SOUTH AFRICA: Kuche Safaris - Free State - August 2024

[Ridge Runner]

Enjoyed your hunt report and congrats to you and your wife on hunting some nice animals.

I am still perplexed about this outfitter.
Am I correct in my thinking.

Kuche quotes a price that is lowball.
Gets a client to agree, sign, and pay the contracted low costs.
Then prior to or upon arrival tells the client they owe additional costs. Where Kuche has now boosted the original lowball costs to equal or greater than his competitors normal costs.

IMO, and if my forementioned interpretation is correct, then Kuche is a con operation that needs to be run out of business. Before he does irreparable damage to reputable outfitters.

IMO, that line "prices subject to increase without notice" is there for use between the outdated advertised information on a flyer, website, etc.. Once the package has been confirmed, the deal made, contract signed, and payment made. My costs are set in stone! The same as they are with a more reputable outfitter.

It's not uncommon and understandable for a prospective client to see a flyer, web page, etc. with outdated rates and fees information, and to receive an up to date outfitters daily rates, trophy fees, etc. prior to going into planning their trip or prior to signing the contract and paying for the trip.

I understand outfitters need to recoup their losses on a donated hunt by sending the client an inflated trophy price list prior to booking their hunt or as an add-on, but the client is fully aware ahead of these things prior to paying, signing the contract and not after the fact.

By my observation and analysis, Although the pens/cages are considerably larger, and the focus is on PG; Doesn't this type hunting parallel with the more controversial "Cage Bred Lion" hunting?

 

[Deepfork]

I am still perplexed about this outfitter.
Am I correct in my thinking.

Kuche quotes a price that is lowball.
Gets a client to agree, sign, and pay the contracted low costs.
Then prior to or upon arrival tells the client they owe additional costs. Where Kuche has now boosted the original lowball costs to equal or greater than his competitors normal costs.

IMO, and if my forementioned interpretation is correct, then Kuche is a con operation that needs to be run out of business. Before he does irreparable damage to reputable outfitters.

IMO, that line "prices subject to increase without notice" is there for use between the outdated advertised information on a flyer, website, etc.. Once the package has been confirmed, the deal made, contract signed, and payment made. My costs are set in stone! The same as they are with a more reputable outfitter.

It's not uncommon and understandable for a prospective client to see a flyer, web page, etc. with outdated rates and fees information, and to receive an up to date outfitters daily rates, trophy fees, etc. prior to going into planning their trip or prior to signing the contract and paying for the trip.

I understand outfitters need to recoup their losses on a donated hunt by sending the client an inflated trophy price list prior to booking their hunt or as an add-on, but the client is fully aware ahead of these things prior to paying, signing the contract and not after the fact.

By my observation and analysis, Although the pens/cages are considerably larger, and the focus is on PG; Doesn't this type hunting parallel with the more controversial "Cage Bred Lion" hunting?

Good grief....no! Kuche is legit, not for everyone but not trying to scam anyone either. Many of the donated or banquet winners pay for exactly what was advertised and included and nothing else.

They have tons of happy and return customers. Also some that are less than satisfied. I get that.

They do a lot of the basic hunts but also offer any experience you would like, in South Africa beyond Limpopo, and in other countries in the Southern part of the continent.

Kuche is run by hard working, honest people.

 

[jt13]

Enjoyed your hunt report and congrats to you and your wife on hunting some nice animals.

I am still perplexed about this outfitter.
Am I correct in my thinking.

Kuche quotes a price that is lowball.
Gets a client to agree, sign, and pay the contracted low costs.
Then prior to or upon arrival tells the client they owe additional costs. Where Kuche has now boosted the original lowball costs to equal or greater than his competitors normal costs.

The "signed" portion of our agreement was the Ducks Unlimited donated hunt for 4 people, 16 animals. That was provided as advertised.

Where things got a little sketchy was the added hunters, extracurricular to the donated hunt. Here's the whole story in detail:

I was provided with a "2023 Purchasers Letter" with pricing at time of DU donation, it listed added hunters at $180 per person per day. I advised them of our intent to add two hunters to our package at the $180/day rate.

In April of 2024 I was provided updated pricing in their "2024 Purchasers Letter" still listing the add-on hunter price at $180 per person per day. I confirmed our arrangements and the pricing as previously agreed.

About a week before my hunt I read a post on here regarding a hunter scheduling his hunt with Kuche and that he was upset that they recently increased their prices to $420/day for add-on hunters. Three days before departure I received an email from Kuche with screenshots from the website with animal prices, tip suggestions, taxidermy prices, and a confirmation of our pick-up time and location. At this time, I inquired about the alleged price increase I had read about.

They replied with an email stating that the 250% price increase was real, a few sentences with excuses about inflation, and the highlighted fine print from the Purchasers Letter that says "prices subject to change without notice". I expressed my concerns with the bait and switch and all I was offered was the ability to switch those two extra hunters to "observers". The observer rate was also increased by 150%. They had no intentions of informing me of the price increase of $2k+ until I was already in camp.

On "invoice day" at the end of the hunt we were provided new paper with suggested tips, approximately 150% higher than the one we received 3 days prior to the hunt. We also were attempted to be charged $450 per day instead of the $420 per day it had already been increased to. They did honor the $420/day rate after I pointed out the "error".

The hunt price increase divided amongst my group of six hunters bumped the total up from around $940 per person to $1300 each. We pretty much ignored the increase in suggested tips and stuck the the $500-700 each we planned on.

While pissed about the bait and switch, I absolutely believe that we got more than $1300 in value from our experience. Hence, why I mentioned it in my report but moved on to the actual experience of the hunt story without dwelling on it much.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Good grief....no! Kuche is legit, not for everyone but not trying to scam anyone either. Many of the donated or banquet winners pay for exactly what was advertised and included and nothing else.

They have tons of happy and return customers. Also some that are less than satisfied. I get that.

They do a lot of the basic hunts but also offer any experience you would like, in South Africa beyond Limpopo, and in other countries in the Southern part of the continent.

Kuche is run by hard working, honest people.

Many Thanks for clearing up all the confusing information.

 

[Tbitty]

To me, the frustration would be, as OP stated, to have a huge price increase without notice immediately before the trip for something that had been previously discussed. As someone who has purchased and been on donation hunts (with no bad experiences so far), and will likely purchase more in the future, my takeaway is to get a signed contract for any changes/additions to the package. For example, using this report, upon purchasing the package and then agreeing to terms for adding more hunters, I would have had the additional hunters or animals on a contract price at time of agreement. Then the only increases would be if I decided to add on more animals while on the hunt, assuming a similar situation where trophy fees also increase. Basically, only changes to the contract would be subject to price increases.

If an outfitter is not willing to do business like this for me, I'd either walk away or just do the donation only portion, and find a different company to do more hunting with if friends wanted to join.

@jt13 thanks for the report, and I'm glad you had a good time and didn't let the issues ruin your trip.

 

[jt13]

To me, the frustration would be, as OP stated, to have a huge price increase without notice immediately before the trip for something that had been previously discussed. As someone who has purchased and been on donation hunts (with no bad experiences so far), and will likely purchase more in the future, my takeaway is to get a signed contract for any changes/additions to the package. For example, using this report, upon purchasing the package and then agreeing to terms for adding more hunters, I would have had the additional hunters or animals on a contract price at time of agreement. Then the only increases would be if I decided to add on more animals while on the hunt, assuming a similar situation where trophy fees also increase. Basically, only changes to the contract would be subject to price increases.

If an outfitter is not willing to do business like this for me, I'd either walk away or just do the donation only portion, and find a different company to do more hunting with if friends wanted to join.

@jt13 thanks for the report, and I'm glad you had a good time and didn't let the issues ruin your trip.

100%.

This is exactly my take away from the negative pricing/billing experience that I had. You live and you learn. Next time things will be written, signed, and legally binding with nothing "subject to change".

 

[Deepfork]

100%.

This is exactly my take away from the negative pricing/billing experience that I had. You live and you learn. Next time things will be written, signed, and legally binding with nothing "subject to change".

Hunts are often booked a year or two out so I could understand small price increases. 150%-250% is excessive, I would also be upset.