our main guides in kampala
Scb Tours and Travel
- Located In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2018)
- Member Of:
- UTB & UWA
- Tour Types:
- Custom budget tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $75 to $500 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
AT
Email Roland | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
fraudulent safari tour
I have never experienced such a fraud safari. At the request of Solomon (head of SCB), we paid for the trip 4 months before the start of the trip (because he supposedly could reserve the best rooms in the lodges this way). For the first four days we were accommodated in construction site hotels (low-quality hotels) instead of the lodges explicitly offered in the offer. Furthermore, the guide was not provided with any money for the tour, but had to contact Solomon before each transaction. Since he "supposedly" had problems with the bank, we had to wait up to 4 hours for gas several times. Then just 10 liters were filled up. For around 70% of the tour we were on reserve fuel and always had to worry about whether we would stop because of a lack of petrol. This happened during a game drive in Queen Elizabeth Park. Solomon supposedly sent the guide on foot to a meeting point with a man who was bringing gas. We (my wife and I) had to spend over an hour alone, in the middle of the national park, without gas (in the middle of wild animals) wait until petrol is available to continue the journey. Then 10 liters were brought. The further refueling was usually between 5 and 12 liters so that you could possibly (if the conditions were good) go to the next lodge or Gas station is coming.
The second time we were in the middle of Bwindi NP on the route to Lake Bunyonyi, when once again the petrol was so low that the guide stopped the vehicle and begged Solomon for petrol. However, he only said that he had no money and sent 20,000 UGS (the equivalent of 5 euros). We would NEVER have made it through the remaining 2 1/2 hours of driving time. In order to prevent us from having to spend the night in the vehicle in the middle of the rainforest during the storm, I paid for gas from my travel fund. Due to the constant delays at the gas stations and lodges (waiting for money to be released), several activities were canceled or could not take place. Among other things, on the way from the lodge to a game drive in Lake Mburo NP, the game drive was canceled because the guide found out via telephone that Solomon had not paid the national park entry fee. When I asked why the entrance to the NP was not paid, he told me that the NP only offers zebras, antelopes and other common animals anyway. This statement alone is not worthy of a travel provider. With numerous contacts via WhatsApp, Solomon only had excuses as to why he wasn't sending money. To date, no compensation has been provided for the substandard hotels and missed activities. A police report was filed. I can prove everything
Reply from Scb Tours and Travel
Posted on Oct 31, 2024Firstly ,this is false ,you paid for gorilla and chimpanzee permits that we purchased in march 2024 and your trip was in October,you booked your trip with Ivan not us that’s in June 2024 ,that’s 4 months prior ,I personally picked you up from the airport and provided you with the chimps and gorilla permits and you trekked without any fails and we provided you with a free car ,
With due respect the rest should be directed to the person you booked your trip 4 months prior not us who provided permits in march
DE
Email Bettina | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
This whole Company seems like one big scam
Dont book with SCB Tours and Travel!
My friend Andrea and I fell for them and feel that we got scammed!
We booked a trip with them for March 2023 to do a round trip in Uganda. We decided to book it because of the attractive pricing. We checked with them whats included and they told us, that everything is already included in the price (permits, car, tourguide, accomodation, food...), so we did the initial payment. Right after that the let us know that the offer was sent by a IT guy and he forgot to put tax in the offer, but as its their fault, we don't have to pay anything extra.
The tour started and it was good for the first few days. We even asked if we could extend the reip for 2 more days and paid 500€ extra in cash for that. But right before we should go to see the gorillas Solomon (owner of the company) told us, that our vegetarian diet exceeds the budget and he has no money left to pay during the trip if we go one like this. We were stupid enough (and maybe annoyed enough) that we made a deal with him: we agreed we would pay for the accomodation and he would manage the rest so we can go on with our trip as planned.
The next day we had a long drive and I remember waking up in the car because it stopped. The other guide (abraham) and the driver left the car and now it was only Solomon and us. We were standing at the roadside in the middle of no where and Solomon told us we need to pay 900€ extra to proceed the trip, otherwise he hasn't any money left. He put such high pressure on us that we considered paying for a second. After lots of tears the trip was being canceled. And they brought us back to Kampala (btw we even had to pay for the gas).
In Kampala we had a lot oft extra costs and we contacted Solomon to ask for a refund of at least the 500€ for the extension if the trip, that obviously did not take place. We are discussing this with him since March. We didn't want to give bad reviews immediately as we were still hoping for our money.
Solomon will answer to our comments and threathens us to contact our workplace to leave bad comments about us, he threatens that he will let my friend be arrested in Kenya and he tells lies about us being racists. He even tells people that we are lesbians which is concerning due to the fact that homosexuals can go to prison for that in Uganda or even get sentenced with death penalty. He not only seem to be a scammer but threatens us as persons and considering to harm us.
*Screenshots removed for privacy reasons.
Reply from Scb Tours and Travel
Posted on Aug 14, 2023Dear Bettina , First, we do respect your expressions. However, for the benefit of our potential clients, we would like to respond and shed some light as below: This is witch hunting of the highest order,Andrea and her girlfriend Bettina booked a trip through us ,most of the staff were not in the office except internees and our IT guy ,the 2 booked a 15 day trip we sent them all the terms and conditions and the quote,since the interness were new to the tourism field they quoted a wrong amount way below even a trip of 5 days ,and they went on and made bookings plus buying gorilla permits ,as a company we had to count a loss and we did inject $3200 usd into their trip ,which went on well and they spotted everything ,the problem came in after them tracking gorillas they did cancel the trip that’s on Day 13 /15 just afew days to the end of their trip ;at first they demanded for the refund of all payments they made ,then they started came to $500 as refund now we are seeing $800 ,they ain’t constant and they’re scammers ,it’s group of bloggers who want to travel for free ,they target loopholes in company systems and after seeing what they want they end the trip and ask for refund ,many companies are complaining about them They threaten about hiring people to leave various bad reviews if you don’t adhere to what they want ,that’s exactly what they doing The reason they ended their trip it’s because they are lesbians and Ugandan parliament was discussing the bill to abolish lesbianism in uganda and they felt insecure On top of that they racially abused our staff ,because our staff is comprised or married couples Of all the travelers we have taken around for 5 years now it’s them coming up with this scheme to get free money and to travel for free they have hired people to leave bad reviews on our different platforms ,many companies are have fallen prey to them ,beware of these group of bloggers and hackers ,they use paid reviews ,its group who are travelling for free
When they left bad comments on instagram 2 companies inboxed us from TAnzania and kenya and they were victims to them , these 2 dear clients of ours went on and made a poll or an inquiry on one of our social platforms to their beliefs all the clients and other travelers responded positively about our service,in our 5 years in the tourism industry,this is the only reviews that are bad ,we make sure we do give our customers the best
Be alert
They threaten companies with their being bloggers to take down their platforms and to hack their websites or payments systems
DE
Email Andrea | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
CAUTION! My friend and I felt scammed by SCB Tours and Travel, lost Money & where forced to pay
CAUTION! We cannot recommend SCB Tours and Travel under any circumstances, as we believe that we have been severely scammed and coerced, leading to the cancellation of our safari. We are now left with over €800 in additional costs and were almost forced to pay another €900 on top. Allegedly, no one had ever encountered problems before, and we truly hope this is the case, because we wouldn't wish what happened to us on anyone. Here's our entire story.
First I would like to say, for the first days of the trip I would have given 5 stars because it was amazing – but what happened afterwards was one of the worst things that could happen.
Due to the attractive offer from SCB Tours and Travel, we decided to choose them, as the price seemed relatively affordable. We inquired multiple times to confirm that everything was truly included, and we were assured that chimpanzee and gorilla trekking, transportation, meals, non-alcoholic beverages, entrance fees, etc., were all completely included. After accepting the offer and making the initial payment, we were informed that taxes were not accounted for. Allegedly, the offer was created by an IT employee who wasn't authorized to do so. Despite the deposit being made, we were told that no further charges would be applied due to goodwill.
Just a few days into our trip, Solomon began blaming us for the high costs, asserting that we should have known that the taxes were not included. (We still wonder how we were supposed to know this, as when presented with an offer explicitly stating that everything is included for a specific price, we assume everything is indeed included. Unfortunately, our knowledge doesn't extend to Ugandan tax law.) We were also repeatedly blamed for the expenses of our vegetarian diet, and even when we ordered an additional pot of tea in a cold location, we were again reprimanded for how expensive everything was.
The situation escalated the day before our gorilla trekking, and we were essentially coerced into either paying for our accommodation here because the funds were depleted, or optionally, paying for entrance fees to the next parks since the money was simply not enough. Solomon cited reasons like accommodations demanding double the agreed amount, among others. However, this is also something beyond our control, and being in the off-season, we could have easily chosen alternative accommodations.
With the agreement that if we paid for our accommodation before the gorilla trekking, we could continue the trip without further discussions, we paid for the accommodation ourselves. However, in the preceding days, we had already paid for some of our meals (which were supposed to be included in the offer) out of pocket.
After the gorilla trekking, during our journey, we were suddenly stopped in a small town and more or less coerced into paying an additional $900, as we were told the trip couldn't be financed otherwise. Feeling uneasy about the situation and considering $900 to be a significant amount, we decided to terminate the trip. We also had to cover the fuel cost to return home, as we wouldn't have been able to make it back to Kampala otherwise and would have been stranded in the middle of nowhere.
The fact that we were stopped on the roadside and almost forced by Solomon to pay an additional $900 to continue the trip amounts to coercion and is illegal.
In Kampala itself, we incurred many extra costs as we had to independently cover accommodation, food, and drinks, which were supposed to be included.
Since April, we've made regular attempts to receive a response, all in vain.
Whenever we contacted Solomon recently, he shifted the blame and came up with various excuses. He has written that he will send us the $500, but we still haven't received a response regarding when this will happen.
Consequently, we cannot recommend SCB Tours and Travel under any circumstances and hope that no one else gets scammed like we did – this will forever be our impression of Uganda.
Screenshots are available in the images, unless they are deleted. Our trip started on March 6 and had to be prematurely terminated on March 18.
Since the end of the trip, we have made multiple attempts to get answers, at least regarding WHEN we will finally receive the money. We were only ever blamed for everything, Solomon even started playing mind games at times. Among other things, he told us that he hadn't even eaten because of us for a long time, and asked if we wanted him to kill himself because of us. In the end, he told us that he has a million-dollar business and he doesn't even care about SCB Tours and Travel because he doesn't need the money. Well, we are still stuck with our extra costs to this day, and most likely forever.
In conclusion, all things come back in life, or as Solomon said in his last message to us: "God (...) knows the truth and he will judge us all."
*Screenshots removed for privacy reasons.
Reply from Scb Tours and Travel
Posted on Aug 14, 2023Dear Andrea , First, we do respect your expressions. However, for the benefit of our potential clients, we would like to respond and shed some light as below:
This is witch hunting of the highest order,Andrea and her girlfriend Bettina booked a trip through us ,most of the staff were not in the office except internees and our IT guy ,the 2 booked a 15 day trip we sent them all the terms and conditions and the quote,since the interness were new to the tourism field they quoted a wrong amount way below even a trip of 5 days ,and they went on and made bookings plus buying gorilla permits ,as a company we had to count a loss and we did inject $3200 into their trip ,which went on well and they spotted everything ,the problem came in after them tracking gorillas they did cancel the trip that’s on the 13 day /15 just afew days to the end of their trip ,at first they demanded for the refund of all payments they made ,then they started came to $500 as refund now we are seeing $800 ,they ain’t constant and they’re scammers ,it’s group of bloggers who want to travel for free ,they target loopholes in company systems and after seeing what they want they end the trip and ask for refund ,many companies are complaining about them They threaten about hiring people to leave various bad reviews if you don’t adhere to what they want ,that’s exactly what they doing The reason they ended their trip it’s because they are lesbians and Ugandan parliament was discussing the bill to abolish lesbianism in uganda and they felt insecure On top of that they racially abused our staff ,because our staff is comprised or married couples Of all the travelers we have taken around for 5 years now it’s them coming up with this scheme to get free money and to travel for free they have hired people to leave bad reviews on our different platforms ,many companies are have fallen prey to them ,beware of these group of bloggers and hackers ,they use paid reviews ,its group who are travelling for free
I won’t mention here their companies coz it’s against the law ,but be aware of them ,they have hired many different to leave bad reviews on our different platforms
When they left bad comments on instagram 2 companies inboxed us from TAnzania and kenya and they were victims to them , these 2 dear clients of ours went on and made a poll or an inquiry on one of our social platforms to their beliefs all the clients and other travelers responded positively about our service,in our 5 years in the tourism industry,this is the only reviews that are bad ,we make sure we do give our customers the best
Be alert
They threaten to hack payment systems and taking down companies