Music Contact International, Inc.

Please be aware that if you give your money to this company and they can't provide the services they were paid to provide, you might as well kiss your money goodbye. Although the COVID-19 situation was unfortunate, this company was paid $2,150 through my son's high school choir foundation for a trip to Washington DC in March. At no fault of MCI or us, that trip was canceled due to COVID-19. Well, we have no accounting of where our money went and have received a refund of $891 (41%) and a flight voucher for our 16-year-old son that he will never use. My question is, where is the rest of my money? Who has it and why haven't you gotten it back from them if you don't have it? Hotels are giving refunds, aren't they? Why am I on the hook for it when this company made all of the arrangements and has the direct relationship with the 3rd party entities? They were paid to provide a service and they could not provide it. Someone is profiting off of this without ever providing the services they were paid to provide. I have been trying for months and they just stopped responding. This is just a warning to anyone else. Before you pay, just be aware that if the trip has to be canceled, your money may be gone forever. Before you give money to your school's group, check to see who they are working with.

Revdex.com: I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # [redacted] Please add your rejection comments below Music Contact continues to deny responsibility for the problems that occurred on the Cuba trip The letter that they posted was just a copy of correspondence that I previously received from them Their staff is totally incompetent and disinterested when it comes to solving problems in foreign countries I never expected a luxurious vacation but I did expect sanitary conditions I would recommend that travelers approach this company with extreme caution Regards, [redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # [redacted]. Please add your rejection comments below. 
 Music Contact continues to deny responsibility for the problems that occurred on the Cuba trip.  The letter that they posted was just a copy of correspondence that I previously received from them.  Their staff is totally incompetent and disinterested when it comes to solving problems in foreign countries.  I never expected a luxurious vacation but I did expect sanitary conditions.  I would recommend that travelers approach this company with extreme caution.
Regards,
[redacted]

Thanks for touching base. Attached is the letter I sent to Mr. [redacted] in response to his concerns. He travelled with a group of nearly 100 people and everyone else was thrilled with the tour in Cuba. The groups was a choir on a concert tour and he was not a singer and did not stay with the...

planned program for much of the time so was unavailable at many of the times when help was offered.My companies reputation is critical to our wellbeing so I would like to be sure that I have answered whatever the Revdex.com needs to balance his complaint. Dear Mr. [redacted],Thank you for taking the time to inform us about your dissatisfaction with parts of the [redacted] tour to Cuba, and we are sorry to read that the tour arrangements fell short of your expectations. Your letter certainly stands out from the others we've received which have praised the tour, our staff and the experiences we provided.  The [redacted] trip was specifically designed to accommodate a large group of travelers with diverse requirements coming from a wide range of economic circumstances. The tour’s focus was musical and was not intended to be luxurious, but was meant to be a middle class Cuban immersion, musically focused, meaningful and affordable for all who chose to participate.When you spoke with [redacted] prior to travel, you were told that hotel reservations were set and that changes could not be made. [redacted] and [redacted] spent hours deciding who would stay where in consideration of physical needs, flight schedules, family units and friends traveling together, and those assignments were not about to be reworked. As far as you booking your own accommodation, that is something we cannot get involved with, and until very recently, it was in fact, illegal for you to do so (due to restrictions on travel in Cuba).  As you mentioned, we had both the [redacted] and [redacted] inspected in anticipation of your arrival and both passed. The [redacted] were recently renovated, had fresh paint, a great chef in the dining room, gorgeous swimming pools, air conditioning units, fridges, safe deposit boxes, and are spacious even by U.S. standards. The [redacted], on the other hand, as [redacted] explained to you, was not something we would book. You explained you had hot water for only two of the nights (out of a total of four) with no water at all most days (it came on at night). I can assure you that [redacted] management did try to fix the problem and were apparently dealing with issues related to infrastructure, recent excavations and plumbing retrofits. When we spoke with the hotel about the problems, they responded that they were diligently working on the systems, and that the maintenance and repair work was in process. They also offered that work was being done at times when the group had scheduled activities, in order to minimize disturbance. Our tour had the group away from the hotel most of the day so the day time work should not have been a problem since the tour was planned that everyone traveled together.Regardless, by the end of Day #2, on a Sunday, when repairmen weren’t working and it seemed evident repairs would take longer than we could wait, [redacted] and [redacted] spoke with everyone affected and either moved them elsewhere on the property or into another hotel. I am not sure where you and your wife were while this was happening? I believe you chose not to participate in the full schedule of activities. This made it difficult for [redacted] and [redacted] to assist you with a move or changes to your room. As for the [redacted] understood [redacted] was ill and was not asking to be moved.Mr. [redacted], if you have read about the "tourist boom" in Cuba since the loosening of US regulations, you know that the demand for hotel space in Havana far exceeds availability. Trips are cancelling due to lack of beds and you may have noticed construction of hotels and restaurants is actively underway. You traveled to a country where the infrastructure is simply not yet there to handle the huge influx of visitors, and providing service of high enough standard to satisfy demanding North American tastes is not always a reality yet. The fact that [redacted] was accommodated in Havana City for four consecutive nights this May is a direct result only of our company's connections and good standing and splitting the group into two hotels, while not our preference, was a practical solution to staying further outside of the city.   Regarding flights, you mention originally scheduled [redacted] flights, and I can only assume you mean the 103 seats we reserved, placed deposit on, and forfeited along with cancellation fees when the private Cuban charter between Miami and Havana did not receive a landing permit. Music Contact International went well beyond the scope of responsibility around that, rebooking group travelers on flights to and from Cuba at no cost to travelers, covering every cancellation fee for flights arranged through us, and ultimately covering whatever it took to move participants back and forth to Cuba at no additional charge. Again, the fact that you and [redacted] booked your own flights from Miami home which you subsequently had to change, is beyond our control and responsibility. The Flight Request form you received from our office disclosed this as a possible issue with deviations from the onset.  Again, we are sorry that your visit to Cuba did not meet your expectations, but we are completely confident we did everything in our power and to ensure your choir tour to Cuba would be interesting and pleasant. We have spoken to countless travelers from the group who had a remarkable time and I just wish you shared their experience. Although we are of course very sorry to hear of your dissatisfaction, we do not agree that we are at fault and therefore do not owe any reimbursement.  With Kind Regards,[redacted]PresidentMusic Contact InternationalBC- [redacted]