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The problem we had with David and SamJoe company.

Despite the fact that SamJoe is recommended in the Lonely Planet guide, we had a major problem with them. Please find hereafter a complete and sincere description of what they tried (and partially succeeded) with us. I publish this page to prevent other tourists from being additional victims...

We asked David (SamJoe employee, son of the director) to book a trip for us to go and come back from Moshi to Zanzibar. We agreed on a price of 160 USD for 2 persons. Since we also wanted to go (after Zanzibar) to another safari in Kenya, he asked us a 200 USD advance to organize everything.

We told him that we didn't want to pay in advance, but he answered that, without this money, he couldn't come with us to Zanzibar, disaccording with our agreements. We paid. That was our big mistake !

We told him that we wanted to get that money back ASAP. He answered that this was not a problem and, since he accompanied us to Zanzibar to meet other customers there, he would receive the some money from then and refund us. We trusted him, with his friendly smile...

So, we all left to Zanzibar. There was no problem during the journey, and we arrived in Zanzibar and found an hotel without any problems... During the journey, we had to spend some time in Dar Es Salaam, where we asked David to go to the bank and get the money back. He told us that it would be too long to do a money transfer from Moshi to Dar Es Salaam... But for sure, the next he would meet his customers and receive the money.

The next day he left to pick up his customers at the airport. We went on our side for the day. During the evening, we didn't saw him. But one of his friend told us that he would be at the hotel the next day...

But the next day, nobody was in sight... but he left a message and two open boat tickets for us to go back to Dar Es Salaam. Attached was a note saying: "I will meet you here at 9:00 AM".

But the next day, we waited until 10:00 and saw nobody ! So we headed off to the harbor and  took the 11'o clock ferry. Once in Dar Es Salaam, we tried to pick up a bus to reach Moshi, but these all leave early morning, so we had to spend one extra night in Dar Es Salaam.

The next day, we took the bus (we had to buy news tickets)  to Moshi. Once we arrived, we tried to reach him, but nobody knew where he was... We called his office many times, but nobody even knew his mobile number ! So we waited (again).

The following day, fortunately for us, a lady from the Kenyan company popped up and told we immediately asked her whether she received the 200 USD already, since David told us that he gave them to the Kenyans already. She confirmed that neither her, nor her company received anything from David !

We had to find out the famous David, to bring him to the police and to argue during hours with him and the police. Finally, the police officer (rather correct) told him that he had to refund us... Which he did, reluctuntantly !!! But he managed to keep 50 USD out of our 200 !!!