While we understand that traffic can delay arrival in DC, that is why we recommend planning to arrive 15 minutes early. When our guests run a few minutes late and they contact us ahead of time, we able frequently able to make accommodations.
In this instance, based on the phone records, we received a call at 9:13 am, and by this point had already began our tour as our other guests had been waiting outside on a particularly cold day. When we received the call, our tour had only just moved inside at the Supreme Court, our first stop. At this point, the guide paused his tour, gave directions for meet up with the group (as stated above), and waited for an additional 15 minutes. After answering a second call from the missing guests at 9:27, our guide had to continue on with the remaining guests in order to ensure that the rest of the group did not miss the full tour.
Our apologies, but we do at some point have to consider the experience for all of our guests on board.
We made every possible effort to accommodate and help you join the group; I am sorry this did not work out but we could not stop the experience for all other customers.
Our refund policy is clear: 24-hour advance cancelation required. While we try to be as flexible as possible, failing to notify our guide of delays until after the tour begins takes available space from other interested guests on purposely small group tours.