16 Feb 2020
I have been trying to book this tour since mid-January 2020. I saw the ad on TripAdvisor website and it said the date of 4/14/20 was available on their calendar. Since we will be in Milan for only 2 days and 4/14/20 was the only date our son can join us from his business trip. When I clicked on the date that we wanted, and went through the registration process by putting in our names and credit card numbers, etc. only to find out that tour date was not available.
I then called TripAdvisor and Viator respectively, they both said the tour date was available but filling up fast so I asked the agent to book it for us. Again, we went through the registration process and gave her my credit card info, only was told by the agent that her computer at her end would not let her book it. She then put me on hold and called the local supplier. They told her that there were seats available but somehow the agent at this end could not book it. After hanging on the phone for over 15 minutes, we were told we will have to try it at another time. She told me to try again a week later to see if the local operator will be able to solve their website glitches. I've tried it 3 times after waiting for a week each time to no avail. I have given up. Now I saw the tour price has gone up from the time that we tried to book in mid-January. TripAdvisor even sent me a "let's do it" email to remind me to try it again. It's the same thing: the calendar shows the date available but after clicking on the date and put in all my contact info and credit card info, it comes up that the date is no longer available.
TripAdvisor and the local operator need to get their acts together.