tags: Scams
Florida Vacations - How to cancel.
June 16th, 2005, by Rich.
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Several people have emailed me, or left messages asking for help in getting a refund from Florida based holiday companies (such as AmeriVacation, YourVIPTravel, etc), either because they have bought in haste, or feel they have been misguided by the sales person. In this article I hope to condense all the comments from other stories into a simple action plan.
Your Rights
According to Florida State Law “You have a right to cancel your purchase and receive a refund within 30 days of the date of purchase” after which, “the seller has 30 days from the time of receipt of your notice of cancellation to send you a full refund”. [source] [corroborating source]
The law exists to regulate Sellers of Travel to and from Florida, as well as Sellers of Travel whose place of business is in Florida - it helps to maintain the reputation of Florida as a welcoming vacation destination and protects the citizens of any country by forcing licensed sellers of travel to follow strict rules, including the ones about refunds; so the suggestions listed here are valid from any country.
Action 1 - Call
- Call the number you originally dialled.
- Politely and clearly state that you are calling because you wish to cancel a contract.
- Ask them to confirm the company name and address to which you should send a cancellation letter.
- If the person on the other end bluffs or prevaricates, remind them that Florida State Statute 559.933 is quite clear on your right to a full and prompt refund.
- If they verbally agree to send you a full refund, accept this happily, but you should not stop yet because if they were to forget to send it, or lose the note to say that you’d called, or had a computer crash, (etc. etc.) then you’d have no evidence that you called within the 30 day cancellation period.
Action 2 - Write
- Write a letter of cancellation.
- This is a generic letter template.
- This is an AmeriVacation template.
- Send the letter by an international recorded delivery service.
- From the UK you could use International Signed For.
- Sometimes the companies will state that “you have to return the package”, this is usually just an obstruction tactic, but if they insist, take photographs (and scan or photocopy) everything that you return (example).
Action 3 - Complain always
If you you’re unhappy about the experience and wish to air your grievance, then please do. Lodging a formal complaint will quickly raise the profile of your scammer so the DOACS can monitor them better:
- Complain to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (who regulate the selling of travel in Florida) using this form.
- Inform your “local” national press so that others do not go through the same experience.
- In the UK there is the BBC’s Watchdog Programme
- In the Netherlands, there is Opgelicht.
Action 4 - Write to your credit card company
- Write to your credit card company and tell them that you are seeking a refund from the vendor.
- Explain why you feel the company misrepresented itself.
- Include a copy of the letter you sent to the vendor.
- Use local legislation if necessary:
- If you’re in the UK and the vendor refuses (or is unable) to provide a refund, then the Consumer Credit Act 1974 section 75 is your fallback. It makes the credit card company equally responsible for any misrepresentation (which in the case of AmeriVacation there has been), so should attempt to claim the refund from your credit card company.
Action 5 - Help Others
If you succeed in getting a refund, using this or an alternative method, let others know by describing your success below, I’ll modify the above steps as appropriate.
September 5th, 2006 at 4:11 am
Hi,
Just tonight I was called by Miss Ashley Haniss employee number 2154 from greatvacations destinations based in Toronto Ontario Canada. I asked her for this information after she gave me the prize shpeil of 8 days 7 night in the Bahamas with everything i could have dreamed of included for free, all i had to do was get down there some time in the next 2 and a half years, and… give them my credit card information right then and there on the phone or the offer was off. I told them I wanted to verify the validity of theyre company, before even considering. I checked out the site, and it was a lame-ass site, the “about” and “contact us” button didn’t even work.
I decided to call back, play along and try to get as much info as I could to research and try to report them. Anybody calling you asking for your credit card on the spot, is a scam.
It ended up going to their manager, they were very good at keeping me on the line for a good long while, even when I had had enough and told them they were scamming me, they proceeded to offer me more stuff.
What their company does, is hooks you up with a hotel and a few drinks while they bombard you with advertisments and pressure you to buy timeshares, and suck your wallet dry.
I told the manager to f-off and hung up on him. Then he even proceeded to call me back and reem me out, knowing he didn’t have a sale, he tried to make me regret not taking it, ‘cuz if I went the their site I would see I missed out. If theres that much pressure for you to accept a PRIZE then theres something not right.
If you have been suckered into this scam, don’t feel like an idiot, just call and cancel. If you want a good vacation, pay the money for one without strings attached.
I am persuing more investigative matters to find out where they actually got my info, because they said I entered the contest at the Richmond night market in Vancouver BC. I’ve never been to the Richmond Night Market, which was what probably saved me on this scam, I nearly had my credit card out of my wallet.
That was a close one.
Good luck anyone else who encouters these people.
Brian Shaw
of Vancouver BC
Canada
September 6th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Hallo everybody,
Especially Lars from Sweden, as I as well had won the fantastic trip from summerbayholiday. I thought it was too good to be true as well and as I don`t have a creditcard I could not give them a number. I only left mij name and phone-number. So I hope I am not hooked yet. I am not, am I ??
September 6th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
What if I have already taken the vacation but the accomodations were so poor and nasty that I left early and did not utilize the entire vacation, ie a cruise and the remaining nights in a “Luxury Resort”???
September 6th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
Hi Julian - you have several options. You could (and should) contact the DOACS and lodge a complaint. You could contact your credit card company and state that since the goods purchased were not as specified they (as credit provider) are legally liable for your the cost of the service that was not delivered.
Most cathartic of all, once you’ve done the first two, write about your holiday on the web (with pictures as proof) so others don’t fall into the same trap - remember anything you write that is a true reflection of your experience (however negative) is not libel, so don’t be frightened to say if you’ve had a bad experience.
September 7th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
I’ve been screwed! These Great Vacation Destinations people really know how to rip us off.
How stupid was I to think this scam was for real? I called my brother after I had given these people my credit card info and accepted their offer. He asked me if I had to pay and I said yes. Aggghhh!!! Why did ? pay!
I called them back to cancel and they informed me I needed to call in the day. I called my Visa Co. to cancel my card and they said the transaction was already filed but still has not been processed. I called GVD the next day. When I finally got through after being disconnected multiple times I was informed that I could not get a refund.
They offered me a plan where I could pay half $399 US now then the remaining half in a month. I said no way! I then threatened them with the 559.933 Florida State statute (which my customer service rep said she was all too familiar with and didn’t need to be reminded of) and that I’d be contacting DOACS. She said fine go ahead!
I called my Visa co. informing them of what happen. Apparently I can dispute this with them but who knows what will happen with that. I do intend on writing to GVD a formal letter to be sent by reg mail of course using your template, Rich. I feel like such an idiot! I just want my money back!!
September 8th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
Dayani! File a complaint with DOACS..thats how I got my money back. I also sent a cancelation letter which was just returned to me today saying on it ” Best USA Vacations Moved. Left no address. unable to forward. Return to sender.”
do everything you can.
September 8th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Hello,
I too made the mistake of accepting the GVD trip. I do believe that the trip is real, my problem with it is that it’s so structured. You must spend two days here, then be to the ship in time for the 2-night trip, then travel to South Florida. You have to pay an extra $150 per person for registering, and then pay for rental car insurance. And the plane ticket of course. Oh, and please squeeze in time for our presentation where we’ll try to cinvince you to give GVD MORE money!
I decided almost right away that I wanted to cancel, but every time I get on the phone, they leave me on hold for at least 10 minutes to speak to customer service. If you call reservations or the travel department, you go right through of course. So the guy tells me that he will credit me back $258, and I can still take the trip. I speak to my fiancee about this offer, and we decide that we’d rather just cancel. So I call back (spoke to Johann), and after waiting on hold for ages, he says he had to talk to his “manager”, and finally said they could refund all but $150. But since the law says I should get a full refund, I kept arguing that, and he was like “well, I’m not a lawyer, you’d have to contact a lawyer if you’re going to argue the law.” He said that they don’t offer the package on a “cancellation basis.” and that we needed to uphold our part because they were willing to discount it so much so I was like “what about the part of the package that says if you want to cancel you should do it within 30 days.” He said if I wanted to put something in writing, their cancellation “department” would “review” my request. So that’s just what I’m doing, I typed out the letter, made copies of my package, and I’m going to send it off later.
Like I said before, I really do think this trip is real, and under the right circumstances it would probably be a lot of fun, I just don’t like being forced into a trip I don’t want to take! I definitely don’t think the people who work there need to be such jerks. I mean, the vacation package, on the back, actually says:”GVD allows the purchaser to cancel the purchase of the vacation package by written notice within thirty days of receipt of the vacation package.” And he acted like he’d never heard of such a thing. Ugh!
Danielle
September 11th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
THanks for the advice Lydia! Great to know there are actually some kind hearted people out there. I honestly don’t know how these GVD people sleep at night.Surprisingly I did manage to get something of use from my GVD customer service agent. Their address has changed. It is now:
GVD
1701 Park Centre Dr.
Orlando, FL.
32835
Fax #: 321 354 6160
I’ll be sending my cancellation letter today.
How soon did you hear back from DOACS, Lydia? I filed my complaint on Thursday the 7th, still haven’t heard back…
September 12th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
I should have ‘idiot’ stamped on my forehead. lol. I just contacted GVD for a cancellation. I plan on following all of the steps. Luckily I wasn’t on hold for very long at all. However, the representative I got sounded very unsure and you could practically hear the papers she was reading from. Of course I was told that I could have half of my money back so the rest could be used as a vacation in the future. I reminded them of THE FLORIDA STATE STATUE and that I was going to be writing a letter of cancellation. I have to wait until my package actually arrives until doing so, though. Knowledge is power! Thanks for the hints!
September 14th, 2006 at 1:13 am
Got my refund, almost 1 year after the sale and charge to my credit card. Thank goodness for cell phone records to prove that I called!
They said that they gave me the refund out of good customer service and they accept no fault, etc. Just happy that I didn’t waste the money. :)