, Chase called me and told me that, since the service had been tendered and neither did I cancel in advance nor abort the participation, Chase would not uphold my dispute. I said fine and requested to speak to a supervisor. I was told a supervisor would call me back in 24 to 48 hours.

3 weeks later (very prompt, Chase, very prompt, although I didn't expect 24 to 48 hours in the first place), a supervisor called me, and said the same thing.

Supervisor: "You didn't cancel the cruise in advance."
Me: "If I canceled it in advance, I wouldn't have had boarded the boat. Then how could I know their advertised 'lunch buffet' was tortilla chips and iced water?"
Supervisor: "Then you should stop participating in this activity once you find you were not satisfied with it."
Me: "When they started serving their 'lunch buffet' the boat had departed the pier. How do you want me to 'stop participating', i.e. to leave the boat?"
Supervisor: "You can tell them to turn around and take you back to the pier."
Me: "I believe you clearly understand that what you suggested was not anywhere close to practical or helpful."
...
...
Supervisor: "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
Me: "No, not for today, and probably not in the future, either."
She hung up immediately.

Chase's point, as per the supervisor:
As long as a customer departed/checked in at the scheduled departure/check-in time and arrived/checked out at the scheduled arrival/check-out time, then the flight/cruise/tour/stay/etc is considered tendered. As long as the service is tendered, no dispute can be upheld. As for how miserable the service is, is none of Chase's business. Dissatisfied with the service? Who cares. Want money back? Duh.

"So why do you even list 'I am not satisfied with the service' as a dispute reason? What you just said apparently means you'd never uphold a dispute for this reason."
"There's nothing we can do here since you boarded the boat and took the cruise."

Fine.

you leave a bad review and move on. i dont even know why you would want to eat any food on a sightseeing cruise ship. i can only imagine how awful a lunch buffet would actually be if they tried

Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you like the play?

Of course, I only have your side of the story, but based on what you said, Chase is appallingly off-base. On the other hand, probably you should have complained to operator promptly, but that does not excuse the Chase supervisor's inane statements.

I think you should have raised the issues while on the boat. I always take “lunch cruises” with a grain of salt. Unless they explicitly include a detailed list, I don’t expect much. You certainly should have pushed back on the sodas and juices.

Researching tours is pretty important. In looking at reviews I often find major flaws, so I avoid those tours.

reminds me of our snorkeling trip to molokini. the included on-boat lunch? unlimited (one or two) hot dogs!

but we werent there for the lunch so who cares.

OP, I think you made 2 mistakes. You should have brought it up during the cruise like where are the soda? Or "Are you guys really charging for coffee when lunch is supposed to be provided?" They can't do anything about the weather, but something they could fix. Now when you come back to dispute the charge, you didn't ask to dispute the entire charge. Instead, you asked for a 25% refund. That's like kryptonite to your dispute. Think about it... so you are okay with the service but you don't think it is worth the entire charge but a 25% discount will make you happy. What is the supervisor handling the dispute going to think? Oh this guy just wanted a discount. Next time he is going to a restaurant and not liking the food going to ask for another discount....

If the tour was so horrible that you and your family found it less enjoyable than not going, than you should just try to dispute the entire charge. You could tell the supervisor that once departed, you guys were stuck on the nightmare tour. But if you really think it is only 25% overcharge, than just write a honest bad review and let the next person know and move on. The tour operator may even fix what was wrong or offer you a partial refund or future credit.

I'm with the bank

You should have raised the issues you had with the captain and/or crew as they occurred. By doing so it gives the crew a chance to fix things and if they fail to do so you can tell Chase that you at least gave them a chance before starting a dispute.

I do find it amusing and naive that the Chase supervisor told you that you could have asked the captain to bring you back to the dock. As anything short of a true medical emergency would have gotten you laughed and/or cursed right off the bridge.

At this point if I were you I'd write a bad review and move on.

LOL..... yeah, you should have just got off the boat :) That's a pretty ridiculous statement by Chase but probably just reading from a script. I particularly love it when they ask, "is there anything else I can help you with?" What do they mean "anything else" ?- they haven't helped me with the first thing yet!

I'd probably just leave a bad review and take it as a lesson learned. Along those lines, I always read reviews prior to booking things like this and you can very often avoid the bad ones.

Well, tortilla soup buffet is still technically buffet right? I think the provider may have gotten away with it and they don't expect return customers. I say let this be a lesson learned. I sure did just reading your post. Sorry about your experience but hopefully your family had a good time together that's more important. Remember Chase is the middleman here.

Chase are completely worthless in disputes. A company charged me $700 for what was meant to be about $200. Chase refused to do anything, they wouldn't even contact the company, as they claimed that I hadn't provided them with proof that I didn't authorize the charge - despite multiple emails from me to the company rejecting the invoice and then trying to resolve the charge.

The "customer service" at Chase never replied to any of my "secure messages" or provided any of the promised call backs. They couldn't care less when I did manage to talk to them, and constantly claimed that the department supposedly handling my dispute didn't have phones so I couldn't talk to them directly. Worthless, lying people the lot of them.

I ditched Chase and moved to Capital One, they are far, far superior.

Start your negative reviews campaign right here by providing details about the cruise company and tour name.

OP - you are not being picky. When the word "lunch" is used, I would expect at least a sandwich (even McD kind) be provided. But this is not really a Chase issue.

Without any detail, it is difficult to say what you can do at this moment.

except there was no soup. :) Chips and salsa is snacks, not lunch.

Thanks for the comment, my friend.

I don't think I'm a customer difficult to satisfy. Just by only offering me the juices and sodas they promised to include, they would not make me to start all this. Didn't expect too much from the buffet, either, but I was expecting something more than tortilla chips.

Yeah... I actually asked her, in the future if the same unfortunately happens to me again, what should I do so that Chase can actually even take a look into this case?
She said I need to ask the boat to turn around and take me back to the pier.

She was insane for sure.

Right. Even if they did consider tortilla chips to be "lunch buffet", I should have pushed back on the sodas and juices.

I would have a stronger case with Chase because the cruise definitely didn't provide sodas or juices. But then what? That wouldn't have made Chase care a bit more, either.

Thanks for the input, dude. I certainly have read all you wrote.

I guess I was trying to be honest, and maybe the honesty played against me.

During the past 3 years of CSR membership I have had a total of 4 disputes, and all together they were less than $50 combined. Say I ordered several entrees for take out and one was missing, and the owner only wanted me to go back and retrieve it while I was already 20 miles away, I disputed the charge, but only for that missing entree.

Back to this boat tour, I honestly thought the food and drink part was missing, but the boat itself was okay -- it was mediocre, but not anywhere close to being "disputable" -- they took us to where they said we were going. Since a cup of coffee cost $8 aboard, I estimated that a $25/person refund was reasonable.

But what you said definitely makes sense to me. I certainly don't plan, and have never planned, to misuse disputes as a way to recover a "discount", I totally understand why someone may think so.

That being said, in 99% of cases things can be sorted out way easier. Like in a steakhouse I ordered a medium-rare and was served something well-done. I brought it up to the server and the manager gave me a free dinner. I left a good tip and went out. I don't need Chase's involvement unless I have to, just like possibly everyone here.

Thanks for the input!

I guess it was all due to my vain pride?

I was concerned with the food and drink. My family members and friends were all somewhat concerned, but were not exactly disturbed. Anyway, it was Christmas. At that time I decided that the right thing to do was to talk them out of the food and drink and focus more on the scenery. I thought if I brought this up of even confronted the captain/crew, it could have ruined everyone's entire tour. Now, at least we've enjoyed a good cruise (only the cruise part) -- just to consider that to be an overpriced one. To me that decision was probably not too bad.

I was exceptionally pissed off by that question, as well as her behavior -- being a customer service person you just don't hang up a customer's call. Period. I guess for Chase that's not easy.

Well, I decided not to make it too explicit.

The tour was in north Cali. The travel agency was interesting... It had 3.9 stars on Google yet 1 star on Yelp. God knows what happened.

I'll just take this as a lesson learned and let it go.

At least now I've got a realistic expectation of what Chase can and/or is willing to do for its customers.