PSA: do not use Klook if you value your time!

Sorry if this kind of post isn’t allowed. I really want to warn people based on the experiences I’ve had.

Klook is a Groupon-like website where you can purchase a variety of tickets for attractions throughout Japan. I had never heard of it until planning for this trip, and I relied on it quite a bit in Tokyo based on the recommendations of various travel blogs.

My wife and I used Klook to book Tokyo DisneySea tickets and the Klook Pass Ticket, which we planned on using for Sanrio Puroland and the Kaisei Skyliner, with a bundled 72-hour subway ticket.

For the DisneySea ticket, I made a mistake in which I booked it for the wrong date. I wanted to first inquire about a change, and cancel if it was not possible. When attempting to contact Klook customer support, I was in a chat support queue for most of the day before I was finally able to speak with someone. They are unable to offer any sort of update or time estimate before you are connected with someone. On multiple instances, I was connected to an agent, received a message from them, and then was disconnected from them when attempting to respond despite responding immediately after receiving their message. This was on stable wifi, using multiple devices, and using both their website and the chat, so I don’t think it was a connection issue on my end. To be fair, I did receive good advice at that time (no change could be accommodated, and the cancellation fee was very small). I was more upset about wasting an entire day contacting customer service.

The much bigger issue was when attempting to book the Klook Pass Ticket. I initially attempted to use this ticket to reserve TeamLabs Borderless and Sanrio Puroland including a 72 hour subway ticket for an up-charge. Note that we did not have issues booking Puroland in particular.

The way it works is that after receiving the Klook pass, you are prompted to reserve the individual tickets you want using their site. Your ticket is “not yet activated” until you make the reservations, and becomes activated when you use the tickets you reserved (this will become more relevant later).

When I attempted to reserve TeamLabs, no tickets were available (sold out) for the entire week of my stay in Tokyo. This is despite seeing many tickets available on their website on each day of the trip. The fact that TeamLabs was fully booked within Klook was not obvious before buying the Klook Pass, and in fact was not straightforward to know until actually making a booking, because Klook showed many dates available on their website. However, the cancellation policy indicates that if one of your desired attractions is unavailable, you should use the pass to book something else on their list instead, so we used it to book the Kaisei Skyliner instead.

When attempting to use the subway ticket, we were unable to access the QR code needed to scan at a ticket booth. This is because all subway passes were reserved. I do not understand how a subway pass can be sold out for a given date, but it was completely sold out for the entire week of our trip, and we had no way of knowing this prior to paying the extra charge for it.

When attempting to contact Klook customer support, I was again in for a very long queue (albeit not all day, thankfully). When I was able to connect to someone, I was first told that I should use the pass to book something else, since the subway ticket was sold out. This was impossible because the subway ticket was not part of their usual reservation system, but was instead an add-on. When I pointed this out to the customer service rep, we went through some back and forth, but eventually, he told me that the subway ticket should have been an open booking, and that it was a glitch in their system which was causing them to appear sold-out. He said that I should cancel my Klook pass since I had not activated it yet and re-book. He also mentioned that Klook has no customer phone number, and that chat is the only way to get through to them.

In fairness, I did not immediately cancel and maybe should have, since I knew that my first use of a ticket was not for a few days and their policy (as well as the advice I received from their customer service) specified that I could cancel and receive a refund until the ticket was activated. I went ahead and made a reservation through another site for Puroland bundled with a subway ticket at that time so that I had a subway pass and didn’t need to keep purchasing individual subway tickets.

The following day, I attempted to cancel using the link I was provided by the customer service agent I spoke to the previous day. The link did not work and their website listed my ticket as being ineligible for cancellation. I immediately reached out to customer service, explained the situation, and sent screenshots of my previous chat. I was told that the new rep had to speak with someone and would update me via email.

Another day later and I received an email stating that I could not cancel the pass or my reservation due to “strict operator policies.” I responded with a screenshot of their cancellation policy, along with their rep telling me that I could cancel as my pass was not yet activated. They again replied that they could not cancel or initiate a refund for me. At that point, I initiated a chargeback since it was clear that there was no chance of getting help.

TL;DR: I am so done dealing with this company. At first, it seemed like a good deal. However, due to all the glitches and errors their end, as well as the absolutely atrocious customer service, I would emphatically NOT recommend doing business with them, and especially not the Klook Pass. I have wasted hours and hours on this trip trying to resolve issues that shouldn’t have happened, missed trains, and just generally spent way more time in it than I thought possible. It’s better just to buy directly from the individual merchants when you can when possible.

Edit: that was TeamLabs Planets, not Borderless