Disgusting Services, Awful responses- (NEVER AGAIN)

We still have not had any feedback from them, this is ridiculous its been 3 weeks already and still no response, The below was our experience with safari now and Moya eco Lodge- Safari now are too quick to take money and very slow on services.

Good Afternoon Safari now,

We hope that you are keeping well and that the new year will be prosperous to you and your teams. We would like to escalate a complaint to the highest authorities possible and we would like to request for our matter to be resolved as soon as possible.

We have a huge complaint against the above mentioned (Moya Eco Lodge), we were in communication with Natalie this morning and she informed us that we must send the information via email together with all evidence to back our claim at Safari Now. We had a booking at Moya Eco Lodge all paid in full and directions were sent together with everything we need to bring etc. (we have attached the supporting documentation)

The pictures provided from the lodge was nothing compared to what we found upon arrival. This was a well in advanced planned, booked and paid holiday for 8 adults and 2 kids . There was instructions given when we arrive in Mozambique to sms the provided number to “check us in”. (this number was never available)

But before we escalate the matter we would like to explain our frustration as we will be requesting a full refund and we would like for our damages to be paid in full. (all evidence is attached to the email i.e. tracker report, proof of images and slips).

We booked the self-catering (luxury tents), we had purchased meats and foods to last us for 9 days as per our booking- We are 8 adults and 2 kids and the amount of food taken was enough to last us throughout the trip. We were informed that everything is in order and we were looking forward to a lovely long awaited holiday to Mozambique where we have never been before.

Our original booking was to check in on the 26th of December 2018, we are all based in the Johannesburg, Ranburg area which means we have a 800km trip in front of us. We did not celebrate Christmas we had our drivers sleeping the whole day to be fresh for our route to Mozambique during the night of the 25th of December 2018 we agreed that when we get to Moya Eco Lodge on the 26th we will then celebrate our Christmas.

Our other family members also booked at the same lodge they had arrived on the 25th of December (they have booked the family tent), they had issues finding the place, they could not check in as the gentleman at the premises was too drunk to assist, they spent the night at the lodge with no power or WATER let alone no hot water to shower after a 9hour trip. To make it worse they arrived late afternoon.

We left on Christmas evening at 22h00 from Johannesburg to Mozambique, our plans were to arrive at the border on the 26th of December 2018 at 6h00. All went according to plan and we arrived safely at the border of Kosi bay at 6h00 at this time the border only opened at 7h00. We did not wait in a long que we were in and out at the border, after our stamp at the border of Kosi Bay we were informed to take out 3rd party insurance which the lodge did not inform us of. Which was okay it didn’t take long to get the insurance.

This was now 8h30 and we were ready to go to our lodge to freshen up after 8 hours drive plus the hour and a half at the border. We were all tried of the long drive and we were looking forward to our check in at Moya Eco Lodge, we followed the instructions as per provided attachment and we came no where close to any indication for Moya Eco Lodge, we were now driving in circles in an unknown country with no communication whatsoever. We still continued trying to find the place after getting stuck numerous times in the sand we eventually stopped to ask for directions just to be disappointed again as no one knows about this Moya Eco Lodge, we still tried finding the place. After 3 hours driving in the middle of nowhere we went back to the Kosi Bay border and followed the directions again only to find that we have arrived at a street bar (which we have passed already 3 times) this was now already 14h00 in the afternoon we are still in the car our meat is going down with the busting heat and we are still carrying the trailer. We all agreed to stop at this bar where we passed now for the 4th time just to get our drivers off the road for a while as we have been in the car for 16 hours at this time we all felt like turning around back to JHB but it would be a death wish, we asked a lady in the bar to assist us to just sms the people so that they can come and fetch us where we were. There was no answer to the provided number on call or SMS. We then asked the lady at the bar if she knew where Moya Eco Lodge was and she said that her boyfriend does…….

We waited about 10 minutes for her as she had gone to fetch him…. we are from South Africa and to us letting a stranger in our car leading us to an unknown place was a huge security risk, out of pure desperation we paid the guy R 100.00 just to take us to the Lodge.

We accepted the risk as we were so tired, anything that could help us find the place and rest. There was no indications how to get to the lodge there is no boards no markings nothing we were completely lost. Eventually the lady’s boyfriend brought us into this deep forest we were not sure what to think but we hoped for the best. After the unknown road to nowhere we found the place after another 30 minutes’ drive we arrived approximately 15h00. That’s now 17 hours on the road getting lost, being tired, we were all to happy just to get out of the car. Upon our arrival there was no one to receive (check us in) we were totally confused as to where to go and who to speak to. There was no staff on site only a gentleman sitting under a tree who didn’t speak English at all.

Every person chose their tent and what we found was not even close to the provided pictures on the booking, the tents was open the whole roof was falling apart there was a huge hole in the roof over the bathroom, there was no electricity nor any water. There was no lights in the fittings all the bulbs was removed the bedding was disgusting, in my whole life I have never seen such a dirty bed, there was urinal stains on the duvets and white spots on the sheet (which can clearly be identified and personal discharge), there was spiders as big as a person’s hand behind the beds.

The provided towels was full of holes and stains. We unfortunately did not take photos of the condition of the towels. The nets provided above the beds was broken totally we had to fix it ourselves as per pictures provided one can clearly see how the pipes was rusted and bent, a piece of fishing line held the net together. There was no electricity in the rooms we did not know what to do as we brought a freezer and R 4000. 00 worth of meat going down.

The kitchen had 5 fridges- None of them were working at the time. We then complained and we left to find a decent place to sleep for the night, again we couldn’t get to the main road as there were no indications it costed us to tie wet wipes around the trees to find our way. We went back to the main road which was now 17h00 this is now 20 hours on the road, we eventually came across the hotel in Ponto Do Auro, where we spent the night and at least we had a good night’s rest we could not make any food which resulted in buying a meal at the Hotel which we have attached the proof of payments. We went back to the Moyo Eco Lodge to pack our things to head back to JHB, we were informed that all the issues have been resolved.

They arranged for a generator in the kitchen where we can at least run the fridges as our meat has now been out of a fridge for 3 whole days. The disappointment after 5 fridges in a kitchen where only 2 of them were in a working order (but can’t freeze and doesn’t get cold at all) had all of us being very upset. We plugged our freezer in and before it could even cool up the power went down again. The power was off for the rest of the day until the next morning 9h00. How are we supposed to live without any electricity meat cant stay out of a fridge we have the down meat frozen in our fridges at home for confirmation.

We accepted that the meat will no longer be okay, we did not have any power again after our complaint. The bedding is still dirty after the people changed, they changed our bedding with even worse dirty bedding.

We were informed that the day after. the owner/manager will visit us to sort out the issues at the property (this is now 2 days wasted of our holiday) - he didn’t bother to show up we wasted our whole day waiting for him he promised to be here at 11h00 and still no show, the people at the premises informed us that we won’t have any power from 21h00 until 06h00 the next morning.

We could not stay here another minute longer and was completely stranded in Mozambique as all accommodation was fully booked. We had two options 1 being paying R21000.00 per night at one lodge that had available space or to go back home the same day. Needless to say if we were in the position to afford the R21000.00 accommodation lodge per night we would have taken the offer and claimed it all back. We then decided to head back to JHB. (We have attached the tracker report.)

We would like to request all our damages and accommodation paid back to us, as we have provided enough evidence. Moya Eco Lodge will be held responsible to pay all our fees including our refund for the three single tents, we will report this escalation to all websites, trip advisors, hello peter etc. and ensure that this resort will have no other income if our claim is not sorted out promptly.

Everyone deserves a well-rested holiday after a long years hard work, we have been saving for this trip and we cannot afford to lose the monies spent on this trip. Not to mention the emotional trauma me and my family faced during this trip, we are good clients to Safari now my whole family uses this app this is giving us second thoughts as we expect what we pay for, we totally rely on the images Safari now post as we always try new places.

Please may we ask that this matter is not treated lightly as this is a serious offence, false advertising, inaccurate information, jeopardising the security of clients, damaging of property and the list goes on. Please can we have feedback at your earliest convenience.