COVID-19 Prepaid Airline, Accomodation & Tour Refunds, Rebookings

We have been communicating with this agent mainly by email, verbal communication is primarily chasing him up as to why he has not responded to these emails. At one time he did express “because of pandemic being declared Scenic has got special dispensation from ACCC to withhold and not give us full refund of all money paid towards our, now cancelled, Amsterdam to Basel River Cruise”. When I put this to him in a later email he denied having said it so we soon learnt the value of written communication.
I checked with ACCC. Of course no special dispensation has been granted to Scenic to break their contract terms and conditions. ACCC says “if you had a right to a refund under these terms and conditions at the time you purchased your ticket, businesses are not permitted to change the terms at a later time to deny you a refund”
On Scenic website, 2021 Pre-Release Passenger Terms and Conditions are the same for those for 2020 bookings. 2021 Passenger Terms and Conditions the cancellation clause now reads:
“5.3 If We cancel or delay the departure of a Tour by 7 days or more before departure for any reason other than as a result of the occurrence of a Force Majeure Event:” So this is their ‘get out’ clause for bookings beyond 2021.

We paid $250 to Scenic as ‘Deposit Protection Plan’ which was sold to us as more secure than travel insurance “if anything goes wrong and we need to cancel our deposit will be secure’. Now I ask – secure against what? In total we paid, to Scenic. via Hornsby Travel and Cruise, $8250. Scenic want to refund $6000 which we MIGHT get by ?? (a constantly moveable date), charge us $250 fee and keep $2000. We have been advised we can apply for this $2000 being withheld after 31st December 2023 if not used by then (originally this date was 30th June 2023), another moving date. Further check of Scenic website I find, listed under the heading of ‘Deposit Protection Plan’ – “If You do not rebook within 24 months, or utilise all of Your Deposit, it will be forfeited. Therefore, I assume that this is one clause of their contract they WILL abide by !

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We enlisted the assistance of our bank also. In the meantime others need to be made aware of the treatment dealt us by this unscrupulous travel agent and tour company. Somone has suggested I try ‘small claims tribunal’ through their online forum. Your thoughts?

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Thank you for answering my query and giving me some solid information to work with. I appreciate any help you can offer in order to achieve our rights under the Australian consumer law.
A formal letter of complaint - I assume I should send this the Scenic as they are now holding the $$s and this would be in the form of certified mail with a return notification that this has been received? Scenic don’t want to deal with us, previous emails to them have been referred back to their agent we booked through and he’s trying to keep his relationship with Scenic intact
ACCC says we should approach NSW Fair Trading about our matter.
It has also been suggested that we approach NSW Consumer Tribunal, as, what this Company is doing is clearly in breach of their contract terms and conditions.

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From past experiences Fair Trading will advise you to write a formal letter of complaint, and only if not resolved that way will they possibly step in.

Since retailers ‘own’ problems for what they sell I would send the letter to the agent, and cc Scenic. The letter needs to be written in a manner reflecting a silk arguing a case to a magistrate. eg What the problem is, what your rights are, what you want, and by when, as described in the Choice and ACCC templates/tools.

If you get ignored or do not get a satisfactory outcome your paper trail is your evidence to Fair Trading. After that the Consumer Tribunal would be your next step as there seems to be an expected order of ‘operations’ being letter of complaint process, then Fair Trading, then a Tribunal.

An email with notice of receipt (‘read receipt’ or an acknowledgement of some kind) is sufficient but real mail is the gold standard if you cannot get the email response. Some companies seem to refuse mail they have to sign for; an Auspost tracked envelope should be sufficient with a printout of the tracking-delivery history.

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Thank you

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Your State/Territory Civil & Administrative Tribunal is certainly a place to make a claim through (they replace Small Claims Tribunals). Getting some Legal Advice is also highly recommended and you can avail yourself of Free Legal help thorogh Community Legal Centres (see the topic on Free Legal Centres here Free Legal Advice Centres).

As @PhilT has advised you of the important steps you should take I am not going to repeat them.

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The reports of fallout continue. Consumers might take note of which companies did what, be prepared if ‘it’ happens again, and make their choices accordingly.

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An article regarding the difference between getting cancelled tour refunds in Australia and in the UK and Europe.

I have personally known the Cairns couple for decades.

" ACCC questions whether current laws are fit for purpose".

Australian consumers question whether the ACCC is fit for purpose.

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Update! I recently checked again, after a friend mentioned he had received a partial refund, and found that Tick does now provide a refund! The amount you get depends on a formula which relates to how long you held the policy for. What I found interesting was that, even though I had applied earlier for a refund, they did not let me know about their changed policy. The onus was on me to check again.

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Another one bites the dust.

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Mama Mia here it goes again!

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I expect there will be a lot of cancellations resulting from the situation in Sydney and state governments taking action to prevent movement of Sydney siders.

We have had about half dozen so far, but our standard Covid cancellation policy…

Important note about COVID-19 >. Please be aware of the current risk of travel restrictions being imposed due to COVID-19, which may not be covered by travel insurance. If you are unable to travel due solely to mandatory travel restrictions and/or lock-downs, we will assist you with moving your booking within 12 months of cancellation. If you are unable to reschedule your travel and you are unable to fulfil your booking due to government imposed COVID-19 restrictions outside your control, we will waiver any cancellation fees which would otherwise have been incurred as a result of the cancellation.

protects our guests from having to cancel for things outside their control. (Note: for our business, most of our bookings are payment on arrival so refunds for prepayment are not applicable. If we did receive prepayments, these would be refunded in full as soon as the cancellation request was made).

It is a shame other businesses haven’t adopted a similar approach and make fee free cancellations difficult, or use the opportunity and unfortunate circumstances affecting their customers, to charge their customers/guests for something which isn’t their fault.

We take the approach that a guest/customer for life is worth far more than a guest/customer with a sour taste in their mouth.

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The lions share of the market appears to be managed by a minimum of large players. Providing on such things they all act in unison, the harm is shared equally.

It is worth listening to this RN Breakfast interview with Rod Sims - Chair - Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

Rod Simms indicates that due to COVID, usual protections under the Australian Consumer Law don’t apply and one needs to look at the terms and conditions associated with the engagement of services to determine what happens in the event of a cancellation/services unable to be provided.

It was also pointed out that before making a booking/paying for a service, it is important to check the T&Cs and determine if you are comfortable with what they say in relation to a COVID related cancellation or where a service provider can’t provides the engaged services.

He also indicated that consumers when booking a service through a suppliers, ensure that they offer a refund in such case where travel or the service is frustrated by COVID. Those terms and conditions which are silent on how COVID related impacts are dealt with, possibly should be avoided as it may be difficult to obtain a refund/resolution and it is a matter of contract law (not Australian Consumer Law) to find a solution.

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An important point is the problem has shifted from ‘cancellations’ to events being held, but people are not always legally able to attend because of the sometimes rapidly changing rules and restrictions and border closures.

It is all about the T&C. It was not long ago that many travel suppliers were selling tickets to whatever or wherever with free changes of date to accommodate what is now happening. An issue with that is nobody knows when it will be over so any of those purchases need to have very l.o.n.g expirations in the offers.

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Agree, but these can be catered for by T&C’s. Our own T&C’s are broad and allow cancellation for guests who say live in Brisbane but are staying in Sydney on route to Tassie. Technically Queenslanders can enter Tassie, but once they leave the airport in Sydney, they can’t travel unfettered to Tassie…some can travel with mandatory self isolation (those who have been outside the hotspot), but self isolation is impractical for someone on holidays.

We have had this situation with a guest and when they could prove an overnight stopover in Sydney, their booking was cancelled in accordance with our policy.

It isn’t hard to be fair and consistent in approach.

Yet your policies seem to be exemplars that not all in the travel or events industries follow.

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When we set them up we thought hard about what was fair and if the shoe was on the other foot, what would we like to see. We thought should one of our prospective guests suffer/pay for something outside their control?

We also thought that if say our own accommodation couldn’t be booked (say due a fire), how would we approach this as it is also outside the control of the guest.

It because obvious that guests shouldn’t be responsible for booking issues/cancellations/unable to provide a service outside their control. This drove the policy that was adopted.

Edit: The shoe on the other foot is an approach I have taken all my life when dealing with issues with others, especially those issues or decisions which may be seen as unpalatable or a personal or financial impost - and in past careers, there were many. It appears that many businesses may be driven by bean counters (or the greedy?) and lawyers, rather than those with empathy (or a social conscious/licence). As indicated above, doing the right thing by a customer, makes them happy and potentially a customer for life.

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I am trying to get a refund from a travel company called Inspiring Vacations. All they will offer is a voucher which we cannot use as we cannot travel overseas because of the virus. Looking for suggestions

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Some Uninspiring feedback.

https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowTopic-g255055-i120-k11587036-Inspiring_Vacations-Australia.html

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