List of required questions for negative hunt reports

bassasdaindia said:

agreed .

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Also agree.

I had a very unpleasant hunt with one of this site's sponsors recently. I have nothing to gain by posting a negative report and sure as shit don't want to run through the interrogation process of posting a bad report on a sponsor.

I have posted good and bad reviews. The bad review got a lot of people questioning the review. There seems to be a little ganging up on people who give bad or even slightly negative reviews. No one seems to really question positive reviews espically the ones that are overly glowing.

I posted a review of my hunt that was overall positive, with only one issue during a non-hunting excursion.

In my case, I recieved no backlash and my outfitter bent over backwards to support me, to include refunding that excursion and contacting the company responsible.

As others have said, if your remove the emotion and stick to the facts, I think you'll be ok.

I for one, really appreciate those that post negative reviews. Without them, it's a sea of positive reviews and makes the process of choosing an outfitter tougher. The negative reviews can help others avoid bad apples... and help outfitters address and fix issues.

85Tecate said:

I had a very unpleasant hunt with one of this site's sponsors recently. I have nothing to gain by posting a negative report and sure as shit don't want to run through the interrogation process of posting a bad report on a sponsor.

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85Tecate, I am sorry to hear about having had a negative experience on your safari. I don't think that it is fair if you throw something like this out there the way that you did because it somehow calls the integrity of AH into question. It casts a shadow on every one of the sponsors which isn't right. And it's almost an invitation for members to PM you and thereby not allow the outfitter a chance to share their side.

Please share your experience with us. You do not have to answer any questions after that if you do not want to, but I think you should post a report and give the outfitter an opportunity to respond as well.

On a personal note I certainly do not want anyone to ever feel that they can not post a negative report on any outfitter even one that is a sponsor.

85Tecate said:

Also agree.

I had a very unpleasant hunt with one of this site's sponsors recently. I have nothing to gain by posting a negative report and sure as shit don't want to run through the interrogation process of posting a bad report on a sponsor.

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AfricaHunting.com said:

85Tecate, I am sorry to hear about having had a negative experience on your safari. I don't think that it is fair if you throw something like this out there the way that you did because it somehow calls the integrity of AH into question. It casts a shadow on every one of the sponsors which isn't right. And it's almost an invitation for members to PM you and thereby not allow the outfitter a chance to share their side.

Please share your experience with us. You do not have to answer any questions after that if you do not want to, but I think you should post a report and give the outfitter an opportunity to respond as well.

On a personal note I certainly do not want anyone to ever feel that they can not post a negative report on any outfitter even one that is a sponsor.

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@85Tecate,

I'm also sorry to read that you had a bad experience, regardless of whether or not it was with an AH sponsor. I do hope it wasn't with Serapa Safaris, but if it was, I want to know about it. If it was with Serapa I would ask you to please PM me the details as I will look into it and do what I can to make things right.

If it wasn't with Serapa Safaris, I would encourage you to discuss the situation directly with the outfitter if you haven't already. If you have or will discuss with them and afterwards things are not made to your satisfaction, then posting a negative report would be the next step.

It seems however you've made up your mind to not do that, and I certainly respect your reasons. It is a difficult unpleasant thing to do. But I second Jerome's post and encourage you to share what happened. As others have said, stick to the facts and leave emotion out of the discussion. If you do then I think the majority of AH members will see that and you shouldn't feel like you've been put through an interrogation. Will questions be asked? Sure, that's only fair. Most folks just want to get down to all the facts and as a result you may also learn something that will help you in any future hunts you book when issues arise.

Again if you choose not to post the report, I understand why and won't criticize you. But one of the purposes of the AH community is to help each other in regards to planning a hunt. That purpose isn't served if we're not willing to deal with the unpleasant experiences too. And who knows, you may in fact gain something out of it.

85Tecate said:

I had a very unpleasant hunt with one of this site's sponsors recently. I have nothing to gain by posting a negative report and sure as shit don't want to run through the interrogation process of posting a bad report on a sponsor.

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@85Tecate ,
Maybe you have nothing to gain by posting it, but everyone else might. I'm assuming that you come here to learn and to make a trip better. That doesn't happen without honest feedback from others.

I've copied a posy of mine from this thread as I think it addresses your statement. And for even more clarity, I'd say that 90% of the little bit of heat that I took were from "fanboys" of the outfitter. Ironically, I actually made several really good friends right here on the forum out of that situation. I mean like I've hunted with them and they've stayed at my house now kind of friends.

And, the outfitter in question was a sponsor here at the time, but has since been banned from the site. Point being, I never felt for one second as if I couldn't criticize a sponsor - I didn't have any of my posts deleted, edited, nor was it ever suggested that I take a different tact in my approach.

It is your right to not post a critical report and I support that 100%. That said, I agree with @AfricaHunting.com in that to suggest you won't post it due to fear of some type of retaliation because you are critical of a sponsor is unfair, and based on my experience, unfounded.

Royal27 said:

As someone who has publicly posted a complaint here this is something that I considered carefully before I posted. I truly tried to stick to the facts and answered questions when asked about pertinent details I left out. I again tried to answer factually and leave out my own personal opinion. And trust me, that was tough to do....

I wanted others to learn from my mistake and was willing to put myself out there in order to accomplish that. I took some heat, but it was pretty limited, especially for the Internet. I can only attribute that to the fact that I tried to be as open as possible and lay the entire set of facts out the best I could.

Now if I had spun things to try and make myself look better? Well, we've all seen what happens when that happens.... Almost without exception when the pitchforks come out due to a client complaint it's when disclosure wasn't made.

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Erny said:

I have posted good and bad reviews. The bad review got a lot of people questioning the review. There seems to be a little ganging up on people who give bad or even slightly negative reviews. No one seems to really question positive reviews espically the ones that are overly glowing.

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They tend to do it silently. Any report that is overly simple and appears to be glowing from a short term member gets one thinking.

Good comments everyone.

My most recent experience was last years safari, my first African safari, Kubusi Safaris, Tuskers lodge. I posted a report and sent my comments to them. Trivial negective items in my report was about the lighting and excessive amount of plugs in use on the only working outlet. I had a great hunt and first African experience. As such I am returning to hunt Africa this year with Kubusi Safaris and requested Tuskers lodge, and the same PH.

I read several reports by others who had hunted with Kubusi, but none that I read specified what lodge they stayed at.

One in particular review sticks out the most because the client didn't ask or didn't think. Their complaint was the hot water. Not until the last night at the lodge did they know the hot and cold water knobs in the shower were reversed.

REALLLY BAD customer/client!!:

Some years ago I worked as a horseback trail/tour guide. I had a fellow come in, wanted a full day (8 hour) ride. I asked him the usual question:
His horse riding experiences; what kind of trails he wanted to ride; etc.
His responses were very vague to say the least.

Once mounted and heading through town I started my usual repertoire of the town and the town laws (all 10 of them) along with the names and types of trails we had our choice of going on.

Now to get to the trails, riders have to travel along the dirt/gravel roads. This customer immediately and disgruntedly said, this was too easy and he wanted harder trails. I advised him of the necessity of the situation and in a few minutes we were on at the trail head leading out to various degrees of riding trails.

Up to this point and throughout our entire ride I kept at him until he finally confessed.

Upon our start onto the trails about 100 yards or so he immediately said, this trail is too rough. We were on a well used pathway to Powerline lookout. One of 3 of the easiest and most used trails. I instantly realized my 1st impressions of this guy was spot on.

He got 6 of his 8 hours. That's all I could stand of him.

His confession:
This was the first time he had ever been around horses and his first time to actually ride a horse.

He ONLY want an 8 hour ride because he was going on a 7 day "dude ranch" cattle drive and he was using this experience to tell (glorify) to his host about his horsemanship.

He made his complaints known to the stable owner who pacified him with an occassional chin rub or nod.
In the end the stable owner didn't refund him his money and I gave my report to the owner and friend of this guys intent. We both pitied the people hosting the cattle drive.

Had the internet and a site like this have been around back then, we could have warned others of this guy.

@85Tecate please post your report with the good, the bad and the ugly. Truthful hunt reports are one of best tools that we as hunters have at our disposal when researching outfitters. It helps others avoid the potential pitfalls that someone before may have encountered.
A negative report also allows an Outfitter the ability to respond and take responsibility if necessary or at least give them an opportunity to make it right if possible.