Kingfisher cancellations

Maybe it’s about time that someone from Kingfishers rail tour Co put a post on there and told everyone what is happening to the company.

 

the edinburgh christmas trip had also gone missing from kingfishers website last time i checked meaning they are only advertising 2 tours now.

 

Although I received an email acknowledgement of my request for a refund for the 70013 cancelled tour, nothing has been received.This was 2 weeks ago, has anyone else succeeded in getting a refund recently?
What's my next step, informing my credit card company?
Of course phone lines still continually engaged, what a way to run a company!

 

The two tours on their website are both very attractive as far as I'm concerned; 33s to the Cambrian Coast and steam right across Northern England from Carnforth to Scarborough. But I don't feel like paying in advance and then having a difficult time getting my money back if they don't run. I'll probably turn up on the day for the 33s at any rate and hope for the best, with a 'plan B' for looking at other railway places of interest in the area if need be.

On the other hand, tour operators need advance bookings, and can't rely on people turning up at the last minute to buy seats. It is a great pity to see an innovative operator, which has run some great trips (and raised money for Air Ambulance which is worthy of praise), failing to understand the need to look after customer confidence.

John

 

I agree that the tours that did run were a great success. It's such a shame that people seem to forget about this and focus on the negatives. I was involved with 8 of their tours this year (onboard 7 of them) and all went well, even when the 8F had a, erm, heated argument with Eskmeals Viaduct.

Perhaps if they didn't put too much on their plate in the first place and try and concentrate more on the core services which they have offered (Dalesman & Fellsman).

 

So the answer is......, I would guess that the reason Kingfisher cancelled tours which have led to the refund issues is the fact that people haven't made a booking prior to the day. A company running a train needs to know the carriages are full before the day not 10minutes after it has arrived in the platform.

I went on one Dalesman this year - The Air Ambulance special, it was well run and £1500 given to charity, with this in mind, I have spent almost £300 on eight tickets for the North Yorkshire Explorer. What I have done is book them on my credit card so if it is cancelled and Kingfisher do not refund I will get the money back from my credit card company.

Please everyone show some confidence in a company which runs excellent trips and buy your tickets so they know you want to travel, these are not service trains which have to run but special trains which need to show they will at least break even prior to the date.

 

Kingfisher may run some excellent trips, but for the many that are cancelled they are extremely good in hanging onto your money and not paying refunds.
Only if they improve customer service, reply to calls and emails and actually pay refunds should people still use them!

 

Kingfisher in the past have run excellent trips, well loaded, the only thing that is letting Kingfisher down is their finance administration, If something happens beyond Kingfishers control, they should do the decent thing and refund monies without people having to chase them for months. Only then will Kingfisher regain some of their reputation for excellent trips and only then will customers have enough confidence in the company to pre book.

 

the diesel trip to where ever it was going has now been taken off there website, i would really like to book on the north yorkshire explorer but i think i would be chucking my money away.

 

in the latest STEAM RAILWAY mag it says kingfisher is up for sale Roger Hardingham says he wants to go back into publishing.

 

Not looking promising is it? I hope all who are waiting for refunds are able to get their money back.

 

probably get a free book 'how not to run a business'

 

[-( Looks like my £360 has gone down the drain then.

 

Small Claims Court???

 

You could be right with that Victor! [-(

 

Maybe one of the other tour companies will take over their planned trips. or perhaps a consortium of those members on this forum who seem to know how to run a tour company from their armchairs, could put up their savings and show the rest of us how it should be done....

 

There have been a lot of comments on this forum,not all of them have been constructive perhaps,but one can't get away from the fact that the lack of communication coming from Kingfisher has frustrated a great many people,there might be a reason for this but if those who have been regular travellers with Kingfisher, and parted with their hard earned money in good faith,are then not informed if and when they are likely to receive either their money back,or credits for another trip then feelings are bound to run high and give rise to still further rumours which in the end don't do anyone any good.I've always found Roger Hardingham to be a friendly chap and very knowledgeable in railway matters,in fact a steam fan going back to the 1960's,so this lack of information seems all the harder to understand.Let's hope there is still light at the end of the Tunnel so to speak,it would be a shame if they were to go down.

 

I think he had a dream, to run tours as a business but did not have the business acumen to see it through. sad really.

 

From the Great Central Railway Yahoo group:

The one remaining tour that Kingfisher are advertising is on 15th November with Leander.

 

I've just issued a claim against Kingfisher Railtours, which - unfortunately for them - has added a further £25 to the amount I'm owed. Court costs apparently. It's a shame, but I've wasted too much of my time in trying to deal with Kingfisher courteously only to be ignored. I've written to Kingfisher and given warnings of action I will take but to no avail. I can understand the situation the company is in, but at the same time they're not doing themselves any favours by the approach they're taking to get themselves out of it.