Costa Rican Travel Scams by CAT Tours
Watch out for CAT Tours Tourist Scam
Everybody loves going to Costa Rica for its beaches, its volcanoes, its rain forests full of wildlife and nature and some people, not even rich people, save their money for a whole year for their one vacation a year, looking forward to some fun in the sun. Although it’s not always news, tourists run the risk of being scammed in Costa Rica and it happens more frequently than you’d think.
For North Americans who want to get away from the cold, snow-bound winters they will usually head south to the Caribbean or Latin America. My friend chose to go to Costa Rica for his one vacation this year. He had a very nice time until he got back home.
While staying at his hotel on the Guanacaste coast, he booked several tours run by Central American Tours (CAT Tours) which has offices located in San José and Guanacaste. The company is run by the Taylor Travel Group. After a special presentation of the tours offered, tourists were invited to sign up before their desired tour and pay either by cash or credit card. My friend had chosen three tours, each seeming to be priced high but for a new tourist to the country, you want to see as much as you can on your one week vacation Costa Rica.
One of the tours he chose was a tour which included zip-lining through the rain forest. Sounded like a lot of fun. The afternoon before his tour was to take place, a representative from CAT tours came to the hotel to say that the tour was canceled. He and his partner were quite disappointed because they were only in Costa Rica for one week. He asked for his credit card payment receipt back and was told by the CAT Tour representative that it was okay, it had never been put through so not to worry.
When he got back to his country he received his credit card statement a few weeks later. He noticed that CAT Tours in Costa Rica had actually put the charge of $130 US through on his credit card. What began was a series of telephone calls to his credit card company (CAA Travel Card) and emails to the CAT tour company in Costa Rica. CAT tours eventually began denying that the tour was cancelled and that he had taken the tour.
After emailing a form he was required to fill in for the CAA Travel credit card company and then finally calling them again, the CAA Travel credit card company then told him it was past the time when you could make claims on false credit card charges. They said they had never received his email form – which is plainly a lie on their part because the email was never returned to the sender’s address. Not receiving an email is a pretty weak excuse these days. Everyone knows how emails work in today’s world.
My friend was then doubly screwed by both CAT Tours in Costa Rica and his credit card company CAA Travel Card.
I am sure that CAT Tours will not like the bad press, but if their company continues to scam tourists in Costa Rica, lo and behold, they are going to find more and more bad press on the internet. And we all know what a powerful thing the internet is. Surely that will affect the CAT Tours business in the future as people will be more wary about using them as a company which offers tours in Costa Rica. Dishonesty and scamming tourists is not the way to run a business.
So although Costa Rica is a very beautiful country with lots to offer tourists, my friend won’t be going back to Costa Rica unless it’s to knock on the doors of the CAT Tour’s office and demand his $130 US payment back. Congratulations to CAT Tours for trying to operate a legitimate business and still trying and succeeding to scam tourists in Costa Rica. I just thought I’d publish this article on tourist scams in Costa Rica so other tourists are forewarned before going to Costa Rica and by scammed by CAT Tours of Guanacaste.
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We got scammed in Costa Rica too by the same company. CAT Tours should stop scamming tourists or they’re gonna lose business. I wrote about my experience with CAT tours on my blog to warn other tourists about this company.