22 Jun 2024
I reached out to Paddywagon twice via email and once by phone following our trip (as instructed by Paddywagon during the below explained conversations) and have not received any response from them. I am extremely upset and do NOT recommend this group to anyone.
My husband and I booked the 2-Day West Tour from Paddywagon.
After our first day of the itinerary, we were dropped off at a Bed & Breakfast in Galway as per the itinerary listed on the website. Our driver told us that someone from Paddywagon would pick us up at 10:30 the next morning and even confirmed it with the gentleman host checking us in at the B&B. This was already a disappointment as the website when booking says we are to be picked up at 10am, so not as advertised.
The next morning, the group of us that stayed overnight were outside in the car park waiting to be picked up at 10:30am as directed. No one in our group had heard anything from Paddywagon, and no one from the company showed up.
At 11am I called the Paddywagon office number and spoke to a woman who had no idea there was a group left in Galway waiting to be picked up. The girl said she would confirm where the driver was and call me back to figure out when we would be picked up. She returned my call at 11:09, and I was told the driver ran into an issue on the route and that he would be picking us up shortly.
I asked to be more specific as we were already now 30 min behind schedule and she said she couldn't give me anymore information. She said she would call me back if the driver was going to be much later. I again asked her what that meant and she said she needed to get in contact with the driver again to determine a time. I asked her to not hang up with me and she said she needed to in order to speak to the team who was working with the driver.
A few minutes later the woman working at the B&B came out and told us that she had just been in contact with Paddywagon and the bus that was supposed to come get us had broken down and that Paddywagon had told her we would be taking a taxi from Galway to the Cliffs of Moher to meet up with a different tour bus. Notice how those already were two conflicting stories from Paddywagon.
I called the office back and asked if that was the correct information and if we were supposed to pay for the taxi out of pocket and was assured it was taken care of. There were 9 of us with a lot of luggage and only 3 taxis showed up. The taxis had not been paid or told any information other than they needed to pick us up from the B&B
and drive us to the Cliffs. Given the lack of information provided to the taxi drivers, one left as he hadn't been paid yet. That left 2 taxi drivers for 9 people with multiple bags of luggage.
After more than 90 minutes from the original departure time we were finally on our way, only after one of the taxi drivers called the Paddywagon office and spoke with them to try and clear up the confusion. He was given more information than any of us that were actually on the tour which was quite a disappointment. He told us that we were to be driven down to the cliffs and dropped off with another Paddywagon tour, but he didn't know where the bus was, who the new driver was, or how to identify them.
As a result of this taxi ride and severe misstep from Paddywagon we missed an entire scheduled stop on our itinerary.
Once we got to the Cliffs we tried to find the Paddywagon bus, however there were 3 different buses in the car park so we had to walk around with all our luggage until we found the correct one.
Once there the driver told us that he only had room for 8 of us as the bus was already almost full. Mathematically that does not make sense as all 9 of us were supposed to have all been picked up from the B&B together that morning. Our driver also apologized to us and let us know he was unaware that he needed to pick us up until 11:10, which leads me to only believe that it was my phone call that alerted the Paddywagon office to us being left in Galway and the office had not planned to pick the 9 of us up at all. Essentially, Paddywagon left us stranded in Galway.
After finding the correct bus and getting our luggage situated, we were then told we had less than an hour to spend at the cliffs which was an absolute disgrace since this was our first time to the cliffs.
We spent the better part of our second day of this tour stressed out and uninformed which led us to be rushed and anxious for an activity where we paid a lot of money to purposefully have an itinerary and accommodations taken care of for us.
The only saving grace of this tour was that the drivers were fantastic and so kind.
This was an absolute abysmal display of customer service and communication by Paddywagon. I do not recommend them for any tour service.