TravelzooReviews 219

Bought a voucher to give as Christmas gift to friend and within hours, spoke to him and realized that it was in the wrong place and wrong experience. I immediately sent email to their customer service site asking for refund. Did not hear back, so called and was told no refund possible because it was date/event specific... not what it said. It said many dates available. Was also told it was non-refundable and it was "in the small print"... which is hidden... I offered to take credit rather than refund and was declined. I had lengthy email correspondence and no flexibility. Although not outright fraud, this is very poor public relations and customer service. I'll "eat" my $150 and never use them again.

I purchased a voucher for $29 for a fandango move and restaurant.com dinner. I purchased it months ago and had actually forgot that I had it until I received an email from Travel Zoo that it was about to expire. There was a linik in the email that requested the voucher # then brought me to Fandango. I clicked on the link selected two tix for a movie it required me to enter my credit card which I did. When I completed it I realized I had actually been charged for the tickets. I emailed Travel Zoo to find out if this was correct (I had already paid $29 for the voucher) and they told me I did not follow the instructions on the voucher that I should have gone to restaurant.com first. I explained I am a brand new customer and I had clicked on the link in the email they sent me. I explained I had already purchased movie tix and would not be able to go to two movies this weekend and could they refund the voucher since I could not use it. They said they do not provide refunds and I should have followed the instructions. I explained I did not realize it would be so complicated to use their product and there must be an allowance they could make for new customers. They again said they have a no refund policy. What horrible customer service. I guess they think its better to keep the $29 than to actually cultivate a return customer. I cant imagine a company like that will last very long. Bottom line is avoid Travel Zoo. The operation they run is borderline scam They do not back the product they sell and customer service is non existent.

On August 25th, 2013, I purchased a travelzoo voucher for $29 for 6 bottles of wine. There was an additional charge of $19.99 for shipping and handling to be paid separately. However, my credit card was charged $118 for shipping! I contacted travelzoo for assistance and received an email stating I should contact WSJ Wine directly. I sent 2 emails to WSJ Wine but did not hear from them. I contacted my credit card company seeking a refund for $29 from travelzoo and $118 from WSJ Wine. My credit card company was able to get WSJ Wine to refund the $118 but travelzoo refused to refund my $29 because the voucher was non refundable! Under their refunds policy, the first line states: " We offer full refunds within 7 days but in a deceptive way, they add "all sales are final on date-specific events." The refund policy also states, "in the event of merchant misconduct, we will help you." No, travelzoo did not help me. Their customer support, Cortni, sent an email telling me to contact WSJ Wine directly. I was and am very frustrated and would like my money back!

CUSTOMER SERVICE IS HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE. PURCHASED 3 VOUCHERS FOR HOT AIR BALLOON. VENDOR CANCELLED RIDE I SCHEDULED TWICE. ONCE WAS THE MORNING OF AFTER WE'D ALREADY LEFT FOR THE RIDE. I ASKED FOR REFUND. ONLY GET A CREDIT. BUT HERE'S THE CATCH: TRAVELZOON ONLY PERMITS THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF CREDIT TO BE USED. I. E. YOU CANNOT USE A PORTION OF THE CREDIT TO PURCHASE AN ITEM OF LESSER AMOUNT, AND HAVE A BALANCE FOR ANOTHER PURCHASE. NO OTHER BUSINESS I'VE EVER ENCOUNTERED HAS THIS ODIOUS POLICY. IT'LL BE YEARS BEFORE I FIND THREE ITEMS COSTING $90 THAT I WISH TO PURCHASE TO USE THE CREDITS.

Bought 2 x Travel Zoo coupons for "Movie Night for 2 w/$100 certificate Restaurant.com bonus", good for "any Fandango movie tickets including IMAX and 3-D films", "including new releases". When I tried to buy the tickets for a Sunday morning showing of 'Gravity' on opening weekend Fandango site said "unable to process order please try a different showtime". In fact, all the showtimes on Sunday were unavailable, but Tuesday showtimes were all available through Fandango. I phoned the cinema directly and spoke to the manager - they had plenty of tickets for Sunday. After 30+ total min wait Fandango call center they said they were aware of problem - I had to clear my cookies and "Ray" showed me how, and that did work and I was able to purchase the tickets - but WHY would Fandango put a cookie on my computer to block a weekend sale for Regal Cinemas? Then using Fandango charges an extra 'convenience fee' (= more than a third of the price of the ticket!) to use the TravelZoo prepaid ticket... Lucky me - I spent $56 for $30 worth of movie tickets through Fandango!

The Restaurant.com certificate 'deal' was a total rip-off too - the said implied '$100 Restaurant.com bonus' which implies that the restaurants on restaurant.com are available. The ad also said "Dining options include Zagat-praised steakhouses and top-rated sushi bars". NOT and I live in a big city. The different 'restaurants' that were available were only places I'd take people to if I wanted to insult them. Plus, you don't get $100 Restaurant.com bonus per se - you get a credit towards $100 worth of coupons for sad restaurants that you can only use in, say $5 - $35 increments, depending on the restaurant, if you spend one and a half times that amount at the restaurant, and you can't combine coupons. My $100 worth of coupons would cost me $150 (at least) to use.

I phoned TravelZoo and to complain that the ad was immorally misleading and I pointed out that there weren't any "Zagat-praised" steakhouses etc., available and was told that was too bad for me.

I purchased a "local deal" from Travel Zoo on June 21,2013. The item was a winery tour, signature wine glasses, and a gourmet lunch for $29, "regularly $62".
We decided to use it on Monday July 29th so I called several days ahead and made a reservation for noon.
There was only one other couple in attendance. The young women took us on a trek of several hundred yards to view a withered collection of staked vines mostly not alive.
We then returned to the main building, a converted biker bar and viewed an empty room that was to have contained last year's crop which was eliminated by a cold snap in May.
We sat at a table and were presented with a tasting menu that cost an additional $24 a couple for three tastes of wine, about six ounces. They were very stingy in filling the glasses, about 1 ounce per taste!
We decided to not participate in this ad hoc wine tasting so they removed our two free glasses. There was also three microscopic pieces of cheese to taste.
Finally it was time for our $62 gourmet lunch. We each received one half a ham and cheese sandwich on rye bread. There was also two small pieces of bread crust with crushed nuts and a slice of cucumber.
Nothing else was offered. I did spend an
Additional $11 to buy my wife a half a glass of wine.
We drove 90 minutes up and 90 minutes back. This was the worst meal deal we have ever seen and we use Groupon all the time.
I called Travel Zoo that afternoon. Their number *******000 is a call center in Williamsport, Pa. The CSR assigned me a
Ticket number *******. She said that I would be called by "Merchant Services"
Within 24 hours.
I waited two days then followed up with a CSR named "Brennan" in the same call center. He told me he would escalate the issue but no one has followed up.

As a merchant I was upset at a possible refund claim but it has since been resolved. I am suggesting to everyone to read the fine print as close as possible and hope everyone adheres to them. Travelzoo is a terrible company and I suggest you stay away. This Cortni, writing on their behalf as a representative is a lier and a can not resolve any real issues. She promised to be a knowledgable contact and help, but she just ignored me like the others did. Obviously she has no real pull at the company.
If you want to be hosed and treated like garbage, I suggest you buy a travel zoo deal!

Got a spa voucher from them that cost me $125 but it was impossible to book an appointment. Nobody answered the phone and when we finally got thru, we got scheduled 2 months from when we called. Then when the day of the appointment came, they called us asking if we could reschedule. We told them we'd call them in a bit while we discussed when to reschedule, then on the same day, we couldn't reach them again. A few days later, while trying to find an alternative contact number to the spa, we saw on yelp that it had shut down. Called travelzoo, but they would only offer a refund of $20 even though we paid $125 and NY law says these deal sites must honor the cash value of the voucher. Terrible terrible company and I can't believe they're still around.

I bought a local deal (Fandango middleman company called Digital Doorstep) and the company went bankrupt. I paid $24. Travelzoo refused to offer a refund or even a credit but instead offered me 2 $10 vouchers in recognition of me being a "good customer". Rep specifically said it was not a refund or credit for them selling me a product from a bankrupt and defunct company. And, again, it was $4 less than what I paid Travelzoo.

I guess if I were them and I wanted to retain a customer I would have done better than what they ended up doing, but at least they did something.

I was denied a refund for a hand gliding voucher that I scheduled to use 3 times - each time the merchant changed the time or location (by 35 miles!) within 24-48 hours for various reasons. Sine email is not a part of brain - it would often give me only half that in notice by time I saw the notice. Even with these emails and all the specifics the refund was denied based on the 7 day from purchase policy. The policy should be changed to 7 days from expiration for issues like this. I will be filing a complaint with the BBB for both Travel Zoo and the merchant.

I purchased a $99 local deal for a skydiving experience and tried to book with the company Skydive America. But due to the high number of vouchers sold, I was unable to book with them before the expiration date on my voucher. I contacted the company to get a refund but they never answered the phone or emails. I also filed a complaint with the better business bureau. The skydiving company went out of business and I never got to use my voucher. I contacted travelzoo and they refused to refund my $99 since the expiration date had passed. Such a scam!

Travelzoo offers some great deals at time and occasionally you can find one that's not a per person based on double occupancy and are just for a great hotel deal or travel deal based on the person traveling. They need to have a solo traveler special added to their Top 20 travel deals. Travel is not all about couple traveling. Many solo travelers and there's a big niche waiting to be filled. I keep hoping TravelZoo will do something in this neglected travel sector, but it seems nothing will convince them of the need.