Beware Omar Bus company, Bolivia

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Here is an interesting story about my partner and I (and about 20 other travellers) choosing to travel with Omar Trans Turistico from Uyuni to La Paz. We had booked a ticket for this trip earlier on in the day and we were due to leave at 8pm for an overnight trip to La Paz. Many of us on the bus had booked and paid the extra amount for a full cama bus - with fully reclining seats for the overnight trip - there was a significant difference in the price between a full cama and semi cama ticket, but chose to pay the extra - it's a long and bumpy overnight journey!

At 7.45 in the evening, the bus arrived, however, it was a semi-cama bus (in fact the seats hardly reclined at all) and there were no full-cama seats. Many of the travellers went into the office, including my partner to complain about the difference in our fares/tickets and the actual service offered - and wanted to reclaim the difference in price from Omar - Not only did they refuse to give us a refund, but if it weren't for me holding the bus door open and fighting off the conductor, my partner and ten other passengers would have been stranded, as the boss ordered the driver to leave without the complainers in the sales office (even though most of these passengers already had their bags loaded onto the bus.) So, there was no refund - the boss shouted at them all and flatly refused to give a refund - and they had to get onto the bus or be forced to spend the night with no booked accommodation (and still no guarantee of getting a refund).

As you can imagine there were a lot of very angry people on the bus that night - In the end of course, as it is Bolivia, we were just glad to make it to La Paz the next morning, however, fellow travellers, please be aware that there are many companies to choose from that ply this route - just don't choose Omar - there is a good chance you will get stung and complaining will likely get you a very angry and agressive response from the greedy boss!

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