CheapCaribbean.com

I called back and was put on hold for 2 hrs!!!! For them to come back and say it was THEY ERROR-and they will fix it, but have to wait on the hotel to respond. The next day I called back. I was on the phone from 9am to MF 4:17pm with the back and forth, putting me on hold saying the exact SAME THING. “We waiting on a response.” So I requested a refund since they was not gone resolved it. Again another hold time waiting on the manager to reply back! So right now-we HAVE NO REFUND AND A RESERVATION SOMEWHERE WE NEVER HEARD OF!!!! $1500 just gone and we supposed to leave in 6 days!!!! I don’t want any credit. I WANT MY MONEY BACK SO WE CAN BOOK ELSEWHERE!!!! NO MANAGERS TO TALK TO! And idiots that can’t resolve ANYTHING! Thieves and SCAMMERS!!!! NEVER AGAIN.

I was not on the internet for more than 5 min so I knew this price was current. If I was on the screen too long it would have given me an error saying I was idling too long. "Please start your search over." The only explanation customer service agent could give me was prices change randomly throughout the day. I do understand this as I have previously booked with Cheap Caribbean. I just didn't understand why their website was showing one price but when I called the customer service phone number they would not match what I was seeing on their website. I also asked if there was a supervisor or problem resolution number and I was told there are no supervisors at Cheap Caribbean? Was not given the option to speak with anyone to resolve the issue I was having.

The next day I called back and I spoke with someone and I emailed my screenshots of the screens showing the price I was seeing the night before. They responded by saying that they had no way to prove that my screenshots for the new resort and it did not show flight information (even though I was not asking for a change in flight) only wanted to change resort. They also stated that my screenshot was not time stamped which I did ask them why can't they look back on the comments from my all of my previous calls? I talked to several different agents. None of which were able to help me. It should show that I called to change my resort and the agent was not seeing the same price I was.

I guess when you are dealing with companies like this you are just supposed to know all of these little details of documentation. Instead of standing behind their name and making good on this, they take no accountability. They push you back and forth from one person to another. Nobody knows what is going on, why their website showing a different price than their agent see, and they are not interested in keeping your business or their customer service. They truly do make you feel like you are just a number. I would advise booking with another travel agency that is more reputable.

Hounded ENDLESSLY by Amstar which was not disclosed by CheapCaribbean - at the shuttle at the airport upon arrival for 45 minutes while the shuttle driver stood there, upon check-in at the hotel again another 45 minutes, then called our room every 2 hours EVERY DAY - every morning and afternoon to try and get us to schedule an appointment with them!!! Paid for private shuttle to and from the airport - crammed into a 15-passenger van...took pictures of everything and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau including pictures. This was a horrible trip and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone - their customer service is deplorable and you don't get what you pay for. If I could rate zero stars - I would.

My girlfriend and I booked a weeklong stay in Puerto Vallarta Mexico through CheapCaribbean.com. We booked a European-style package meaning no food or drinks included since we don’t drink a lot. The airfare and hotel were fine. We also booked transportation to and from the airport as well as a Marietas islands snorkeling trip through CheapCaribbean.com. CheapCaribbean is owned and run by Apple vacations LLC, and a company called Amstar coordinates the activities and transportation in Mexico. Amstar also books tours and activities through a company called Vallarta Adventures.

We had 2 issues with our trip: We were not satisfied with the snorkeling trip as I will explain below and Amstar did not pick us up from our hotel to go to the airport. We were told there would be an Amstar representative at our resort. There was no representative. We were told by staff they usually come for a short time in the morning but when we woke up early to catch them, they were not there. Amstar and Apple have absolutely no support and when you call the 800 number for help, you can only speak to offshore call centers that can’t really do anything but listen to you complain and say they are sorry, an unpleasant interaction for both parties.

We filed complaints with post-travel at Apple which is a call center in India by the sound of the agent's accent. Very nice staff who are there to take your complaint and forward it to apple, which then decides to either escalate the case to someone who can actually help or reject it. Then it's up to these poor Indian guys to take all the heat and apologize for Apple's poor business practices. They told us that Amstar was unresponsive and there was nothing they could do.

Apple should have just refunded us and taken some responsibility for doing business with a poorly run company like Amstar. The snorkeling trip was straight-up false advertising, and the transportation was paid for and not even provided! Apple has completely closed all lines of communication, both email and phone, and just pay these call centers to take the heat so that they don’t have to have any contact with furious customers. If I was in the Philly area, I'd try going to their HQ in newton square PA but I'm sure that would be a waste of time also. After some searching, I found that they also have a declaimer on the site that they don’t take responsibility for false advertising, definitely the first red flag that you should not book anything through Apple or subsidiaries.

Here is the description of the snorkeling trip on cheapcarribean.com: “Visit the volcanic Marieta islands made famous by Jacques Cousteau. Snorkel, kayak and explore the wonders of this unique ecosystem and rock formations that make this an experience to be remembered for a lifetime” What the trip is actually like: Wake up at 5:30 am to get to the port. First bad sign, the entire time the boat is underway, they are blasting party rock from the early 00s. Think “party rockers in the house tonight…”. For hours… they suggest to ride up top if the volume level bothers you.

we arrive at the islands and are required to wear lifejackets so no free diving, whatever national park rules. Then we are forced to swim in a group of 40 or so, for about 10 minutes and get back on the boat. That’s it. 10 min of swimming around in deep jellyfish-infested waters where you can’t even dive to see things up close. Then the boat circles the island and we leave.

Kayaks are a lie, secret beach is a lie, even the snorkeling is pretty much a lie. We then cruise on the party boat for an hour or so to a private beach. The whole time blasting party rock with an open bar of cheap liquor and beer. neither I nor my girlfriend drink so that was completely wasted on us. Music blaring the entire time of course.

Then we arrive at the private beach where we have to spend another hour or 2 with nothing to do but drink or ride on speedboat towed, banana rafts (And of course the party rock, they have speakers up and down the beach). I would have loved to go snorkeling at this beach which would have made the whole thing a little enjoyable, but can’t do that because of speed boat traffic from the stupid banana boats. At this point we would have gladly paid to take a taxi back but there are no roads to or from this beach. As if it couldn’t get any worse, Vallarta Adventures makes the poor crew perform karaoke and air guitar reenactments of popular funk and R&B hits with James Brown wig, fake guitars and everything. At least the lead crew member has a great voice, just a shame he has to do these ridiculous skits. This not only wasted an entire day of our vacation but also a night since we had to get to bed early.

Apple should take responsibility for their products and they should hold their partners to a higher standard but I guess that’s what you get when you book with budget sites. Both these companies exist to take tourists' money and provide the bare minimum of service and I’m sure their workers don’t see any benefits of this profiteering. Then each company can say it’s the others responsibility and once they take your money, it’s not coming back whether you receive the product you paid for or not.

My advice to anyone considering a budget vacation would be to go to a site like cheapCaribbean.com and find the flight and hotel, then book directly through the resort and airlines. If anything goes wrong, Apple vacations had insured that they don’t have to take any responsibility for the quality of the products or lack thereof since they only exist as a middleman. This was a good lesson in why you don’t use Apple LLC or any subsidiaries. We are only out a few hundred from it but it's hard to put a price on wasting an entire day of a short vacation.