CitySights NY — Attraction in Town of Hempstead

Incompetent customer service ruined an evening. My husband and I bought the all around town tour + Empire state building package for ourselves and four family members (including 2 kids) back in February. As we were building our trip itinerary at that time we called the company with some questions about the Night Tour that was a part of the package. At that time the customer service rep told us the pick up location for that tour was at 42nd and 8th ave, rather than on 8th between 47th and 48th as described on the website. We thought that was strange and updated our trip notes and rolled with it.

When we arrived in NYC we decided the night tour would be the first of our City Sights activities. We still had a little confusion about when the night tour started and a nagging concern about the location (web still indicated the between 47/48 location). It was also kind of cold and raining so wanted to be sure it would be ok. We called the customer service number again and were told once again that the tour started at 8th and 42nd every half hour starting at 5:30pm, but try to arrive 30min in advance. We were also told that the bus would have a clear canopy so the light rain wouldn't be a problem. We were instructed to wait on the corner in front of a restaurant named Chevy's.

We took the subway down to the indicated location, arriving just after 5:30 with the expectation of a 6pm start. We never found a sign for Chevy's (from folks in the area it sounds like it no longer exists), though google map said we were at it, but we did find a bus sign on the street corner indicated the Grey Line buses, so we were confident we were in the right place. It was cold and damp, but the whole crew was chipper about seeing the city at night. At about 10 after six we started to get worried, no bus had arrived. We soon realized another group of people on the corner were also waiting for the night tour; the customer service reps had also sent them to this location. We decided to call the customer service line again, when we told them where we were they said yes we were at the right location. She put me on hold to check with the dispatcher that a bus was on the way, when she cam back she said it would be another 5 minutes and the bus would be there.

About 10minutes later, at about 6:30, a grey line bus finally arrived. But, it was not the night tour. It was a regular hop-on hop-off bus. After about an hour of waiting we were quite cold and upset. The crew on the bus were completely unsympathetic, telling us the night tour leaves from the location further up 8th. After yelling at us for being upset they finally calmed down and told us they would give us a ride to the other location and that we could get the night tour there. We accepted, but no one was really in the mood by this point. When we arrived at the 8th and 47/48 location which is the main office we were told that the bus we were on would become the night tour bus and we could stay on. The upper level had no canopy and you couldn't see through the lower level windows due to the graphics covering them. By this point we were done, we got off the bus and went into their offices to complain.

On three separate occasions and from three different reps, including in the middle of the ordeal, we were told we should go to the location that we waited for the bus; they were all wrong. We wasted an evening, were yelled at by bus staff, and we went to complain we were essentially dismissed. No one at the company's visitor center is "authorized" to give refunds. We were made to fill out a long complaint form for which I'm sure very little will come of.

This is not my first time to New York and I wouldn't normally do a bus tour like this, but we thought it would be a fun, easy way to show family with kids a lot of the city. Boy...

Yes, as many others we were convinced to buy tickets for $59 (me and my mom) on the 30th of October 2013. I am 30 years old, already visited 35 countries and 19 states in the USA ( I saw a lot and that is why I have some expectations). I have been in NYC many many times and cause I am active type of tourist I never take bus tours. Did it for my mom. Below what we didn't like(sorry for my English - not native speker):

1. Sale agent didn't mention that their ferry to The Statue goes from pier 78 (or 74 or so) not the pier 6 in Buttery Park (And I am 90% positive that during the sale the agent told me "you hop off at Buttery Park and take a ferry" I guess he meant some other ferry not the one he was selling to me... Same with a tour guide - on buttery park he pointed in direction where we can take a ferry, not mentioning that it wouldn't be their ferry.
2. My mom doesn't speak English, so she had only choice listening to recorder guide in her language. Actually if it works (and you are the type of tourist who takes a guided tour to learn something new or see the city from another perspective) then the recorded tour guide would be the good choice. BUT the recorded guide was constantly late (like 2-3 minutes, which means you listen about something you already passed by. In the visitor center later I was told to try another buses (cause not all buses have that issue - well, they aware of the issue, but not fixing it). Excuse me, when I pay money for service, I don't want to check which bus has properly working recorded tour guides... Just imagine your ordering food in a restaurant and find out that it's not cooked properly and waiter with a smile tells you : give me a moment I ll bring you another one, may be it will be cooked....
3. The TOUR GUIDE guy was terrible. As one lady below in comments mentioned he was trying to make jokes (but stupid one). And a lady from a front seat had said about it to tour guide. His reply was 'I try to make clever jokes, but people don't understand them' (wow sounds like : I am a best comedian but people around me morons). Nevertheless humour was not the main reason to get on the tour. I believe that his knowledge about the city is very limited. He was talking a lot about his food preferences (what he likes to eat and where blah blah). and a lot about shopping... He was trying to make fun by pretending that he tired of NYC and fell asleep and sneering... Probably it would be fun, when it is added to a good guide about city. If I need a show I will go to the theater! So after a while I ve changed the channel from live tour guide to the tour guide in English. It was way more interesting. When I asked a question about info that I have heard in the record, the tour guide answered that he is not aware of that and he provides his own tour guide. and that he knows a lot but can not know everything because NYC is big! I am sorry, yes NYC is big but it has very very short history I don't think that guy heard anything about Barcelona, London, Istanbul, Moscow, Shanghai... I understand that nobody can know everything, but not to be aware of the recorded tour guide in English language on the Bus that work as guide?!?!

Although He kept telling on every bus-stop that there was a box for the tips. It was annoying especially when he can not provide good service.

I can not make assumption about all tour guides, but if the company let one tour guide without knowledge of city history to be ON, then chances that they don't check their knowledge at all and do not provide training... Have...

This tour Was Very disappointing. To start with the 1st bus we got on had a bus driver that made fun of everyone that got off and on of the bus. Now you didn't know he was making fun of you because you plug your headphones in to hear everything he was saying, however he degraded and made fun of every passenger that we saw get on and off the bus. He also did the same thing with people standing on the side of the road so anyone that he could find he made fun of. Now at 1st it seemed like he was joking, But quickly you came to realize that he has low self esteem and this makes him feel better about himself. It was so bad that there was really no tour information that was given, ( He actually told us to Google any information we wanted about the site as we passed it) so we took off our headsets. At 1 point the bus was stopped, And he said we are stopping now, (per the guests Who still had headsets on) and we could see the world trade center, The people in front of us got up to get off at what we thought was the stop, There was no tour guide up top to tell us we were doing anything wrong, As we came down the stairs we heard him yell get off the stairs and then he purposely slammed on the brakes causing several of us to slip down the stairs. He then made us all lineup, about 8 of us, and chastised us in front of the rest of the passengers. He pulled about 50' forward , then stared us down one more time not allowing any of us to get off of the bus telling us he was the 1st to get off and we were to stand there until he chose to get off. As we got off I could hear him saying to the rest of the passengers that he was sorry for our actions. We then got on another bus Both the driver and the guy up top were very pleasant, When we got off the bus we asked them which way to go and they vaguely pointed in a direction to a Brown building there were 3 buildings, a whole group of us had no clue which way to go, and when we asked a second time, or anybody said anything else questioning it, he got mad and got on the bus leaving us stranded there not knowing which direction to go. several of us walked about a mile back to where the previous stop was just to get on the ferry . had we been given any information we would have got off at the stop prior. The kids at the ferry stop were the best part, Very kind and happy to answer any questions. The tour was so bad we chose not to get back on the bus and just called an Uber. When I called the company to complain nobody ...