With over 20 emails between Sunbound, Mapaplus, and Mr. Garcia, I could not have included EVERYTHING

Matej /Shutterstock When Juventino Garcia and his wife arrived in Madrid for a recent tour of Spain and Portugal, they didn t understand a word anyone was saying. Garcia and his wife don t speak Spanish or Portuguese, but they d been promised a bilingual guided tour by their tour operator, Sunbound Vacations.
But the local guides who spoke English were directing their presentations primarily in Spanish, understandably for busload of Spanish-speaking people. We were given synopsized versions at times in different locations, away from what was being explained, he says.
It is apparently true that there were more Spanish than English-speaking los angeles dwp customers on that specific tour, but the escort los angeles dwp used by our representative Mapaplus in Madrid was bilingual and they all follow the procedures of speaking both Spanish and English during the trip.
We are very sorry if the escort shortchanged these customers. For that reason we are offering as very reasonable [resolution]. Mr. Garcia even accused us of being guilty los angeles dwp of his urological problem – nothing to do with a case like this.
The profit we make on our packages is between $150 and $200 pet [sic] person. This is the average tour operator margin. los angeles dwp But that doesn't matter. los angeles dwp We do listen to clients los angeles dwp when they have a complaint and when that happens our company offer[sic] generous compensation. In all cases. We don't want unhappy customers.
Being a repeat customer, I felt that Garcia deserved more, especially considering he had documentation from Mapaplus that the guide was in fact not bilingual, so I tried once again to get this offer upped, this time to $1,500.
While Sunbound wouldn't budge on the refund amount, they agreed to add a voucher for $500 for future travel with them, and Garcia accepted that offer. While it was less than what he wanted, it is at least more than what he was initially offered, and since he has traveled with them before, he will probably use the voucher.
William Leeper is a consumer advocate based in Waldron, Ark. He mediated this case on behalf of one of this site's readers. If you'd like to help by becoming a volunteer los angeles dwp mediator, *protected email* .
The change los angeles dwp in start dates is only relevant if Sunbound disclosed that the change would mean that the tour was Spanish speaking only, and that Garcia accepted that change in the contract. Since it appears that it wasn t disclosed, the change is in start dates is irrelevant. Sunbound los angeles dwp accepted the change in start dates so was still under obligation for a bi-lingual tour. They failed to meet contract.
I think we re largely in agreement in here with respect to bilingual los angeles dwp government services in Canada. As my post noted, Canada, the country, and New Brunswick, the province, are both bilingual, and citizens of each expect los angeles dwp the federal and New Brunswick governments to provide all of their services equally in both languages as a consequence of being bilingual. los angeles dwp (The other provinces are not bilingual, and while some do make an effort to provide at least some services in the other language, the degree varies Ontario probably doing so the most but there is little pretense as to those provinces being fully bilingual.) That being said, there are failures. Federal officials in the west may not be fully conversant in French, but nonetheless, that does not diminish the expectation that the provision of bilingual government services means that francophones should be able to converse in French, in the west, with federal officials.
It is true that the foregoing relates to government services, not private enterprise. But the point of comparison is that when Canadian governments are bilingual, there is a standard of what is meant by being bilingual. The tour operator in Spain apparently did not provide bilingual service as that term is understood in the same way that bilingual service is understood to be the rule in Canada (i.e., only federal and New Brunswick government services being bilingual). The Garcias were sold a bilingual tour in the same sense that government services provided by the provincial government in Alberta are bilingual.
If the tour would be meaningless without context, then the Garcias might have had a duty to mitigate their damages by hiring an interpreter to accompany them on the tour. But if an interpreter would cost, say, $500 per day (plus food and lodging), that probably would have been unreasonable. los angeles dwp And in that case, then it may have been impossible for the Garcias to have received any value from the tour.
Not really. One of the biggest selling points of Europe is the history. Many from the US go there to get more of it since so little is taught in the schools. The best way to get that history is through a guide a guide that provides context, data, and even able to point out key features of the site visited. That requires the full ability to communicate. It is one thing to go to the Eiffel tower, and quite another to go with a guide that tells me about the engineering, the politics, the builder, etc. Two very different experiences, and a good guide is absolutely critical for it.
The OP may not have been a monoglot . I can speak passable Spanish, German and French. Put me in Greece and I would be in trouble. I ve also read that the notion that Europeans los angeles dwp are typically bilingual is overstated. No one can speak every language.
I do fault op for not researching the tour better. Tripadvisor? I m sure plenty los angeles dwp of monolingual tours exist. However, the OP relied upon the company s false representation. So the majority of fault rests upon the agency.
This isn t about an american who things everything should be centered around English speaking people it s about someone booking a tour that includes english speaking guide. The controversy is what is that english speaking guide worth in the scope of an entire tour. The garcias think the entire tour was ruined but I disagree.
I didn t go to Barcelona, my family members did. I admit complete ignorance of Spain. los angeles dwp That s why I would need a tour guide. Without the guide, it would be just one of any number of beautiful cathedrals. That shallow understanding would not be worth traveling 8 hours.
I can only speak from my experience. I have been on exactly three tours. Each one was multilingual. The guide switched back and forth between 3 or 4 languages and everyone seemed to have a good time. People just waited patiently while the guide spoke in the other languages.
I agree. I m not sure what mitigating damages means in this case. What are the reasonable options? I d probably los angeles dwp have ditched the tour and found other tour perhaps a day tour? A tour bus? That way I could at least salvage the trip. But that could still be expensive.
The only issue is whether the OP received what he purchased. Everything else is a red herring.. I assume that the company markets and sells tours in the US. Accordingly, the company has an obligation to be mindful of American expectations. As any American company should be mindful of local laws, customers, and expectations when marketing and selling abroad.
Americans would expect that a bilingual tour would have all written and spoken content los angeles dwp translated into English, as well as other languages. If the company is unable to provide that service, then it should not be marketing these tours to Americans as bilingual.
I have been on three European day tours, all bilingual, without los angeles dwp incident. One used a recorder, two had the tour guide switching between languages. When the guide wasn t speaking English, that was the time to focus on what we were seeing, not on what we were hearing. I was satisfied with all three and would book a similar bilingual tour again in a heartbeat.
I m different. I want a bilingual tour. If its all in English, its probably los angeles dwp going to be a bunch of Americans. I don t need to travel to hang around Americans. I can stay home to do that. I want to hang out with non-Americans to learn about others. On my very first European trip, I went to Greece. I was adopted by a bunch of Germans (probably out of pity). It was a great experience.
Agreed. I ve taken multilingual tours. los angeles dwp Whereas groups were combined to interact at points and broke away at others. Peoplle were from argentina, egypt, etc. Good tours account for all tourists. The one I took gave a 3 language explanation on the bus. Just tuned out the two non relevant onesuntil english came about.
I m not 100% sure how the medical situation played out, I do know that he visited an emergency department in Madrid after being on the tour for two days. I didn t feel that the problem warranted looking too deeply into, so I left it alone.
Thanks for the reply, but that s really vague. los angeles dwp Apologizing for the confusion as written sounds like pretty much we re sorry you aren t happy. It s a non-apologetic apology the way you just stated it. It doesn t communicate to me (quote) .that the guide was in fact not biligual. Can we please get the exact wording? If not, that s OK obviously, but outside observers such as you have here can t really make a determination of culpability based on what s been said so far.
Thanks. But that doesn t sound like he had documentation from Mapaplus that the guide was in fact not bilingual. That simply says there was not simultaneous los angeles dwp translation. Sorry, I have a great degree of mistrust between the inaccurate reconstructions and perceptions written in the article and what the actual hard facts were. This is still case closed from my viewpoint (not that it matters).
With over 20 emails between Sunbound, Mapaplus, and Mr. Garcia, los angeles dwp I could not have included los angeles dwp EVERYTHING else this article would have read like a novel. All quotations in this article are verbatim as I received them. With that said, some have been truncated.
It is further important to remember that our articles are all vetted by a team of editors, and writers. Some articles will be published as written, some will undergo substantial changes prior to publication.
You went from we have documentation los angeles dwp that the tour guide wasn t bilin