Wine Paths Avis 3

I had a disappointing experience with this company, particularly with Véronique Amsellem. I found her to be unprofessional, and at times, rude and impatient. We had agreed via email to a two-day wine tour in Saint Emilion for €1,500 per person. However, an additional hidden cost of €80 was added to the invoice without prior consultation, which was quite concerning.

After extensive back-and-forth communication, we ultimately decided to book the tour independently, which resulted in a more favorable and cost-effective outcome. Overall, I was profoundly disappointed with the level of service provided and would not recommend this company.

USE CAUTION WITH WINE PATHS TOUR COMPANY

Here is what happened when we used Wine Paths for a private tour of
Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux, France

Wine Paths email to one of the passengers in our group dated July 3, 2024 :

So here is what we can do :
Aug 30th :
12.00: Pick-up Le Verdon Port
02pm : Lunch & private visit Chateau de Candale

Our group of 6 tourists got off the cruise ship as soon as permitted, and we arrived at the Wine Paths vehicle on the cruise dock at precisely 12 noon as required.
Upon arrival at the winery at 2:05-2:10 pm, where we were supposed to be served what we expected to be a full course meal, the winery informed our group that the kitchen closes every day at 2:00 pm sharp, so the meal could no longer be provided, and that the agency knew about the kitchen hours. They apologized and served us only Charcuterie instead.

We immediately informed the logistics person from Wine Paths over WhatsApp as follows:

"Hello Veronique, we paid 70 euros for a proper full course hot lunch, but now they are telling us kitchen is closed. We are served charcuterie only. Will you be giving us a credit? We are all disappointed."

We got off the ship by 12 noon and arrived at the St Emilion winery a few minutes after 2:00 pm. We certainly relied on your agency, with your experience in arranging such tours, to choose a winery that could accommodate passengers arriving from a cruise ship a little bit later than 2:00 pm.

At the winery they informed us that the kitchen’s policy is to close at 2:00 pm every day, so the question we ask is why was this particular winery chosen when it was known ahead of time that passengers picked up from the ship at 12:00 noon would find it impossible to arrive on time for lunch?

It is now 5 weeks later, and there has not been any compensation for the cancelled meal. We do not recommend this agency, because when something went wrong as a result of poor planning at their end, they refused to accept responsibility and to offer any refund whatsoever.

Wine Paths informed us that they were trying to get the winery to offer compensation, but we as tourists never dealt directly with the winery, rather we dealt directly with Wine Paths and paid them in advance, and we believe that Wine Paths should have offered us compensation, and dealt with the winery separately. Here we are five weeks later, and not any offer of compensation whatever. We all felt that we had been “ripped off”.

Initial email communication was very good but subsequent communication was non existent. I followed up by email every week for several weeks to check on the progress of my request to book two wineries in Bordeaux.
No response
I emailed the CEO outlining my concerns-no response. Very poor customer service