Mendo Wine Tours

This is a review of this company’s customer service rather than the tour since I wasn’t able to go on the tour. The lady on the phone was very nice and booked us last minute for the next day. She gave us the group rate even though it was just the two of us, which was really cool! The next morning the driver picked us up in a nice Suburban with leather seats and started the drive into Anderson Valley and that is when things went downhill. After only 10 minutes of driving I became clammy and extremely car sick. I had to ask her to turn around and take us back. I have been on many wine tours and winding roads without a problem so I hadn’t anticipated having a problem.
I was hoping for a partial refund since we didn’t even make it into the Valley for the tours. Don’t get me wrong I was more than happy to pay for the time we took and the gas, we also tipped the driver. I even called my doctor to get a prescription motion sickness patch so that we could go back, pay and take the tour again.
Sadly, it took over 3 weeks to get a response from this company on what my options were. I had to call three times, once each week and write a letter to the owners to get a response. The reservations manager pointed out to me that there are no refunds even if you were to cancel a week ahead of time. That’s fine, I understand policy is policy however, I asked her to consider refunding me any wine tasting room fees, if any, that may have been built into the cost we paid for the tour. So finally a few days later she sent me an email stating they refunded me $ 100 of the $ 350 paid. That was a pleasant and appreciated action but I would rather had an upfront answer straight from the beginning (even if it was sorry no refunds) without having to go through such a hassle. I suppose maybe they thought I would just drop the issue if they never responded?
I really wanted to take this tour. Mendocino is a beautiful town and we enjoyed several bottles of local wine during our trip. I hope that others will have a chance because the local wine is fantastic. Just be aware of their cancellation policy… And if you get the slightest bit of car sickness ever then I recommend getting a patch from your doctor first (it doesn’t have the drowsy side effects Dramamine can especially if you’re going wine tasting) because it is a very winding road to get there and back.
So, as long as you don’t have any problems, their customer service is good. However, isn’t how you handle customer service when thing go bad just as, if not even more, important? Taking over three weeks to resolve an issue gives a very poor impression.

The wine tour was a little pricey, However, if you plan to go to several tastings and then drive on the windy road home, this is a much more pleasant and safe alternative.
Our driver was able to get wine tasting fees waived, which saved us abut 40 – 50 dollars.
Our driver. Stevie, looked after us, and we had a wonderful day.
The lunch and cheese plate were delicious!
I think this would be a particularly good idea for a small group of 4 – 6 people.