A home for my words.

Here’s the situation: I wanted to purchase 4 tours during my time in Mendoza, Argentina. I saw a website promotion running, but then realized the website wouldn’t allow me to book all of the tours at once. I would have to book each one separately, which then made some of the tours ineligible for the discount. I decided to reach out to customer support. If they told me that’s just the way it was, I’d say fair and book anyhow. Instead, I spent an hour working through it with a sweet Viator representative that graciously generated a link and a one-time code that would allow me to make my roughly $400 purchase all at once.

(sidenote: I always find any barriers to customers spending more money to be quite silly; you should be able to add multiple items to your cart and pay with one click)

I should’ve kept the rep on the chat line with me while I purchased. That’s on me! As soon as I went to put in my credit card number, the discount code was wiped away. It had never been given to me, just embedded in the link that they sent. Anyway, the next time I spoke with a rep, they refused to honor their offer and regenerate a link and code. I believe they even said the best they could do was give me a 5% discount… So, I haven’t used Viator since.

My philosophy has always been that if I have enough of an off-putting experience with a company, I’ll just spend my money elsewhere. There is usually always another cafe, gym, tour aggregator, rideshare app, etc.

I once had a jarring experience with a Lyft driver who hinted that he knew I was a “lizard person,” did 100 mph on the freeway, and made sure I understood that he lived nearby me and therefore would remember exactly where I lived. A Lyft representative said the only thing they could do for me was give me a 5% discount on the ride — sound familiar? I deleted the app right then, and it’s been 5 years since I last used it. I moved on to Uber and Waymo instead. Simple.

So, while I sung Viator’s praises in the past, those days are over. I’ve purchased 99% of all of my tour-related purchases on Viator for the past decade and have likely spent thousands of dollars with them across trips to Hawaii, Ghana, Europe, and beyond. The security I felt in booking with them was why I kept coming back even though it was more expensive than booking directly with the tour operators; Viator seemed like a company that stuck to their word.

In the end, what I’ve spent on them is a drop in the bucket compared to their overall sales. They’re not going to miss me, and I won’t miss them. Perhaps I’ll look back and think I was being a bit over the top? Or, I’ll just happily accept that when it comes to spending my money at corporations, I’m petty (: