I contracted with Excellent Tours for a custom African American history tour to occur on Sat, July 26th. The contract was for 2 buses (1 55-passenger bus and 1 34-passenger bus). The tour was part of a number of activities planned for my family's reunion which my sister and I were coordinating. This tour was a disaster as I will outline below. Firstly, the buses were supposed to arrive at 5:45 pm for pre-boarding for a 6:00 pm departure. Both buses were late. One arrived at 6:00 pm or shortly thereafter and the other bus didn't arrive until 6:15 pm. Leroy, the driver of the 55-passenger bus, asked me if this was a 3-hour or 4-hour tour. He seemed to have no clue as to what the plans were. He also indicated that he was asked to stand in at the last minute for a bus driver that wasn't able to make it, which explains why they were late. Clearly, the bus driver and tour guides should have been informed of the details of the tour by Excellent.
Although Hank (tour guide) arrived on the 34-passenger bus which was the first to arrive, he wanted to switch buses after everyone was all loaded and ready to go. Apparently, he had told my sister that Richard (tour guide on 55-passenger bus) and Leroy were not getting along. However, I was unaware of this issue and asked Hank to stay on the 34-passenger bus as my purse was on that bus and I needed to be on the bus with him as he was the only tour guide I had previously talked with and had expressed how I wanted everything to go. Hank never mentioned to me that Richard and Leroy were having difficulty getting along. My sister later mentioned it to me when everything went crazy. Boy do I wish I had known about the conflict between Richard and Leroy. This was such an unprofessional mess!
Upon arriving at the Capital, Richard told people to get off the bus if they liked. Family got off the bus and were scattering in different directions. I presumed that Richard had given them some instructions but apparently he hadn't. Richard should have told family to stay with him, how long they would be there, where to meet the bus, etc., but he didn't communicate much with them. He didn't communicate with Leroy either because Leroy was angrily telling my family that stayed on the bus that he didn't want to get a $1000 fine for sitting too long in the wrong place. My family didn't know anything about the fines or where a bus could park. This shouldn't have even been a concern for them. Leroy threatened to leave folks to avoid getting the ticket and Richard didn't provide any direction. Needless to say, many of my family members were very upset. Several of my family members were afraid that those off the bus would be left, so they were calling those off the bus on cell phones saying "we have to get back on the bus or be left". Two other family members got off the bus screaming about the situation. Finally, Hank went over to Leroy and told him where to meet the family.
When we got off the bus at the White House, family was still steaming and indicated that Richard was talking down to them saying that they needed to hurry up and get off the bus and that they didn't have time to get strollers for the babies etc. Many family members stated that Richard was knowledgeable but rude, abrasive and had difficulty connecting with people. Later in the tour, when arriving at the Lincoln Memorial, Richard told everyone to get off the bus. However, after he got off the bus, Leroy told everyone to sit down and that he was moving the bus. There were old people on the bus who almost fell because of this sudden change in plans. All family members stated that the conflict between Richard and Leroy seemed to be the source of the problem and my family was caught in the middle of their unprofessional feuding. Hank tried to intercede to make everyone play on the same sheet of music but it was hopeless. My family was upset and I was upset and embarrassed.
I had also made a request in writing that our 1st stop be the MLK memorial as my family wanted to take pictures there. Irrespective to my request, we didn't go there first, so our pictures have a dusky look. we also didn't get to take pictures of the different sub-families as we have always done in the past. We only have reunions every two years, so this was a major loss. Nothing went as planned and I am so sorry that I used Excellent Tours. Upon telling Mamo the manager of Excellent Tours of the issues he was sympathetic but ultimately didn't take responsibility. He thought it was everyone else's fault: he thought it was Hank's fault because he recommended Richard, it was Richard's fault for not taking leadership, it was Hank's fault for not explaining the plans to Richard, etc. Mamo's failure to take responsibility for his team is based on his unwillingness to provide any financial compensation for the losses that our family suffered. My family is mostly from out of state and will probably never come back to DC to do a tour. The opportunity has been lost. read more