Pemi Valley Moose Tours — Attraction in Lincoln

One of the Worst Customer Service Experiences I've Ever Had!!

As a business owner myself, I hate leaving negative reviews. Unfortunately, our experience with this moose tour company in New Hampshire was so disappointing and frustrating that I feel obligated to warn others. Stay away!!!

We had to cancel our reservation last-minute due to a member of our group getting sudden food poisoning. Life happens, and we were hoping the company would show some basic human decency and understanding. Instead, we were met with rudeness, condescension, and shady practices.

When I called to explain the situation and ask whether we’d be charged the $9 deposit per person or the full amount of close to $200, the owner immediately snipped and talked over me, repeating “Nope, nope, full amount, FULL AMOUNT” like I was a child! No empathy, no respect, just robotic and dismissive. After haggling, he said he could call us back later to “tell you if someone filled your seats” after practically bragging that he’d been turning people away all night and should have no problem filling them. When my wife called to follow up and explain again, he essentially told her to “trust him” because he’s been “doing this for 25 years”.

Well, trusting him was our mistake.

The moment after the initial phone call, he charged the full amount to our card, despite the confirmation e-mail framing it as a $9 deposit per person. Turns out it wasn’t a deposit at all, but just a credit card capture he waited to hit until he absolutely knew we wouldn’t show. That alone feels incredibly deceptive and slimy.

What’s worse is that nowhere on the confirmation email does it say the full amount will be charged for a cancellation. It just vaguely says you’ll receive “a charge” (Us assuming it would be the deposit lost…because that’s the whole point of a freaking deposit…) This totally leaves customers in the dark to probably pull crap like this.

To top it all off, he did end up calling us back later that night with what he called “a courtesy call” just to say, “Nobody filled your seats. Sorry.” It’s hard not to believe he just lied about reselling the seats after charging us anyway, especially with his whole 'trust me' explanation and claims that they’d been turning people away all night.

Funny how the contract says “moose are wild animals and unpredictable” and that “sightings aren’t guaranteed”…yet you’re still charged full price even if you don’t see a single moose. But when humans are unpredictable (like getting sick last minute) there’s zero understanding, and you’re still charged the full amount without hesitation. So basically, the unpredictability only works in his favor when it comes to taking your money.

Between the unprofessional attitude, bogus confirmation with lack of transparency, and nasty handling of payment, this was the worst customer experience I’ve ever had in my entire existence. Avoid this company at all costs! There are plenty of other tours in the area run by people who actually care about their customers and are WAY more professional. Maybe after 25 years, it’s time...

This tour was a joke…sorry guys!

The guys were nice but it cost us $95 (and another $95 for my son and his gf) and they literally went up and down the sameeee couple roads all night.

Very important to know! You are NOT guaranteed to be able to sit with the person or people you go with!!!! That was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! How about seat numbers so your party can sit together???

There was a stop at a convenience store in the middle. Convenience store was really nice (probably the highlight of the trip honestly) but they kept telling us over and over to thank the convenience store for staying open for us. Of course we were thankful but come on, they made out too since most of us bought something there and that’s where the bus got its gas.

Not only that, but if there wasn’t a stop mid-way, we never would have took the tour. So why don’t YOU thank the convenience store for staying open for YOUR tour?

Also, maybe tell everyone once, not over and over like we are children???

We never saw any moose and although they state they have a 90% success rate (highly doubt that) and there’s a chance you won’t see any, in my opinion, they (as a business) should have offered us something. It didn’t have to be money. It could have been a 50% off ticket for another tour or anything really.

Think of it this way, we’ll never be back. We live in MA and go to the White Mountains often. Someone asks us…we say…oh no, don’t do that tour. Boom…you lost even more business.

Not my problem but as a business, you might want to think through your policy’s.

There’s not a person in the world who wants to spend $95 per couple to go on a tour of the same two or three streets for 3 1/2 hours and see nothing!

The kicker was at the end when they had the gall to ask for a tip and put a flashing red sign that says something like, no tip is too big.

Are you even kidding me????

Nice guys but maybe should think about their business model.

Also, supposedly doing this for years (I forget the exact amount but 30 plus comes to mind), and you don’t know when the moose will come out (type of conditions) or do a little drive by before the tour?

If we saw a moose, I’d feel the same way but at least I’d feel like I got something for my money.

Meh…wasn’t impressed.

Don’t waste your money and just go do the drive yourself. There’s lots of maps on where to see moose in the area.

We would have done this as well but thought we’d have better luck with the so called...

The guides were nice. The spraying of moose pee and bubbles/ disco ball is juvenile though, borderline assaultive when you experience unknown origins liquid (alleged moose pee?) flying in your face as part of some bad joke/skit. It may be enjoyable for youth up to maybe ten years old, but there were only 2 or 3 kids on this tour. We saw a young teenaged moose after the break,and that was cool, but the guides rushed through that whole viewing experience. The moose was still present and interacting with us. The driver told us how he was going to move along because he hoped to show us a mature buck and/or a mom and baby moose. Soon as he left that site, neither Larry or Eric were looking for further moose though. Lies. Their goal was clearly to just drive back to the station before 11 pm. That became clear immediately,as neither of them were shining the spot light any longer and Larry was driving very fast without slowing down at all to check for moose. My advice would be- don't lie to customers. If you genuinely plan to seek out more and better moose, your behavior needs to match your words. That was really deceptive. Be honest that once you find one moose, even a small teen moose, you view your goal as achieved and you will speed back to the station directly afterward a brief viewing of a small moose. Don't lie to customers. Not cool. And your phone answering service is negligent as well. No one answers at all except right before 7:30 pm when you are seeking to confirm the tour or double book tickets. Service and delivery are negligible, at best. Man who answers phone comes across as quite arrogant. You need a better public relations staff person handling potential/pending customer calls. That alone was a turn off, and occurred before the actual tour when we were overtly lied to about the intent of moving along at a mere 10:20 pm by Larry, when the tohr is supposed to last until 11:30 pm.. Eric played on his phone the entire drive after that small moose sighting and Larry drove like he was speeding to his dying mother's bedside straight after promising he wanted to show us a bull and mother/baby, in order to support his plan to speed back to the station. Do better, guys. You won't stay in business much longer with dishonest business practices like that. And the begging for tips with a bright red blinking red sign is beyond tacky, especially after you outright lied to us about your intent to find more moose, as evidenced by...