STA Travel

This is a hard review to write. From what I gather, STA travel is partnered with a company called G Adventures, who they seem to organize tours through. Back in April, I took a tour with them and things went horribly wrong on my tour. On the tour, I suffered every traveling woman’s worst nightmare and was drugged and raped while I was traveling in Cambodia by a group of foreign Brazilian men. When I reported the incident to my tour guide the morning after it occurred, my tour guide tried to sweep the incident under the rug. He did not report it to the police and he did not offer to accompany me to the hospital. I cannot speak Cambodian and no one in Cambodia speaks English, so I was entirely dependent on my tour guide in the aftermath of what happened to me. This is where STA travel/​G Adventures was completely negligent as a tour company. Things were handled so horribly and for this, I am currently filing a lawsuit against STA Travel/​G Adventures. Please look elsewhere for travel agency alternatives. No woman ahould be offered so little emotional assistance after suffering something so terribly traumatic.

No Wonder it is closed. OVER-​CHARGED me $ 300 and it was impossible to get a refund. Had EXPLICIT conversations with the agent on the phone. AFTER the trip, found I was overcharged $ 300, with no recourse, was not even issued the tickets that they charged for.
Thieves.

STA Travel is owned internationally with this US office in Chandler. STA claims to be the world’s largest travel company for students and young people. STA helped me plan a fairly complex Iceland trip associated with an Earthwatch Expedition. In hindsight, I could have done this myself and saved the modest service fee I was charged. On the other hand, my agent was helpful and we got the job done.

Zero stars. Wow, these people are irresponsible! It looks like some people have had such bad experiences here, they’ve even taken it up with the BBB! I wish I did that. WOW. They didn’t even have a customer service department when my aunt called!

FOLLOW UP ON BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU COMPLAINT TO STA FILED ON 07÷26÷10.
The conclusion of my complaint to the Better Business Bureau arrived on August 5^th, 2010. The response consisted of a letter from STA and two .wav files. The STA sales manager responding to the BBB advocate had included as evidence that the agent with whom I had dealt had not misled me in our discussions of changes in flights and fees.
When I tried to play the .wav files to review the conversations, neither of them would open. I did not contact the Better Business Bureau again to find out if they had been able to actually play the files, although it is a point that I would be curious to know.
On Facebook, I have had an active discussion thread describing my dealings with STA. The board moderator has encouraged me to write to him to discuss the matter, but I have instead preferred to reply to his messages on the board because I have wanted to keep the pressure on STA to respond to my case. I have kept my tone firm but insistent, as the tone of these reviews have been framed.
Today, I went to post the result of the BBB complaint, but I found that the board has now been disabled by the moderator.
Congratulations, STA. You managed to neutralize a single solitary broke, dissatisfied graduate student. A solid day’s work.

STA Travel SUCKS. So we planned a group trip and everything went wrong. People flew out of the wrong places, into the wrong places, wrong days, etc. And they overcharge. MOTHERFUCKER.
Our lovely travel agent, Heather, forgot to book one room for the last leg of the trip, and booked the return date of the trip wrong.
NEVER EVER EVER USE THEM. Unless you want to end up in the wrong country and city in the wrong time.
Oh and btw, they don’t respond to voicemail or email because apparently its not part of the job description.