14 Dec 2024
Horrible experience with Viator, the tour organizer Bamba and the local operator Andes2Amazon. I booked the tour one day before going to Potosí from Uyuni. There were two tours available, 8:30am and 1:30pm on December 13. Since I got a bus in the morning that day from Uyuni to Potosí I booked the 1:30pm tour, which was available and after I booked it CONFIRMED. Then, in the evening before the day of my tour, I was more than short-noticed notified that there was only the 8:30am tour. Obviously I missed that one. I tried the whole day rescheduling the tour to the following day at 8:30am, which was my last option since I had a limited time in Potosí. Bamba didn’t reply at all, neither via WhatsApp nor email. Viator supposedly reached out to them but couldn’t help me either. THEN I reached out to the 3rd (!) party for this tour which was the local operator Andes2Amazon. I asked whether I could join the following-day tour at 8:30am. They told me that it wasn’t possible and that my reservation the prior day was declared as a NO-SHOW, after such a short-noticed and unannounced change to my reservation! Then I asked if I could just pay them cash for the tour at the meeting point and would request a refund through Viator/Bamba. Also that was denied!!! As if they want to get rid of their customers. I was more than excited to go to Potosí, see the mines, and working practices. However, this whole thing destroyed the whole trip.