US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
SCAM- avoid at all costs!!
Rama the owner is a very smooth communicator, and it’s easy to be very impressed with his handling of your booking and answering your questions, etc. But despite trusting him a lot, he completely scammed us.
First, take a look at the reviews he has on TripAdvisor, Google, and SafariBookings. Pretty impressive review scores. But take a closer look at the reviews themselves. Do many of them appear fake? Are they written mostly by reviewers with only one review, written by other local safari operators and/or have poor grammar? Are some of them written by “Rama Mo” himself pretending to be a customer?
Our first clue that something was amiss was when we tried to find the office that Rama claims to have. He told us specially what building his office was in (it’s also marked on Google maps in this prestigious location). The office does not exist.
Once we realized this, we asked to see the car that was “being repaired” as part of his story. This was the night before we were to leave on our trip. During the trip to see the car (which was honestly bring repaired as described, but based on its condition did not appear ready for departure the next day) we talked casually to him about our trip and how excited we were (that it was our honeymoon).
One hour after he returned us to our hotel, he sent a group WhatsApp text including an unknown person saying that his “business partner” (really just one of his drivers posing as his “partner”) was unsatisfied with the price Rama has agreed to and that the trip (which was to start the next day) would be 3x more expensive!! When I protested that we had agreed to a price weeks ago (Rama had gone so far as to specify what kind of USD bills to bring and I had sent him a picture of the bills laid out on a table), they refused to even acknowledge the deal they had agreed to. It was clear that they decided to take advantage of the information we had given them — that we were on our honeymoon- to try to extort us for 3x the price. How messed up is that?! The trip is now ruined and Rama has been increasingly dishonest in trying to justify this 3x price increase (we’re talking about thousands of dollars). It’s actually been quite embarrassing as Rama has repeatedly made new claims and I just keep responding with a screenshot of previous messages he sent contradicting his new lies. Avoid at all costs!!!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
This travel agent has not gotten back to me since April when our vacation was put on hold i have bee
No communications they took our money and left us high and dry
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Scam.
Would not answer phones when we called. Only would talk with drivers...in Swahili...our itinerary was not followed and 5 days left with ZERO experiences. The positive reviews are bogus, for sure.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
They are terrible. Very poor customer service.
They promise a lot but deliver nothing. What was meant to be a guide was just a rude semi illiterate driver who had no clue about what a guides role is, never mind that we had been promised that we would have the services of an 'experienced tour guide'. Poor customer experience. You do not get value for money. They are big on brand, but zero content.
JP
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Be careful.
I paid USD 300 in August 2019 via wire transfer as a deposit to join the safari tour but I had to cancel because they offered a really high price in last minute before I joined the tour in January. So, I did not agree to join the tour and they agreed that they will refund the full amount of USD 300 to me in January. Since then, I've tried to email them many times to get me refund but they kept saying there are finance issues(even before COVID 19 situation) so they will refund later, however it's been 10 months since they acknowledged and refund has not been done. I will try my best to get me refund of USD 300.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
DO NOT BOOK WITH COMPANY !!!
After nearly a month of waiting to hear back from the 'CEO' we are finally told that they will not provide a refund even though the country is not letting us travel there. This was a honeymoon trip and our wedding is cancelled, so unhelpful. This was the only provider who we have encountered problems with, all other bookings in our trip were kindly refunded. Awful customer service. Silly company really as I imagine everyone who experiences this will not book with them in the future.
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Horrible experience with the guide Stephen !!!
On the day of our arrival in Nairobi, the guide was over 1.5 hours late at the airport. Then we had to walk and wait another time 20 minutes because he had parked his car outside the airport parking lot.
Barely on the road leaving for our safari he stopped to fill up with gasoline (couldn't he do it before picking us up when we had 12 hours of theft in our legs?).
On the way he said to us "why are you coming when it is raining?" January is not a good time to come (contrary to what we can read on the net).
Are we responsible for the weather? He replied that we had to call before coming! How then to organize a 15-day trip with hotels planes...
Finally at the arrival of the 1st park (Tsavo) before doing our 1st game drive, he asks us if we can take 4 people (Poles I believe) with us because they have a problem with their Jeep. To that we answer no because a little tired of his attitude and not to mention that we had arranged a private safari just for the 2 of us. Suddenly he does not like much and it was the climbing ...
He didn't like to repeat himself (we are not specialists in the animal world and even less English speakers) and allowed himself to think about us or downright hikes of your "I already told you!" Style. or "Close the open roof now and don't discuss!"
I forgot ... We had a problem with the police because he had not updated his car insurance (3 hours to wait at the police station)
His Jeep did not have the 4 * 4 system either (supposedly broken on the way) and he had lent his tools (shovel and bars) which would have helped us to get out of a stuck in the mud instead. we had to clear it by hand. After getting dirty, no thank you from him ... In short, a horrible experience with this guide probably close to retirement age and who did not want to take this tour but are we responsible for it?
No compensation or commercial gesture on the part of Tekko tour despite the kindness of Carole with whom I was in contact for the organization.
Finally one thing shocked me: the guide lied about the number of game-drives made by his replacement (a freelance massai) who was not paid as he should. I learned about it a few months later and I made a complaint by mail and the problem was resolved without Tekko Tour ever acknowledging their fault.
Lamentable...
US
under20 years of age
Unethical company during pandemic
We booked this company as a trip of a lifetime. Due to the pandemic Kanyezi cancelled our trip and refused to return our deposit. Chris the owner claimed that he had distributed our deposits to various tour subcontractors and that they were all teetering on bankruptcy without showing us any proof. They all seem to be still in business and are still taking deposits for future bookings. He claimed he had no second party insurance with the various hotels, lodges, guides etc. and that we should make a claim to our own insurance company. He then refused to provide a simple standardized invoice noting the trip cancellation making the insurance claim much more difficult. He also said if we booked a future trip we would have to give another deposit instead of using our funds he already had in his hands. Why would anyone do this? Avoid Kanyezi like the plague. They are not honest business people.
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Quite spoken thief JAMES MUNGAI - Owes me over $8,000
Paid for a fill 10 days tour with a friend, on arrival James Mungai owner of Alliance revealed he spent all the money and nothing was paid for. KENYA TUURIST POLICE were notified and appear to have done nothing
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
James Ripped me off!
I took a 21 day safari that James had arranged for me in June 2019. Everything went fine until the last week of the Safari. James started phoning me to ask that I pay for things like fuel and entry fees to the Massia Mara. I also had to pay some of the fees at the hotels. What’s a person to do when stuck in the middle of Kenya but pay to continue the journey. Of course, James assured me that he would reimburse my money and of course he never did. I kept in touch with my excellent driver/guide Martin from Voi and except for a small initial deposit James did not pay him his contracted fee for the entire 21 day safari. I felt very bad for Martin and forwarded his tip to him after I returned home because James had bled me dry in Kenya. I’m assuming that the Covid crisis has probably put his company under, again, but I’m sure he will pop up under another name, BEWARE!!!