Maldives Boat Trip - Ripped Off

[scoch644]

I need to leave a review about Maldives Boat Trip (http://www.maldivesboatrip.com/) owned by Brazilian, Felipe Pereira.
We booked a surf trip through maldivesboatrip.com. When we showed up at the boat the surf guide hadn't showed up. No phone call, no email. He had arranged also for someone to meet us at the airport to collect the money in cash.
We arrived at the boat which was next to a really good surf break but we didn't know this as we didn't have a guide. We spent the first night on the boat and then when we tried to leave in the morning we were told the boat was broken and couldn't move. We had to track down the owner of the boat and contact her to find out what was happening. Still no word from Felipe.
The boat stereo , TV or DVD player didn't work. The air con in the room shut down every night.
We then spent the rest of the week trying to figure out where to surf. The crew were not surfers and couldn't tell us. We needed to have the dinghy come with us to pickup boards etc and this was a constant issue and dangerous.
The other issue was that we had told Felipe on several different occasions via email that we didn't need a photographer on board. When we showed on board they photographer was there and Felipe has promised him that we would be paying him USD$250 each. This was really awkward as we didn't want this service and didn't have the cash to pay him. He had also turned down another job to come on our trip as he had been promised to be paid.
Do not book through this company maldivesboatrip.com. There is no surf guide provided, the boat was shoddy and basically they are not providing the service that they stated on their website.

[jaffa1949]

The company is based in Australia? Are you? If so , you have recourse in law as there are strict guide lines as to performance. You could pursue that.
You may also have some possibility of action through your travel insurance ( did you have that?) .

Whatever it is always good practice to search for reviews before you take on a trip. Or word of mouth!

[scoch644]

Hi Jaffa,

The company is Australian based however in Australia unless you are dealing with large amount of money it is hard to get anything back. Yes we did have travel insurance. It is just not worth the effort to chase up someone like this. I just wanted to put a review up to warn others. The company is Maldives Boat Trip (www.maldivesboatrip.com)

cheers,

C