He could show up here and share his point of view, in a professional and respectful discourse….. Seems easier than a lawsuit….
If he had engaged in professional and respectful discourse then I believe we could have worked things out. Unfortunately, interactions with him were all around blaming others and making clear he didn't see fault in anything he did. If he came here, he would just argue this was all my fault and that he did nothing wrong.
I have had problems on other hunts. I fully understand that things go wrong and there can be mistakes. I had a hunt where half of the hunting days had problems in camp and with transport that limited options for multiple days. That didn't result in me writing a negative review because of how the outfitter handled it, talked to me around each issue and what was being done about the issue, and took steps to try and make other accommodations to fill in. The difference is in how the outfitter handles issues when they inevitably come up. Every other outfitter was proactive with alerting me to possible concerns or issues and telling me the options when things came up, with them looking to help to resolution.
On this trip, I had to find out about problems and changes myself as there was no communication from the people responsible for the arrangements. If I had chosen to handle all arrangements not related to the actual hunting time at Sandy Mount this whole trip would have been different. But Jannie said he'd make it all easy and to trust them with all arrangements. Then he failed repeatedly on that. When they don't deliver on promises and do nothing about it other than put it on the client? That's the outfitters to stay away from.
No confirmed hotel for my family upon arrival in JNB? Had to find out about that myself from the hotel and not Jannie. Then I had to book confirmed accommodations myself.
They messed up by not booking a 2nd room as the airport hotel requires for 3 people? I was forced to pay for 2nd room myself at walk up rates.
Not booking the hotel quality in Victoria Falls that was promised and then not saying anything to me at all around the downgrade? By the time I found out about the change there were no other options as it was too close to arrival. Jannie focused on trying to convince me it was forced due to my requirements for 3 people and that it should be acceptable to downgrade as river front was never promised (even though it clearly was in the package description).
Things could have been massively different with professional and respectful discourse. That was extremely lacking when I'd raise concerns or issues to Jannie. There are so many other good outfitters out there that I've hunted with, read great review around here, and heard about from friends and fellow hunters. Stick with those and have confidence in a good experience.
