13 Feb 2023
Firstly, the balloon ride is amazing - it's as cool as the pictures look, and was a magical sunrise experience. Kudos to the operators of the balloon ride portion, five stars to that. [recommendation: bring a warm shirt, because even in July 2022, it was very cold at sunrise].
However, we bought the 'Hot air balloon + guided city tour of Segovia". The city tour didn't exist. After the wonderful balloon ride, the tour operators told us they had no knowledge of a city tour, but offered to drop us at the edge of town if we wanted, and that we'd have to find our own way back to Madrid. We did this (and I would recommend anyone else also tours Segovia because it's a super neat town!), and had to take the train back to Madrid (at additional expense). We had a fantastic day, with the hot air balloon ride being a highlight of the whole trip, and Segovia being a super cool city to tour around. After our trip, I asked for a partial refund from Viator/TripAdvisor (equivalent to the additional cost of buying the 'balloon with city tour' vs just the 'balloon ride only'). Tripadvisor (Viator) did not acknowledge there was any problem, showing a picture from the tour operator that we were on the balloon ride (which was true!). The website didn't seem to understand that it was only the second part about "guided city tour" that was missing. I called TripAdvisor, and put in a formal request, but nothing. I ended up going through Visa to flag the partial charge, and after eight months, that case was closed unsuccessfully.
In summary, we highly recommend to DO THE HOT AIR BALLOON - it's a great memory. But DO NOT book the extra city tour - it doesn't exist (as other comments have indicated too).
@TripAdvisor @Viator, if you're reading this and want to make things right, you have my contact info in the chargeback case.