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 9th, 2005 at 7:32 am
has anyone actually taken a holiday through sunkissed or just tried to get a refund, before I decide it is a rip off, I would like to know if the holidays are real
September 14th, 2005 at 6:41 am
My wife fell prey to a pop-up on the internet of sunkissed travel and she called sunkissed travel. After some smooth talking of several people she give them her credit card number.
Some time later it became clear to her that she had done something really stupid because it would cost us much more then the Euro 725 ,-.
So she phoned Sunkissed travel after an hour to cancel the vacation. The lady at the customer service was very helpful and said that if we would send the package back we would get a refund.
My wife e-mailed this to sunkissed travel and she got e-mail back where this was confirmed. So we sent the package back.
Until now (several weeks)we have had no refund.
Sending E-mails to Sunnkissed travel did not help because the E-mail address was not correct anymore.
Yesterday ( 13 sept) I sent a E-mail to the customer service and after a while they called me why I wanted to cancel my trip and telling me that I should sent al the information to an E-mail address JoseAQmgr@aol.com (AQ in capital)
Will be continued
September 20th, 2005 at 10:26 am
They contacted me on Friday 16th September 2005. The woman that I dealt with was Debbie. The Company SpecialTTravel.com its the same people pulling the same scams it looks like.
Everyone that comes across this company should report it to the IFCC IFCC. i have. People that are from USA sould take these people to court and close them down for good.
September 22nd, 2005 at 7:12 pm
Can anyone tell me what the proceedure would be to get a refund after the 30 day period has expired?
September 24th, 2005 at 4:47 pm
Goodevening,
Even in Holland they reached me. The whole story, including the receiving of the package (on the 7th of September).
I send the package back by a certified mail with receipt (they have to sign for this) together with a letter that I wanted to cancel their offer. I wrote a mail to Jose Rodriques thursday the 22 september, who does not react till now.
Did I do the right thing or do I have to do more? I am afraid after reading all the stories and the end of the 30 day’s of cancalletion time.
Can you advise my please?
Thank you very much,
Holland
September 30th, 2005 at 4:55 am
Hi there folks,
This scam has currently hit Sweden under the name Sun Travel and used the numder 407-830-0147. Does anyone have their real name, e-mail and mailing adress?
Thanks beforehand and keep up the good work.
September 30th, 2005 at 12:15 pm
Hi Christian,
The name “Sun Travel” is a bit vague; there are companies with that name, but they don’t match the telephone number and their business doesn’t appear related. So let’s concentrate on digging with the phone number.
If you Google the number, you’ll see the name “Sandy Vacation” associated with it.
Sandy Vacation LLC is (according to Florida Dept. of State, Dept. of Corporations) an inactive company, based at “581 State Road 434 #100, Altamonte Spgs, FL 32701″.
According to the Office of the Attorney General of Florida, a company at that address is being investigated in a civil suit for telemarketing fraud.
But Sandy Vacation are inactive… hmmm.
Also on the Google Search are a few matches from the web, one page in particular caught my eye, because it quotes the full sales pitch, which is a pretty good match for the AmeriVacation phone spam that I received.
The Google search also provides an address “808 Rogers Ct, Cassleberry, FL 32707″ which happens to be a former “Principal Place of Business” for Discount Holidays LLC, which is also quoted in their Fictitious Name Filing for “Your VIP Holiday”.
The official documents show that the registered agent of both Discount Holidays LLC and Sandy Vacation LLC is Shama Rehmetullah.
You’ll no doubt notice that Shama’s address on the Sandy Vacation documents: it’s “7818 Fernleaf Dr. Orlando, FL 32836″; the “AmeriVacation” address.
So, to answer your question, the real name of the company could be any of the above, or something else, and the real address, could also be any of the above, or others. The best bet is to call them and ask, and if you have no luck, call the DOACS (001 850 488 3022) and ask for their help in working out which company you’re dealing with.
Rich
October 12th, 2005 at 4:26 pm
Hi Rich,
Today I got a call from a company called celebration promotions about a trip to Orlando staying at the Celebration World resort, Bahahma cruise and etc. Unfortunately, I was stupid enough to take the offer immediately there on the phone given reasons that this was a once in a phone call deal and that if I didn’t like the package later I had 30 days for a full refund.
The worrying thing was the guy already new how many debit cards or credit cards I had without me disclosing any infomation other than my name and address.
I recieved an email from their company with details of accomodation and etc. I then decided to check your site which gave me great advice on how to get a refund back. I called my bank and found out they had taken the money immediately on transaction.
When I rang the company they promised to refund my money once my details were available in the customer realtion department which takes 24 hours. This being a stalling tactic, I decided to pretend to actually book a holiday instead using my customer number but they still did not have my details present.
Is this a common stalling tactic? How reputable is this company as I have seen it named on your site under a different registration number and ICI. What should I do now in reference to your action plan for refunds?
Thanx.
October 12th, 2005 at 4:41 pm
Hi Rosh,
if you have time to look over the (hundreds of) comments on the ameri-who and ameri-scam stories, you’ll see numerous examples of behaviour that could be interpreted as stalling tactics.
Whether or not this is such a tactic neither you nor I can tell. If you don’t want the holiday, then just follow the instructions: call them, find out the return address, then return the package; then, if you feel you were misled, contact the DOACS.
Rich
P.S. It’s quite easy to buy personal information. Your credit rating (for example) will show details of your current and past credit contracts. This is probably a worthwhile purchase for a sales company that wants to ensure the people they call have a credit card with which to make a knee-jerk purchase.
October 13th, 2005 at 12:13 am
I have purchased many vacations from sunkissed travel and they all been great you can email me about it and i’ll gladly send you pictures. If you are patient and actually set your travel dates i promise you you will have a great time and will be pleasantly surprised with the service and hotels they use.
plasticglasses@comcast.net
Jaime Steadman