Bush Troop Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 1997)
- Member Of:
- Kenya Association of Tour Operators
- Tour Types:
- Small & medium group tours (Mid-range & luxury)
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $150 to $900 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
FRAUD ALERT - this tour Company is defrauding tourists
In January 2015 “Bushtroop Tours & Safaris” company from Nairobi, Kenya refused to return the rental car deposit. We regarded this situation as a fraud and highly recommend extreme caution in any dealings with “Bushtroop Tours & Safaris” and personally with Jacqueline Mwathe and especially Moses Mutiva Ombeva.
My name is Nikolay Zagrebelnyy. I am 34 years old and I live in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In January 2015, me and my wife Natalia Klementyeva traveled in Africa: Kenya - Uganda - Rwanda - Congo - Burundi - Tanzania - Kenya together by car. The total mileage was about 5000 kilometers. This was our third visit to Kenya and sixth in Africa.
The car was rented in Bushtroop Tours & Safaris, Toyota RAV4, 2010, registration number KCB-573G. The company based in Nairobi, Kenya. Bushtroop Tours & Safaris has been selected on the Internet recommendations and the car availability. Our previous companies from Nairobi or could not be contacted or did not have the right car at the desired time. Many times we took a car in various countries and have never had problems, including previous trips to Kenya.
The car was given 31.12.2014, in good technical condition. Prospective route was agreed with Bushtroop Tours & Safaris, we made the contract and received the necessary documents. We paid the full rental price and a deposit - 1200 USD in cash.
When returning to Nairobi on 01/31/2015, we returned the car without any damage, which was confirmed by representatives of Bushtroop Tours & Safaris Jacqueline Mwathe and her colleague.
Despite this, Jacqueline Mwathe and her college refused to return the deposit, citing the fact that they put our deposit to the bank, and today is Saturday evening and the bank is closed.
At our request, the company chief Moses Mutiva Ombeva arrived and confirmed this information, also refused to return the deposit.
Bushtroop Tours & Safaris offered to transfer money to the bank card, or through Western Union. Moses Mutiva Ombeva Ombeva written receipt with a promise to transfer money and signed the contract.
The fact that the signature on the receipt does not match the signature in the other documents, I found only in the preparation of this site. Nevertheless, I guarantee that this signature of Moses Mutiva Ombeva.
The situation raises many questions, but in was already late evening and to return flight was only a few hours, so we went to the airport. At the airport Jacqueline personally promised to transfer money tomorrow. At that moment I almost believed her. We passed the car and flew home.
After four months, we have not received the money. Several times I called Jacqueline on the phone. In the last conversation, she promised to transfer the money on 28 April. This has not happened.
Conversations:
We regarded this situation as a fraud of Bushtroop Tours & Safaris and personally Moses Mutiva Ombeva. We highly recommend extreme caution in any dealings with Bushtroop Tours & Safaris and personally with Jacqueline Mwathe and especially Moses Mutiva Ombeva.
Reply from Bush Troop Safaris
Posted on Mar 29, 2016In regards of the above complain please do note that the above was sorted out and for any question please do get in touch with Mr Nikolay Zagrebelny for more clarification.
Kind Regards
Bush troop team
CA
Email Mira & Neena | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bush Troop Safaris is fraudulent and will scam you - CAUTION
We booked through Safari Bookings, using Bushtroop Tours and Safaris (see contact below) -this company is a fraud. They said they would accept visa in Can currency and when asked repeatedly why they didn't process our deposit of 30% prior to the trip well in advance, they said that they were waiting for a more favorable exchange rate. The day prior to the safari they said our visa was a problem and insisted on cash payment via online transfer so they could steal our money and run. They were very suspicious and we asked them to jointly call visa to sort out the visa payment, but they didn't respond and insisted on cash payment. This company is scamming innocent customers. Please remove them from your operators option.
Reply from Bush Troop Safaris
Posted on Oct 2, 2018Bushtroop Tours & Safaris is NOT a fraud, we a legitimate company.
We were not able to process your deposit because our account is a USD account. We also did not insist payment in cash. When we come to pick from the airport we had a pdq machine which you could have paid by card.
You made things difficult by insisting on paying us with Canadian dollars, all we could have done is converted the amount to usd and then pay by card.
Your preconceived notion that your money will be stolen speaks to your character. We are honest business people.
Jacqueline Mwathe,
Sales Manager
NL
Email Vera | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
2WD car rented out instead of 4WD and failing camping gear
Unfortunately, we had quite a bad experience with Bushtroop Safaris. We hired a 4WD car with them including camping equipment. At some point, however, we got stuck in the mud in a national park and that’s when we found out the car wasn’t a 4WD, but a 2WD. By then, we had already driven on roads that were 4WD only and realized we had taken some risks there. Also, we had to change our plans as we weren’t able to access all roads anymore.
We contacted Jacqueline, who was always quick to respond and friendly, and she was feeling really bad about this and said that they hired the car from someone else and didn’t know about it. We agreed to get a refund on the car, but we’re now 4 months in and still haven’t received it. We have had contact with Jacqueline several times in the past months ensuring us that the money was on the way, but it never arrived.
Beside the issues with the car, the camping equipment wasn’t in good shape either. The tent poles had been repaired very often and were only barely useable. Also, after the first night we found out that the air mattress was leaking. We tried to have it fixed, but weren’t able to and they apparently don’t sell them outside Nairobi so we couldn’t get a replacement. Finally the gas muzzle didn’t work properly as it took an hour to get a pan of water to get warm. That last thing was an easy and cheap fix, but on the whole we weren’t really able to camp out.
So, unfortunately, it wasn’t at all what we hoped for.