Beware online booking: Tigerline - Langkawi toThailand.

rtw
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3 posts
3 reviews
2 helpful votes
Beware online booking: Tigerline - Langkawi toThailand.
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We had a very bad experience with Tigerline when booking online despite being very careful and triple checking. Read on....

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Dear Sir/Madam,

Formal Complaint - Tigerline e-booking Ref.No.*************

Please see my booking reference and travel instructions below.

I am writing to complain about being given completely incorrect information about my ferry booking which meant that my partner and I were sent to the wrong harbour on Langkawi this morning, meaning that we missed our ferry to Ko Lanta.

We had booked accomodation in Ko Lanta for this evening.

We have also had to book into a hotel for the night in Kuah (Citin Hotel) before we can leave Langkawi tomorrow with a different ferry provider.

Despite confirming with yourselves by phone (twice before the day of travel and once on the day of travel), email as below, and then with 'Adam' - your representative in Langkawi, when we arrived at Telaga Harbour as instructed (see below) this morning we were told quite strongly that they could not help us travel and that Tigerline bookings were not welcome there.

This was after we had checked 5 times with yourselves and Adam to make sure that Telaga Harbour was the correct departure point.

Having already paid 24RM for a taxi to Telaga Harbour, Adam then told us to come to Kuah Jetty.

This cost us another 40RM in a second taxi.

On arrival at Kuah Jetty and meeting Adam, we were very concerned that he said he could not speak to the Tigerline office, even though I had done so myself that morning to confirm the departure point!

It soon became clear that Adam was not a trustworthy person to deal with.

He could not give us any clear information about how we would get to Ko Lanta, and tried to give us 2 ferry tickets to Satun which were not valid as they had not been stamped with a departure time, even though he claimed they were for a 12.30 sailing.

He also tried to convince us to take a considerably cheaper route than the one we had paid for - he wanted us to take a bus from Satun to Trang and then claimed that someone would meet us to help us get a ferry to Ko Lanta.

He made these claims without being able to give us any proof of travel, and also said that he, .."didn't work for Tigerline and was only an agent."

When we asked him if he could give us our money back for our booking, he said he could not do that.

He said that we would need to go to a Tigerline office to get our money back.

We then phoned Tigerline ourselves and they said to us that Adam should give us our money back.

The Tigerline staff then spoke to Adam while we were on the line, and we watched him speak into his mobile and heard the female member of staff tell Adam that he needed to return our money to us.

When we told Adam that Tigerline had just said that he needed to return our money, he denied having the conversation which we had just heard while on the line and seen him have on his mobile phone!!

Eventually he agreed to give us our money back, but said that he, "needed 10 minutes" and then went outside the coffee shop (where he was always sat with various unknown teenagers) and started making mobile phone calls.

In the end, we went outside Starbucks to where he was sat and asked him where our money was.

He then said that he was getting it changed into Thai Baht for us!

We replied that we just wanted our money back and didn't care about having Thai Baht, so he gave us 568RM back after having to ask some of the teenagers sitting there to contribute to this money!

His final attempt to get some money off us was when he asked for 60RM for the invalid ferry tickets with no time stamped on them, so we gave him the tickets back.

At this point, a security guard from the Kuah Jetty was talking to Adam about something and he soon left after that!

We do not feel that Adam is a trustworthy person at all, and believe that he was trying to give us invalid ferry tickets to Satun so that he could avoid giving us a refund. He wanted us to wait until 12.30 for a ferry that we would not have been able to take.

We cannot believe how badly we have been treated by Tigerline ferries.

Not only were we given false information which meant that we missed our ferry, but we had to pay for 3 taxis, 2 hotels for tonight (as we had already booked a hotel on Ko Lanta) and had to book an alternative ferry for tomorrow.

We also had to deal with Adam, who was a very suspicious and unfriendly character.

We do not feel that you should trust Adam to be your representative on Langkawi.

We wanted to deal with Tigerline about these problems when they were happening, but the female at the call centre insisted we had to deal with Adam, who we felt was lying to us and was not helping us at all.

We very much feel that Tigerline simply didn't care about our situation.

We would like our expenses to be reimbursed as follows:

Taxi to Telaga Harbour: RM24

Taxi to kuah Jetty: RM40

Taxi to Citin Hotel: RM8

Citin Hotel, 25th November: RM122

These additional expenses are a result of your incorrect instructions (as detailed below) total payable to us: RM194, or 1843 Thai Baht.

We would also like to know why we were told 5 times by 2 different Tigerline employees to depart from Telega Harbour?

Even when we phoned the Tigerline office at 8.15am to ask why there was nobody in the office at Telaga, I was still told that this was the place we should catch the ferry! Adam then also said that this was the right place when I phoned him at 8.30am.

We cannot understand how this happened!

We would appreciate a quick and full response to these matters from yourselves, including our reimbursment for the expenses we have listed which are a result of Tigerline errors.

Yours Sincerely,

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Edited: 11 years ago
San Francisco...
Level Contributor
4 posts
73 reviews
85 helpful votes
1. Re: Beware online booking: Tigerline - Langkawi toThailand.
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A similar situation happened to me when using the Tigerline Ferry from Langkawi to Koh Lipe. Buyer Beware!

Langkawi, Malaysia
Destination Expert
for Langkawi
Level Contributor
7,634 posts
69 reviews
50 helpful votes
2. Re: Beware online booking: Tigerline - Langkawi toThailand.
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Dear Onomataho.

please tell us some details!

Eva

KL
4 posts
3. Re: Beware online booking: Tigerline - Langkawi toThailand.
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What if ....

Langkawi would actually have a ' Tourist Police '.

Phuket does ....

Krabi does ...

Well forget it - I'm just daydreaming ....

Langkawi
Level Contributor
101 posts
4. Re: Beware online booking: Tigerline - Langkawi toThailand.
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Hm... this is a bit difficult, as to do that, the police should be able to speak English... :-))

But I agree.

Short time ago I did meet a tourist with his wife in Pantai Tengah on the road side, sitting in a rented car, that had broken down. They had phoned several times to the office which rented them the car - and were allways told someone would come soon - and in between waited for more than 4 hours!! in the full sun...

zz....

Mark

kuala lumpur
Level Contributor
98 posts
5 reviews
1 helpful vote
5. Re: Beware online booking: Tigerline - Langkawi toThailand.
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i had a very bad experience with the police in langkawi, they are utterly unprofessional!

London, United...
Level Contributor
388 posts
6. Re: Beware online booking: Tigerline - Langkawi toThailand.
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Langkawi police =

Nice pants/trousers, nice crisp shirts, beautiful boots, fancy badges, big radio, big bribe accepted. No paperwork or interest in tourists.

Big head and zero brains = Zero IQ, and they love it. Best post in Malaysian Police Force.

Money for nothing, enjoy the sun.

Zero crime on Langkawi, don't tell the police, they might have to break up the poker game and have a look under their noses.

London, United...
Level Contributor
388 posts
7. Re: Beware online booking: Tigerline - Langkawi toThailand.
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........... and don't even mention the Islamic (religious) police.

Your $crewed if they catch you.

8. Re: Beware online booking: Tigerline - Langkawi toThailand.

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