Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/02/2025

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I intended to purchase a sunset cruise around ******* coast- advertised on this company's website. The pictures and cruise description were VERY misleading. We ended up paying $248.64 for two people for a 2 hour sunset cruise on a pretty big- packed boat. This was very expensive for what we were getting, but we still thought it would be worth it to see this beautiful coastline at sunset. After talking to hotel workers and explaining the cruise we booked, they informed us that this boat would only be cruising around the southeast side of the island, and NOT near ******* coast whatsoever. When I called to ask Blue Dolphin this, they confirmed. They were not sympathetic at all, did not try and rebook us, and didn't seem to care that their online descriptions were misleading. They decided not to refund us our money. I am extremely upset by this and I am demanding a full refund of $248.64. This is robbery and terrible customer-forward business. I figured I would try to get my well-deserved money back now before I leave my public review of this company online for future travelers.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 04/07/2025

  The customer previously filed a credit card dispute with her bank.  We responded in a timely manner as requested and ultimately, the merchant chargeback department agreed with us, and she lost the credit card dispute.  Below is a copy of our response and attached are all documentation that was sent in response to the credit card dispute:

  
  "This activity was booked via our website *************************************** by the cardholder on 12/17/24 at 9:32pm.  At this time, our system auto-generated an email confirmation that was sent to the address provided, which shows the tour name Poipu Sunset Cruise & Seasonal Whale Watch (see attached copy of the email confirmations sent upon completion of booking via our website).  On 12/31/24 our office staff spoke to the cardholder via phone to reconfirm the tour.  Per discussion with reservation staff, the booked tour was verbally reconfirmed with the cardholder as Poipu Sunset Cruise & Seasonal Whale Watch (see attached reservation notes showing timestamped notes).  Our refund policy clearly states that we have a 24-hour cancellation period.  Because she called the day of the tour (which started at 3:30pm on 1/2/2025) it was within the 24-hour policy, thus no refund is due.  Reservation notes also document phone conversation with cardholder and office staff acknowledging the cardholders mistake in booking the wrong tour.  She was informed by our staff that if they could sell her seats, they would issue her a refund.  Unfortunately, the seats could not be sold at such short notice and no refund was processed."

  
  Our staff is very thorough when reconfirming tour dates, tour type, passenger information or requests, etc.  Reconfirmations are made at least 2 days prior to the tour start. The customer booked this tour online almost 2 weeks in advance and had she reached out prior to the 24-hour cancellation window, we would have been able to move her reservation or rescheduled for the correct tour. However, she called our office the morning of the tour, and per our company policies, which are clearly stated on all forms of communication as well as our website, there is no refund due.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 04/15/2025

  That's wonderful that they provided my email confirmation and all. However, I called them and the employee I spoke to on the phone that day told me they would be able to refund the amount paid due to the confusion on where the sunset cruise actually went. Of course there is no record of this. I thought a verbal cancellation would be enough, but apparently not. I want to update the status to still open until this gets resolved. Everyone makes mistakes and their website description was very misleading to **. I had never been there before and did not know that leaving from Port "A" meant I would not be sailing to Destination "B". This is why I called to confirm after talking to my resort about it and learning that I was not sailing to where I thought I was sailing. I was not a "NO SHOW" as they listed on that day. This cruise line was already ridiculously over-priced for a huge group 2 hour sailing trip.