Go City® - San Diego — Local services in San Diego

Absolute nightmare. My family and I bought the 3 day explorer pass. We paid $377 for 3 passes. We ended up going on a Hornblower 4 hour whale watching trip that cost $40 each without the pass. Then we used our next pass on the San Diego trolley which allowed for 2 days of riding. This would have cost close to $90 each. The next day we went to San Diego Zoo. As we were trying to enter San Diego Zoo our passes did not work. The help people at the zoo saw we had Go City passes and gave us their card to contact Go City to see what the issue was. We phoned the number and waited for nearly an hour on hold and never got through to an operator. By this time we just gave up and decided to pay for the zoo out of our own pockets, to the sum of $236, thinking that we might be able to get some sort of refund when the issue was finally sorted out with Go City.

After, my wife sent an email to the company explaining our situation. We waited 2 days for a reply, by which time we had already left San Diego. The reply stated that our passes had been used 3 times and that was why we could not use them at San Diego Zoo. The third transaction was a The Whaley House in San Diego's Old Town. We did not go to The Whaley House on our trip to San Diego so I have no idea how our passes were scanned at that location.

After receiving the reply, I phoned Go City once again and got through to an operator this time. I explained the situation and the operator said I would recieve an email within 48 hours which I never did. When we got back to Canada, about 5 days after the phone call, I phoned Go City again and once again explained the situation and the lack of an email that I was told I would recieve within 48 hours.

I tried to get a partial refund for the $237 I was out of pocket for. At first the operator said all she could do was take The Whaley House off my pass so I could use it. I explained to her that this was completely useless as I was already back in Canada and had no intention of going back to San Diego within the next 45 days before the passes expired. She got onto her manager who said that I could recieve a 15% refund on the passes which would equal $56. But, this refund would no be issued until the 7th of September, as that is when my passes would expire after the 60 day expiry window. I asked her if she could just deactivate the passes now, since we were not in San Diego anymore, and issue the refund. To this, while constantly cutting me off from talking and talking over me, she said she could not do. I asked why Go City could not do this to which I just got nonsense response.

Because of this situation I was out $287 which will go down to $231 when the refund is issued in September.

Although I understand things like this happen, the terrible customer service, the near impossibility of getting through to an operator when you call them and the rudeness of the operators who constantly speak over you and cut you off from speaking mid sentence, I do not recommend this service.

Because if things go wrong, like they did for us, you will be out of pocket alot of money and waste alot of time getting a tiny refund that will not cover the money you lost.

This is a big international company and they do not care if you run into issues. By the the time you actually get to speak with a representative of the company and by the time they action your complaint, you will be long gone from your vacation destination and probably back home.

UPDATE- After the initial review was left the xo.oany did reply asking us to send an email so it could be cleared up. This was just an excuse for them to appear like they are intetested in fixing the situation. After we emailed, we received a reply and start back where we were initially. No refund of any kind has been given. Bottom line is that we have been overcharged $287, and when the company many is contacted to correct, they give you the run around. They have no desire to work with the customer and correct the error. This was a known issue and they are not...

We bought the 7 choice Adult Pass.

We planned to do Seal Tour as one of our activities, when we called for reservation they said on the phone we are booked for the entire week and weekend. They asked us to go to the stop in Sea Port Village as they might have availability and it is showing full to them. We did go to the shop and they said its full. We saw they were selling tickets but they didn't allow the pass holders. They said it is full and asked us to check later. So we went at the next slot they said the exact same thing and asked us to come later and we went 3rd time at the booth and the lady said the pass holder only gets the seats if there is no one to buy the tickets at the booth. That means they only want to do business where they get more commission. They wasted our entire half day plus money.

1 Hour Pedal Boat Rental - We took the Uber from the Hotel reached there the lady working there was surprised to see us standing there as they had closed the Pedal boat rental services before years. We wasted half day plus the Uber ride.

That was so frustrating to us that we called the customer support of Go San Diego Pass. They said oh it looks like it is a mistake on the App, we even asked him if he can contact his manager and call us back and let us know the next steps. Nobody called. He said just send an email and somebody might get back to you. After coming back from trip I am going to the my attractions list and I see the activity is been removed after we have reported. But don't worry I had taken the screen shot as I knew it.

Hornblower Bay Cruise, we went to the office couple times in a day but the office was closed. We asked the office around and they said they have not seen them today. We went on Sunday in the morning and saw the office open. We learnt our lesson from the Seal Tour and didn't mention that we have a pass. We asked if the tickets are available and when he said yes, we mentioned about the pass. So they had to take us.

We have wasted a lot of time and money buying this pass. So, we still had 2 things which is still not done but paid because we had to fly back. We paid taxi fares to hear NO.

We were able to use for: Air and Space Museum USS Midway Horn Blower Bay Cruise Japanese Friendship Garden Trolley

My only reason in posting it so thoroughly is to warn other people and make sure to clarify everything...

We purchased the 5-day inclusive pass during our San Diego visit and used the free app to show our admission tickets which made it convenient. In addition to the Zoo, Safari Park, and Birch Aquarium, we visited Seaworld twice as my toddler wanted to see the whales again so that was nice that the pass allowed this. This was the one place we had to also have reservations for and show copies of our COVID vaccination cards since we were out-of-state visitors. Another day, we took a cab to the New Children’s museum which says is covered in their app, but apparently the museum no longer accepts the Go SD Pass (since over a year ago). So we were stranded in downtown early Saturday morning with nowhere to go and nothing to do, my toddler had to use the restroom. I called the Go SD Pass right away and they were not helpful at all, I brought my phone to the museum for them to discuss, again 0 resolution, but they did offer to refund 10% of the card which doesn’t even cover our cab fare one way. Luckily, the museum manager was so sweet and finally let us in even though they were completely booked. Go SD was supposed to call me back to “resolve” and explain the issue, nobody did, I called them back and after being transferred around someone finally said that their website has a more accurate and up-to-date list of what all is included with the pass. I didn’t even know that was a thing, I looked and in their defense it wasn’t listed on their website. It still is listed on their app among other things (I compared once I was told about the website) so beware. Another issue we had was at the Safari Park (which was amazing and so much worth the drive... don’t miss it!), the pass said it gets you an African tram tour and access to the cheetah run. Both of these things haven’t been running in over a year. I believe due to COVID, but still you would think someone could update their app and website more often than once a year. Overall, yes, the pass saved us a little money, but I was so upset about being stranded downtown. I am not recommending.

** Edit to add: A representative from the company reached out to me again (after my review) to further resolve the issue and explained that they will update their information since COVID changes. Happy to hear others will have a more updated list of what is and is not currently included...