Me too, I worte to Grayline (Brad Weber) about their sightseeing services in Rio de Janeiro and never got any answer. POOR, VERY VERY POOR. see letter below:

att
Mr. Brad Weber
President Grayline International


Dear Sirs,

In October I took a Grayline operated sightseeing in Rio de Janeiro, one-day tour called "Ilhas Tropicais".
I was very unsatisfied with the tour and have reported the serveral incidents to your local office, to Mr. Diogo Malta, who answered to me in a very insatisfactory way, usual in Brasil, trying to blame others for the miserable outcome of the sightseeing.

The main issues were:

- Delay in departure time;
- Keeping tourists outside in fron of closed shopping mall, awaiting Grayline's bus to arrive; (without any security at the mercy of eventual robbers)
- Guide did not explain any detail of Rio's wonderful sites during the driving out, nor details about Rio, geography, history, etc.
- Presence of non-Grayline cameraman on board, to film tourists and produce a DVD at the price of BRL 140.00 (equals approx USD 70.00)
- Poor appearance and interior of the bus (dirty, noisy and unpleasant - poor cooling)
- Poor attitude of guide that did not consider the elderly passengers to board the bus first and chose their seats (most of the passengers were 3rd age from US)
- Breakdown of the bus on the way (near Santa Cruz, driver himself stated that the bus was old and poorly maintained. ALL the belts went of during the drive, leaving us without power steering and hydraulical brake system, besides a/c)
- Poor apperance and maintenance of sailing boat that took us to the islands
- Extremely low profile of guide during the entire trip
- Extremely high priced drinks on boat, SOLD ACTIVELY BY GRAYLINE GUIDE. THE GUIDE MRS. YEDA ALSO ACTIVELY DRANK WITH THE TOURISTS THAT INTERESTED HER, LEAVING THE 3RD AGE TOURISTS, US AND SOME OTHER LATIN AMERICANS TOTALLY ASIDE. She was cheering with other guests with lots of caipirinhas.
- Poor performance also on the way back to Rio.
- Sightseeing shortened considerably, due to waiting in the morning for Grayline Bus and due to technical failure.

I have therefor written to your offices in Brazil, as stated above and demanded for reasonable compensation as besides the lost day we had a sighseeing of extreme poor services, which is not the Grayline standard. I have been with you in many cities in US, Central and South America and Europe. I have never experienced such an attitude and poor services on Grayline, what astonishes most was the answer from your Mr. Diogo Malta of the Brazilian branch.

He claims:
I bought my ticket at the hotel reception (Golden Tulip Continental Rio) and it should be operated by another sightseeing company, so Grayline took over the passengers from this other company. He states it easily but seems not to be aware or to deny the responsibility for all poor GRAYLINE performance. Definitively Grayline is responsible for the very poor result of the sightseeing, if Grayline "inherited" these passengers from another tour operator or not. Obligations and consumer laws in Brazil are clear to this aspect, such as it is anywhere in the world, as the service was performed by Grayline, such as if I buy am air ticket with one airline and fly another for any reason there is definitively the co-responsibility of both, but claims are to be made to the services used. It was Grayline's bus that had a technical failure, creating a shorter journey, it was Grayline's bus that looked poor and old, it was Grayline's guide that was selling the services of a "wild" cameraman wripping off tourists, and it was the same Grayline guide that was actively selling and taking alcoholic drinks on the poor looking and badly maintained boat. Your representative in Brazil blames the poor road conditions for the bus breakdown, and not the miserable maintenance conditions of the busses. (I would recommend you let one of your senior staff just go inside one of the busses, do a random check on appearance and engine maintanance records)

This is not acceptable and the answer of Mr. Diogo Malta is not satisfactory, I bring the matter to your attention, seeking an adequate compensation and excuses, and not the email Mr. Malta wrote me, it looks after all that I should be happy to be back alive to the hotel and the fact that I booked through another tour operator is the most relevant for him to completely waive Grayline's responsibility.

I look forward to your investigation and proposal, before any other further action is taken from my side. It is not acceptable that a Grayline is tolerating such poor performance and especially professional attitude from a guide (Mrs. Yeda) representing Grayline, the braziian and carioca tourism at all, and definitively in case of further denial of Grayline's responsibilities I shall seek for rights as laid down in consumer protection laws of Brazil besides information to brazilian tourism offices and entities.

I am sending copy of this message to Golden Tulip Hotels Internatational for their knowledge as the booking was made at the reception desk of Golden Tulip Continental in Rio de Janeiro, with my humble recommendation to review their sales of sightseeing tours of Grayline at this hotel, direct or through any other issuing agent, to avoid further disagreable experiences of other tourists.