Thread: bad experience with Galasam International

Dear all, we want to share our bad experience with Galasam International (Ecuador). In August 2008 we booked a live-aboard dive trip with them on the Estrella Del Mar I (It is still advertised on their website: galasam.com). We were told by the Galasam International Sales Manager, Tania Haws, that the boat Estrella Del Mar I has a proper dive permission for the Galapagos Islands.
After we paid the deposit by the bank transfer we received an email from another employee, Solvei Rasmussen, saying that “Diving in Galapagos has been restricted for the National Park Galapagos
and from now all the yacht can only operate naturalist cruises, (just
land visits on the islands) and for them that like dive are specific
daily diving excursions from Santa Cruz”.
As the daily diving is quite different from live-aboard diving,
we decided to cancel the whole trip and asked them to refund the deposit and sent them our bank details. We have contacted them many times about the refund but were always told it has been already sent, but they were unable to provide any paper proof for it. Now it is the end of February 2009 (more than 6 months since we booked the trip) and we still haven’t received the refund. Right now they don’t answer our emails at all and hang up our phone calls.
As we are running out of options to get our money back, the only choice seems to post this story as a warning to others and try to force the management of Galasam to resolve the issue.

Hey,

I'm an American living in Ecuador and I'm sorry you had a bad experience here. That's the problem is that there are lots of foreigners who get scammed and never come back. Bad for tourists and bad for Ecuador.

Travel statistics state that if a person travels and has a great experience, then they are likely to tell 3 to 4 people. However, if they have bad experiences they are more likely to tell 30 to 40 people. Case and point, this post alone has had a lot of hits.

I wish you happy and safe travels elsewhere. Take care.

Dear travelers,

As many of you who have traveled with us, you know that based your letters of taking us
for a lifetime experience to the Galapagos Islands. Thar our company is a reliable travel agency, operating cruises for more than 25 years.

We don't understand what is the issue with this person. Who has been reimbursed the money.

The tardiness for him receiving the money was because he provided the wrong information, his sent us information with a WRONG account number, the money was deposited to that account; later on Igor and the company found out that the information he provided was WRONG. As soon as we find out were the problem was. We refunded his money immediately, we have proof of that.

Igor, has never traveled with Galasam, as he promised on an email that he sent to us, that he will removed this wrongful post from this site.

He received his money after HE KNOWS that he provided a wrong information. He has the audacity to post this information on the net??

For more information you can contact us at Galasam.com

Sincerely,

SOlvei

Such kind of bad experience certainly kills the tourism. You should report the matter to consumer welfare court. Otherwise, telling about this act of Galasam International is also a punishing act as it will alert people being next hunt of this company.

I also had a bad experience with this operator. They misled us regarding a boat. The boat we ended up with had a series of mechanical problems. The crew was rude . We also found them to be unsafe. We were sick a number of times after meals. The lady in Quito who we dealt with was also very rude and unwilling to rectify the problem. A few other people expressed the same sentiment. DO NOT use this operator.