Your voice has a chance to be heard now! scamion.com - we bring changes together.

report scam

People to People International


Country United States
State Missouri
City Kansas City
Address 2405 Grand Boulevard, Suite 500 , Missouri
Phone 1.816.531.4701
Website https://www.ptpi.org

People to People International Reviews

  • Jul 1, 2016

This is an extremely condensed version of our nightmare with People to People International. They are rude, shady, and extremely unprofessional. They show no concern for the safety of the children or the legitimate concerns of parents. You will need a crack interrogation team to get any answers out of them. So here is our story.

We were contacted by PTPI in December 2015. We were surprised by this, as we knew PTP had gone out of business. (Note: We used the old PTP in 2011 and were very happy with our older son’s experience.) This was a brand new company with a new travel partner, although, they were still using some of the old websites info, specifically the history of PTP, even though they were now PTPI.

The old PTP had local meetings, paperwork that had to be filled out, and a contract between the parents and PTP. The new PTPI stated up front that this being their first year up and running and the tight time table, no local meetings would be held. However, they assured us all our questions, concerns, and paperwork would be taken care of as quickly as possible.

We paid our payments while repeatedly requesting this paperwork. Their response was to tell us to go to their website and read it. We stated anyone can set up a website. We wanted paperwork, signatures, and company verification. The run around continued, with each person we were put into contact with saying they were "looking into it" or someone else was "looking into it". This included not responding to emails, and PTPI not acknowledging questions for weeks. Finally, in May 2016 we receive paperwork. They printed their terms and conditions off their website, put it on their letterhead with the vice president’s signature at the bottom. There was no place for our signature, acknowledgment, or any of the financial particulars related to our specific trip. Totally professional? We didn’t think so.

Some of the responses we received simply stated that any additional info would be on the group Facebook page. We don’t use or ever want to use Facebook. We informed them of this and asked for an alternative. We were told to create a Facebook account. When we asked what information would be posted about our son on this Facebook page, we were told to look at the Facebook page. Once again, around and around in circles we went for months with no answers.

When we asked about their social media policy in regards to security while in Europe, (i.e. instant posting of the group’s locations via Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, “geotag info”, etc.), we were told there was no policy and we were being overly protective. They even claimed our info on geotag security was incorrect. We sent proof it was indeed correct and was met with silence. We were insulted many times, when we raised concerns of attacks against tourists, the heightened terrorist alerts, and the warnings against posting your current locations while traveling. One of their excuses was, it was too late to change their policies and that they “may” add a social media security policy in 2017. The reason being they had no meeting scheduled and would not schedule another meeting before the 2016 travel. They would not even consider a meeting of our small travel group to discuss these or any other issues. In the end, they told us they knew what they were doing when it came to electronic / social media information security and there was nothing more they would discuss on the matter.

They really showed us they knew what they were doing when they sent flight info to our travel group. Contained within this group email, was the children’s flight info from JFK to Europe and back. This information was expected and important for the group to have as they would be traveling together. What we didn’t expect is for our sons private flights from home to JFK and back would be included along with others private flight info.

This was disturbing especially since number one, we specifically requested that his private information not be included anywhere except in direct communication with us. Number two, we already had this information from the travel partner. Number three, the group email included a link at the beginning to retrieve this information from the travel partners if you so desired.

When we raised issue with this, they said “if” that happened it shouldn’t have. It wasn’t a question of “if” because it “did” and the evidence was in everyone’s email inbox. They continued to say “if” as if there was some doubt in the matter. This gives you an idea of the “professionals” you’ll be dealing with if you ever make the mistake of sending your child with PTPI. So, if you don’t mind complete strangers having your child’s complete and private travel information in case they want to beat you to the airport to meet your child or “bump” into them during their layover, then PTPI is for you.

They finally say they don’t think they can make us happy and wanted to know if we wanted our son to stay in the program. At that time, having no alternative, we answered yes. They then sent the detailed travel itinerary for once they were in Europe. A few days later, on a Friday before Memorial Day, we receive an email telling us they were dropping our son and we would get a full refund. When we tried to find out why, no one would answer us via email or phone. They planned it this way. Due to the holiday weekend (including Monday) by the time we would be able to find someone to protest to, the refund would already have gone through.

Looking back, over the past six months; we had sent over 100 emails requesting information and we received about one quarter of that back in response, with promises of information that never came. They did give us a full refund, however, the unwarranted, late decision by PTPI to drop us, cost us more than $550.00.

Not being able to have a travel experience this summer would have been a great disappointment for our son. My wife, determined to see our son have this great experience, was able to find a site called Travel For Teens. Working with my wife, they set our son up with a better trip to Europe, provided instant paperwork, contracts, and answered any of our questions immediately, and they have a social media security policy. The $550.00 extra cost was for ticket prices and fees, which we fully expected, because we were joining their group late and missed out on the discounts.

OMG, what a difference. One week after being dropped from PTPI, our son is all set for a great trip, and we are happy parents.

Don’t ever use PTPI. They need to go out of business and never be trusted with our children.

Note: PTPI just emailed us to try to solicit funds for Travel 2017. Really!!??? They just dropped us with absolutely no thought to the child they were letting down. It’s just another example of their greedy incompetence.

Write a Review about People to People International