myTobago – your questions, review and comment about Tobago

Alan and Colin

I feel that this very positive debate has been objective and will help many others understand that they need to have some respect for the service providers in Tobago ...

I, personally, cannot understand how this forum should be used to make complaints about services where the issue has not been taken up with the service provider in the first instance ... I think the forum has rules about this.

Where unsubstantiated complaints are made, it can be disproportionately damaging to a service provider.

In this case I believe it is evident that Kalpak's complaint was unsubstantiated (i.e.; he did not take the issue up with the service provider first) ... if anything, it was a trivial issue because it did not spoil his holiday.

I am sorry if you feel that I or any other contributor has been rude or disrespectful ...

Kind Regards

I'm not sure Paul. I agree that there is a tendency for us Tobago lovers to leap to defend every aspect of the island that we love whenever a bad word is said about it, and often, new members bear the brunt of that, which I do not feel is always the correct response especially when we don't know all of the facts.

I'm also not sure that the reputation of a Tobago Business will be broken by one comment, as readers of this forum will have the sense to read all of the responses to the thread. If you see more good comments than bad, you can work it out for yourself.

It is however true, that some people do have bad experiences in Tobago, and we can all learn from them, so I would not wish to discourage anyone from reporting their experience, good or bad. It is also not in the nature of everyone to complain directly when on holiday - they don't know how the other person might react and really just want to get on with the holiday at the time. However on reflection (on their return), they wish to warn others against having a similar experience. A good example is that of a bumper falling off a hire car (reported on another thread). Who knows why it happened? I'm sure that both the company and hirer were reputable, but (possibly due to a previous hirer's misuse of the car) the hirer came of worse when it finally fell off. What we all learned from this is that it pays to pay for and take a full collision damage waiver, in case the unexpected happens, so many of us benefited from the posting.

Regarding Kalpak, I think that Joe hit the nail on the head about the Jimmy / Jimny confusion (I checked out both vehicles on the web and they are VERY different). Neither party really understood why the other was upset. Kalpak and other readers have also learned now precisely the limit of YES tourism's involvement as an agent. Kalpak also learned to research the type of car he hires more carefully.

The point is, we do all learn from these posts, and ultimately an un-balanced view will be defended by other forum members, so I doubt that readers will end up unfairly avoiding a reputable business. I've organised my hire car via YES Tourism in two weeks time, and have ultimate confidence in them from all the good things that the members have reported here in the forum. If I end up having a bad experience (which I very much doubt), I will probably tell the forum about it, and members can make their own minds up about rights and wrongs. Would you prefer that I didn't?

I think that it pays for us all to listen and not to judge those who have a bad time too severely until we understand the root cause of the problem.

Steve F.

Hi Guys & Gals

May I please add my two pence and then hopefully we can close this thread.

<i>myTobago</i> benefits from over 1500 readers a DAY. Praising or criticising firms on the site has the power to make or break businesses on the island. Therefore I, like other with intimate knowledge of the island and the influence of the site, tend to jump on anyone who criticise without sound reason. All I care about is presenting a balanced, honest picture of Tobago.

I couldn’t care less whether a reader is new to the forum or not. If they join the forum and start lambasting people unfairly they will get it back in spades. As with any forum, I would suggest that readers spend some time reading posts and understanding the nature of the forum before sticking their head above the parapet and making posts. Good heavens, Colin, to describe the posts here as “almost vitriolic” would indicate that you have limited experience of forums. Try one of the biggest travel forums of the lot – Lonely Planet – and you will soon see what I mean.

May I be so bold as to claim that the Suzuki Jimmy and Jimny are one and the same. My understanding is that the same vehicle was marketed under different names in different countries for language reasons. If you know different, Steve, please point me in the right direction. Sorry, but I can’t accept this as an explanation for Kalpak’s confusion. He simply didn't bother to look at the text or pictures right there on YT's site.

OK, so Kalpak didn't do any research and ordered an unsuitable vehicle. It’s no use blaming any of the service providers for not pointing this out to him – how the heck were they to know what he wanted? Anyway, the point is that he arrived and took delivery of the vehicle, as ordered. I assume that as soon as he saw the vehicle, he realised his mistake, discussed it with Thrifty and changed it for a more suitable model. This would all have taken place at the airport, on arrival. Remember, Thrifty's compound is only 100m away, so it was the easiest thing in the world to walk across there and get a different vehicle. No big deal and no reason to involve Yes Tourism or anyone else but I would suggest that Thrifty, being the good firm they are - and particularly knowing that the guy was a YT customer - would simply have wanted to keep him happy depsite his obvious balls-up.

Now, maybe I’m going dotty in my old age but what’s the big deal here? More importantly, where is the just cause to levy criticism against anyone involved? Yes Tourism did their job and placed Kalpak’s order with one of the very best agencies on Tobago, who showed their worth by immediately ensuring that the client went on his way with a suitable vehicle, without apparent argument and despite the mistake being entirely the client’s fault. In a sense, that was the advantage of using YT. If he had ordered the vehicle direct, many agencies would simply have said "sorry, your mistake" and handed him the keys.

Now, for heavens sake may we please close this thread and move on.