We booked a 23 day Africa safari tour with AVG Travels in December 2024, to travel in October 2025. When we booked, we enquired about flight upgrades and an early arrival, and were told these could be accommodated but to talk with them in April when the flight bookings were open.In April 2025, AVG Travel’s price to upgrade flights was more than double the price we could buy the flights outright, so we said we would book our own flights. We just needed AVG to confirm the tour was going ahead before we booked – which they would not. After several weeks of hesitation and offers to move our booking to a later date (that we could not do), they finally cancelled the tour.We then spent the next 2 months chasing for a refund. While we paid all progress payments when they fell due, and AVG Travels had no outgoings, their ‘policy’ is that refunds won’t be processed in less than 30 days – even when they cancel the tour. Unfortunately, they do not even do it in 30 days! We had over 30 phone calls, 20 emails and endless hours of pain, stress and frustration dealing with this company. I’m sure they were just hoping we would give up. (They even asked us if we would take ‘a reduced amount’ to get the refund processed!) We will never even consider any dealings with them again.In our experience:• They cancel tours.• They inflate prices – a cheap deal to get you in, and then gouge you for everything once they think they have you captured.• They don't return calls.• They are just straight out dishonest.• The only person you can deal with is your particular consultant. If that person is sick or away, no-one else can help. We are so glad our trip was cancelled because if we needed help when overseas it would have been an absolute nightmare. • If there are problems or disputes, there is nobody you can elevate the issue to - just keep dealing with the same agent you are having the problem with.• If forced to make a refund, they procrastinate, make excuses, delay, make promises and do everything possible to avoid paying.• When refunds are due, you cannot talk with their accounts department – apparently even their own staff cannot talk with Accounts, but can only message them. • It took us over 30 phone calls, 20 emails, enormous stress, threats and endless patience to even get our deposit back, and more to finally get all our payments. Most others would have just given up...
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