Aussie mum Caroline Livanos says there has been lots in the media over the last year or more about how pandemic has affected businesses like travel agents, but she says there is another side to her story and in her case one worth over $1,000.
Caroline told Global Travel Media that while she fully appreciates most travel agents have done the right thing by their customers and provided refunds or credits in full, she says that some appear to have taken advantage and unlawfully kept ‘commissions’ for trips that didn’t go ahead or even pocketed refunds meant for the customer.
She also says believes it is possible this behaviour may be happening across the sector from large travel organisations and even to the local suburban travel agency as they have experienced.
So on with Caroline’s story, which kicked off with booking an overseas trip with a local travel agent in Melbourne, in early 2020, about 3 weeks before she says she had ever heard the word coronavirus.
Caroline says that they chose to book through a travel agent, as they have a son with a disability and wanted to ensure all flights connections were seamless and that this once-in-a-lifetime trip for the whole family [pictured] went off without a hitch.
So, they paid the agent $8,150 for airfares with Emirates and Aegean Airlines and $502 for travel insurance with Covermore, totalling $8,652.
Caroline now says that sadly, this was one of the worst decisions they’ve ever made, saying that when the pandemic hit, this travel agent was a nightmare to deal with and he refused to refund over $1,000 for the holiday Caroline and her family never had.
Caroline said that they were advised on 27 April 2020 that Emirates had cancelled their flights and they asked the agent to arrange a refund of their airfares.
They contacted the agent on numerous occasions via email and telephone calls to confirm if a full refund would be paid but the agent was either non-responsive or the information provided was vague and convoluted.
As a result, they had no alternative but to pursue several other avenues to seek a refund, including a bank reversal request, contacting Covermore insurance for a full refund, and contacting Emirates direct, who on September 2020, confirmed that a full refund, with no cancellation fees, would be processed before 15 October 2020 and they therefore relieved, based on this advice they waited for their refund.
They eventually received written advice via email from the agent on 2 October 2020 outlining a summary of their refund noting a refund of only $6,918.62, with very surprisingly $1,733.38 was being withheld as cancellation fee.
The refund of $6,918.62 was paid into their bank account on 5 October 2020, with the agent describing the funds withheld as ‘principal cancellation fees’, even though Emirates and Covermore had paid the agent back in full.
On 11 October 2020 Caroline emailed the agent asking why they did not receive a full refund of their airfares, while also highlighting to the agent that the terms and conditions associated with their travel arrangements did not allow for any cancellation fees, if travel arrangements were cancelled by a third party, i.e. travel agents or an airline).
They did though acknowledge that a small fee to process their refund was reasonable given the unprecedented circumstances of COVID-19.
They asked the agent to respond to their email by 16 October 2020, but the agent did not reply, except for an automated email acknowledging the receipt of our email.
They then sought to lodge a complaint to the agent directly, but the agent did not have a formal complaints process on their website, with the agent’s terms and conditions directing them to their ‘Contact Us’ section of their website but there was no information about lodging a complaint on this page, nor a complaints form.
Without having a formal complaints process to follow, and no communication for the agent, Caroline said they had little choice but to lodge a complaint directly with Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV), which was completed on 17 October 2020.
Several days after lodging their complaint with CAV, one of the CAV staff members advised them there was a sufficient concern of a breach to Australian consumer law by the travel agent in withholding such a significant part of their payment.
The CAV staff member suggested that they write to the agent to explain their thoughts about a reasonable compromise to resolve the matter and added that if they did not receive a response, or if the response was not reasonable, they should consider lodging an application to VCAT.
Caroline sent an email to the agent on 23 October 2020 outlining their previous position that, given the circumstances of travel restrictions due to COVID-19, it was reasonable for the agent to retain a $450 cancellation fee, but the agent should repay the remaining amount of $1,132.78.
The agent replied on 26 October 2020 by email stating the withheld fees included the agency commission and that the agency was not at liberty to return funds earned as this was the company’s sole income and the agency had the right to remove commission from the payment.
The agent also stated that the matter had been referred to their solicitor and any further costs would be charged directly to Caroline.
In addition, the agent did not provide a breakdown of the fees to justify why they were reasonable.
Caroline said that they felt this response was unreasonable, especially the threat to charge the legal fees directly to them, which she knew was not possible without a legal direction from VCAT or a court. and they felt that the agent was seeking to intimidate them.
In a final attempt to resolve the matter, they emailed the agent on 28 October 2020 noting advice from the ACCC and CAV that, with the circumstances of COVID-19, any cancellation fees charged should be ‘reasonable’, highlighting again that a reasonable fee was the travel agent’s cancellation fee of $450, and that the remaining airfare payment should be refunded back to them of $1,132.78.
They also highlighted that they were prepared to lodge an application to VCAT if they did not receive a response or reasonable response by 30 October 2020.
Up until lodging the VCAT application on 3 November 2020, no response was received from the agent except for an automated email acknowledging the receipt of their email.
Caroline said that they were aware that other people who have booked travel services, through a travel agent, that had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 and they have received full refunds, without any cancellation fees or travel agent commissions, so she does not believe that the travel agent in question was acting fairly and consistent with others in the travel industry.
Caroline said that they were only seeking what they feel is fair and reasonable, reflected by the decision by VCAT to direct the agent to repay $1,132.78 back to them.
Caroline says that when she asked for clarification, he admitted it was actually the commission he believed he had earned even though the trip didn’t proceed.
Now, many months later, Caroline says that the agent still won’t reimburse her money and as a result they now have to pursue the order being enforced via the Magistrates Court, another lengthy and costly process, but one she feels she has to do, not only to get her own money back but to show others who are in a similar position that they can succeed.
In closing, Caroline said that she believes that this commission-based industry needs a major overhaul, so average Australians can book trips with confidence in the future, knowing their money will be refunded if their trips are cancelled, by factors outside of their control and she urges anyone in a similar or worse position to visit Travel Industry Issues – the need for change for Australians: https://m.facebook.com/groups/312283093247824?view=info&sfd=1
A report by John Alwyn-Jones, Special Correspondent Travel and Tourism, Global Travel Media.
