Prime Safaris & Tours

Reply from Prime Safaris & Tours

I’m honestly shattered that after all the efforts over the years in postponing your trip and giving a credit note to try ensure that you enjoy your safari once travel resumed has ended this way.

We’ve never been a fan of “he-said she-said” situations, but given that this review is public, I feel the need to respond and help shed some light on what happened here.


Change in Rates;

Please note that following were your changes in dates for your 15 days Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania safari that amounted to an increment of 3000$ not the 7000$ you indicated in your review, yet you did not even pay it since you were supposed to pay upon arrival.

Original safari dates : 23rd March to 6th April 2020

1st Rescheduled to Dates: 2nd to 16th Oct 2020

Final Dates: 27th September to 11th Oct 2022

As explained to you in my email dated, 24 March 2020 , the season rates that applied to your original safari quote were based on the low season rates for 2020.

When you rescheduled, the new dates given fell in the peak season for lodges in Uganda ,Kenya & Tanzania, which peak season starts from 1st July – 31st Oct 2020 thus the additional charges communicated to you on 9th June 2022.

The increase was due to seasons and the time difference of 2 years during which all operational costs increased worldwide.

As you are fully aware Covid-19 and other global challenges increased operation rates in all travel related operations. This was 2 years in between and inflation has affected most sectors worldwide.

Additionally, Gorilla & Chimpanzee Permits fees were revised by the Government of Uganda, starting July 2020 from 600$ to 700$ for Gorilla tracking permits as well as 150$ to 200$ for Gorilla tracking permits.

I have also noted that the increment figure you indicated in your review is exaggerated and not true, although you were supposed to pay it upon arrival but did not show up for your safari.

Flights & Communication:

Please note that since your trip was an inter country trip connecting from Uganda , Rwanda Tanzania then Kenya. You were to cross from Uganda to Rwanda using the land borders to take your flight to Kilimanjaro International Airport. Unfortunately once most countries closed their air space and land borders due to Covid-19 all flights including yours were cancelled .

As we constantly kept updating you, the Rwanda Uganda border remained closed up until Monday 07th March 2022.There was no way we could utilize the flight before the border reopening.

Our efforts of getting information from the airline during that time to ascertain the new dates you had suggested to us didn’t yield much to give you immediately responses since all boarders were closed and people were in quarantine.
Most public offices were closed, we couldn’t committee on anything until we had heard from the service providers.

Lastly, regarding communication, we have a track record of giving fast responses to our emails and all our other social media platforms, I have personally been handling all company emails and have answered back immediately as testified by other travelers that have reviewed previously.
For your case, I don’t know why you preferred/personally chose to send communication on both email and Facebook as you did so even after emailing you back that I was working on you and would get back to you after getting the required information.
You always wanted immediate confirmations from all the 14 lodges, spread in the 3 countries, yet I would have an immediate response from them since majority were under lock down. Like I kindly explained to you always, the conditions were difficult due to forces out of my control, but I endeavored to pass on to you the needed information whenever I got it.


COVID 19 & Refund:

Covid 19 was a nightmare and came as a shock affecting all sectors worldwide and everybody. It wasn’t anyone’s fault thus we didn’t mention it as being your fault like you stated above.
As a company we had about 50 affected booking but did our best to ensure that ALL our clients didn’t make losses.

As explained in the various emails, I really wasn’t intentionally refusing to refund back the deposit of the money paid for the safari but due to our Terms & Conditions and those of the partners with whom we operate these safaris.

As you are fully aware, a refund when the safari trip date was only a week away was impossible because;

1. It was past our refund period. All terms and conditions of service providers like lodges, flights etc. don’t allow refunds once its within 15 – 0 Days to the safari start dates and for this case yours was just 7 days to its start date.

2. Since it was a pandemic session and borders where closing, they termed this as being under “force majeure” / forces beyond their making thus couldn’t make any refunds.

Kindly note that it was for this reason that we lobbied for ALL our affected clients and Government of Uganda plus other stake holders accepted reschedules.

Again as you are fully aware, we utilized this opportunity for and we rescheduled your trip until it was impossible for you to determine your most suitable travel dates. We then went ahead and asked for a credit note for you to do your trip when you were ready.

As earlier explained to you, the credit notes had Terms & Conditions which varied based on the various destinations.ie. for Tanzania & Kenya, it was valid until June 2022 and for Uganda it was valid until Dec 2022. That is how after you failed to get back to me with new dates I managed to request them to extend it to until October 2022.

All this was aimed at ensuring that you could utilize the safari deposit that you already paid.

As you can tell from the rest of our over COVID-19 inconvenienced clients' reviews on this platform and other trip review platforms, it is clear that I put so much effort into making ALL our affected travelers have their safaris successfully at later dates unconditionally.

Together with them we kept on tailoring their trips to accommodate their challenges until they ALL enjoyed their safaris successfully apart from you.


Your Trip cancellation:

You went silent for long after being given the credit note. On the 14th June 2022, you emailed me and informed me that you will be starting your safari on 21st September and I went ahead to reinstated the safari to start on the date communicated.
On 15th June ,you emailed me again and informed me that you were to re- confirm availability of your home keeper and that you were to notify me by 8 July in case of any changes of dates.

I didn’t hear from you again, but remember that everything had been moved to the new dates and all lodges notified about your coming.

On the 16th September 2022, I wrote a follow up email to you regarding the status of the booking since you hadn’t communicated your arrival time for the 27th September and days were really getting close. I still got no response.

On 4th October 2022, a week after not showing up for the safari that was scheduled to start on 27th September 2022, I sent you an email explaining that the trip had been cancelled because you didn’t showing up which got you very upset and you informed me then that you had been hospitalized.

It was very unfortunate to know that you hadn’t been well although this was the first time I had been informed of your sickness as previously you had mentioned that you had a challenge of getting a house keeper/sitter to confirm if they would sit in for you and that this was to be confirmed by 8 July, unfortunately you didn’t get back to me.

As I earlier explained to you, on the 4th October 2022, unfortunately, we couldn’t reverse the decision made by ALL stake holders including lodges of featured countries whose credit statements had expired due to your no show, lodges that had kept the rooms for you as well as the flights for which you didn't show up.

This therefore meant the trip had expired due to your failure to come OR even get back to us with new dates onto which to shift the trip had you realized that you were not able to come for the 4th time in 2 and a half years.
As explained in the various emails we exchanged earlier, rescheduling a trip required that you provided us with new dates, determined independently by you the traveler. Had you done this, though it was difficult, we would have still done our best to try reschedule your trip, but this didn't happen and hence it was beyond our control. Your trip was therefore regarded a 'no show' by all stake holders.

Please remember that our company operates these trips together with other partners/suppliers that provide services that we can’t provide independently e.g. accommodation facilities, government wildlife entities, airlines etc. and thus we came up with some booking polices/ terms and conditions based on theirs since we have no control over them despite us working together.

In your case they couldn't push your safari for a 4th time in 3 years worse still without and timely request from you and dates to which to reschedule. You only started to think of dates after I wrote to you requesting to know why you didn't show up for your trip and to officially let you know that it was cancelled.

After receiving your review, we have reviewed all guest who had trips affected by COVID and all of them have successfully been done, the last one being the family group of 13 people, and 1 of the traveler's review is just below yours, why would we exploit you!!

In inclusion, We regret that your trip was cancelled after all we did to make it happen. We did what we could to reschedule your trip 3 times, but you did not show up for your safari and didn't notify us before it's expiry either, to plan for a 4th reschedule in close to 3 years time.

Even if you had booked internally with a company within your home country, I am most certain they too would have cancelled your trip for not showing up. How I wish you had notified me in time before the trip dates expiry that you weren’t going to make it, I would have tried to do something about it!!
We share your pain and are willing to organize a memorable trip for you in future should you want one and surely we shall ensure that you get the best African safari experience as we always do for all our clients the world over.

Kind Regards,

Cate