Mr Ross, first of all let me say that I am very disappointed with such comments considering I did everything I could to solve the situation in a timely and respectful manner. I am sorry that I couldn't guide you on my hometown, as I am always sorry to refuse tour requests considering my life in the past 10 years has been exclusively dedicated to promote and help project my city Coimbra and the region. This is something that you certainly have understood by reading other people's comments when searching for a guide, people who have in fact known me in person and had the chance to witness the passion and commitment that I put in my work.
Explaining what happened: I received a reservation request from you late at night on the 29th of May 2022. When I woke up the next morning, 30th of May 2022, I had seen that someone was trying to call me at 9:12am and I replied straight ahead saying I couldn't pick up the phone but to text me please. You've answered at 9.24am saying "Good morning. We are leaving Porto this morning and will be in Coimbra sometime around 12:00. Where will we meet you?". I had then seen your reservation request through viator platform, understood what happened and answered at 9:29am, once again, right after, saying "I am sorry, I am no longer available for today. Will you be here tomorrow at 2.30pm? If you are not able to join this tour tomorrow, your reservation will be cancelled and refunded. Sorry for any inconvenience." to which you have replied also at 9:29am only "No thanks.".
What I can take from your expected arrival schedule is that you weren't IN or DRIVING TO Coimbra yet when you texted me (considering this town is 1h drive from Porto), and you wanted me to refund you. If you had spoken to me and explained you were already on your way and only had a few hours here, I would gladly give you my colleagues' contacts in order to see if someone was able to welcome you on my behalf. I have done this with other people before, and everything went fine. My phone number is available on whatsapp and I am always happy to chat with travelers and help them out in any ways I can.
I have proceeded with the refund of your tour on same day. I would like to say that I have also spoken with viator assistance team and now all my reservations need to go through "manual confirmation" from my behalf, instead of "instant confirmation" so that this kind of situation doesn't happen again.
Anyway, regardless of how uncomfortable this situation is to me because of your rude behaviour and lack of humbleness in dealing with the situation, I hope that you had the chance to get to know my hometown and fell in love for it - because it's indeed one of the most incredible places in the Country that I will gladly keep on promoting for the rest of my life.
All the best,
Sara Cruz