Pinatubo Experience

[krstnal]

---

I would just like to share our experience when we did our Pinatubo trek. A couple of months ago, specifically December-January we bought coupons from Ensogo.com for our Pinatubo Experience. We purchased a total of 9 coupons worth Php9K in total. We followed the instructions on the coupon and booked/scheduled our tour just a few days after paying for the coupons. The momentous day for our reservation was March 4, 2012. We made constant follow ups with the organizer which was TrekPros even though they made numerous attempts in changing their contact information.

We were so excited for our trip and being Cebuanos we always believed on scheduling everything before hand because we will only be there for a limited number of days. We filed our leave from work, booked airplane tickets, hired a van for our whole trip, called up hotels for reservations and etc. We did our research and found out that the best time to do the trek was early in the morning so that the sun is still not up and we won't be walking under the scorching heat. We also read the fine print of the coupon so as not to leave anything behind. A week prior to the trip we even received an email confirming our reservation!!! A day prior, March 3, 2012, we texted them again to confirm our reservation.

On the day of March 4, 2012 we woke up early in the morning, 4AM, and departed the hotel. We passed by a fast food chain and got drive thru for our breakfast and lunch. Because of our desire to start the trek early we decided to eat our breakfast in the van en route to the pinatubo meet up point. We arrived at the site were the 4x4 cars meet at around 5-6am. To our dismay the TrekPros organizers were still not there!!! We jealously looked on at the other early birds start their trek because their guides were early too. At around 7AM, one hour after we arrived, we found the TrekPros representative organizing their papers. We approached them and told them that we have reservations and presented our coupons to them. They scanned the coupons and told us that we don't have any reservations! We were very shocked that TrekPros was not able to place our names in the reservation list when in fact we made our reservations last January!!!! We even showed the reps our confirmation email. They told us to contact the person we made the reservation. Alas, despite of our non stop efforts nobody answered our calls to their office or cellphone (probably because it was a Sunday or maybe they forgot that they were in the tourism business and have clients traveling on that day). The two people manning the table told us that in no circumstances they can let us join the trek, even after we explained to them that we came all the way from Cebu!!! They showed no initiative in finding ways to let us join the trek. They even went on and told us to come back on a later date!?! As if we were going to do that!?!? It's not like Capas, Tarlac is just a stone throw away from our houses!!! We felt that since we came from Cebu, they were belittling our intelligence and treated as stupid kids. We can hardly believe it!! All those preparations and money spent just for nothing!??! If this happened in any resort here in Cebu or in any tourist spot here, Cebuanos always make an effort to be hospitable and accommodate all their guests!!! They gave us an option that TrekPros will just refund our 9k and register as walk-in tourists which will cost us 1,500 each (a fee higher than the coupon). We told them we already spent our money on the coupon and we will not agree on any cash out! Our hopes of doing the trek early dissipated as the sun rose higher and higher. At around 8AM we finally decided to approach the Department of Tourism and tell our case.

The DOT was accommodating enough and understood our frustration. However, they still gave us the option of letting us pay the 1.5k as walk in guests which we declined. After telling our story to the DOT, TrekPros still insisted on not letting us do the trek! A trek we paid for 3 months ago!! In all honest, we really felt bad with the way TrekPros handled the situation. When DOT decided to call their department head to escalate our complaints because TrekPros still did not acknowledge our coupon, the TrekPros rep got scared and immediately told us that we can do the trek after all. And this was after almost 4 hours of waiting and debating on our part. Before departing for the trek, as a normal Cebuano would do, we formal filed a letter of complaint against TrekPros. Hopefully the Department of Tourism in Tarlac will get the idea to ban TrekPros after our complaint was filed. Later, we also found out that TrekPros was only up and running for the past 2 months and in those 2 months they already received 70 complaints!!!

I just want to make this entry here so that other Cebuanos like me will not make the same mistake. Despite of all our research about the company, we still encountered problems in the end because at the time of our research and until now, no reviews were found about TrekPros warning us of their incompetence. In the end DOT advised us to contact them directly for reservations. Hope this will be a good lesson to all! Spread the word please!

And about the trek, it was really rewarding. The Pinatubo Crater was very beautiful. It was really worth the flight and the fight!

[SsprinterT]

First of all....sorry to hear about your TrekPros experience....i know how frustrating it was when the people in-charge is belittling your complaint. but i know it was worth fighting for....though i wasnt able to experience Pinatubo tour....me and my wife had already heard a lot of stories from our business partners who went there.we have a plan to take that tour this coming July

[cardo]

thanks for the heads up TS

[@nal]

nice bos... ataya ana tekpros oi.. maau na pamotlan og ulo!.... di d i na cla maau..salamat sa share bos... lingaw d i au jedrick pd ani.. hehehe..

[rpatsy]

tsktsk!.ahaka jud mga in-ana na taw wui!

[krstnal]

thanks sa support guys!!! join or like nya mo sa among facebook page entitled, no surprise, "Trekpros: Beware Worst Trek Organizer" - serious jud mi sa among campaign of spreading the word! hehehe

@ssprinterT: thanks! yup it was definitely worth it! after the 45mins. of a roller coaster ride sa 4x4 jeep and 2hour walk, we finally reached the sign "Welcome to Mt. Pinatubo" we were immediately recharged!! Grabeh ang view nice kaayo. Pero advise lang...dapat mag.start na mo ug jogging2x karon para dili mabiyaan sa group ug dili ma.maol ug todong todo! hehehe Have a safe trip! And remember contact na lang mo diritso sa Department of Tourism para dili mahasol ang show. Ug don't miss out on the experience of riding the boat ride to the other side of the crater para maka.experience sad mo sa init nga sand, matod pa sa akong auntie "pang.spa sa almoranas"!!! hehehe

@cardo: you're welcome! just spread the word para wala nay ma.ilad ani nila! imagine 1K baya ang namalit sa coupon so imagine unsa na kadako sa kwarta ilang nakuha and wala pa silay services nabuhat!?

@nal:lagi! kulang na lang sumbagon sa akong kauban kay g.ingnan pa mi ug "hindi na namin problema yan!" grabeh! na.init samot among ulo uy! hahaha wala jedrick uy ga.duty to siya...kami2x ra sad ang nalingaw

@rpatsy: our thoughts exactly!!!

[krstnal]

up! up! up!

[krstnal]

up for today! over 100 views na! hopefully mas daghan ang na.warningan! weee!

[geo25]

I visited Pinatubo two years ago with my dad. Before that, we visited the Aeta village.

[mitch_a888]

I have been to Mt. Pinatubo last May 4, 2009. Just the day after a strong typhoon struck Pampanga. Mga gutsies kaayo. =) We were 4 then (2 girl friends and 1 boy friend). I booked with the organizer around 3pm before our scheduled departure. D pajud to sure kai lagi, bag-o pa niagi ang bagyo. Basin daw mobalik or baha pa. Sa among ka-excited, namugos among beauty. So at 12 midnight, we left Manila and reached Capas around 4am. We departed around 6am. We opt to choose the long trek para mas challenging. Indeed it was kai kusog ang baha.hehehe... And mejo lapok and lubong. To cut it short, we have a wonderful experience while we were there. Wala lang nuon ko maligo sa crater kai duka man ko. So I slept nalang while my friends were having fun swimming. =)

Our organizer and tour guide were very kind to us. We paid 2k/head inclusive of lunch & snacks, water, lifevest ug uban pa. Pagnaug namo, we took the short trek. Wala mi nagkasinabot sa organizer. Our understanding in their instruction was that, when we chose the long trek, we will not pay them 1.5k coz it's waived na daw. And our payment in fact of 2k is actually for long trek jud. And since short trek mi pagnaug, meaning, advantage na sa ila ang payment. When we reached organizer's house, we were asked to pay the 1.5k coz nag long trek daw mi. Whoa! Deceitful, huh? Nigawas akong pagkabisaya. I never paid what they asked (pero we made sure nga nakaligo nami sa ilang house before ko nangaway.hehehe). My friends said na we will pay them nalang daw para mahuman na and para mahatod nami sa among next stop which was terminal going to Subic. I resisted to pay and even asked the coordinator to bring us to the terminal coz I don't want to raise the issue sa DOT with a lawyer-friend. So ang ending was wa nami gipabayad kai d man jud ko mobayad kai nagminaro man sila. And d man ko nila mailad. =)

But the whole experience was so worth it. We're still friends sa organizer and I even recommended their services sakong mga kaila diri sa Manila. Pero I warned them re the long & short trek coz the organizers have their own trick too.hehehehe