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.
January 1st, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Hi, thanks for the information—extremely helpful. They got me!(Summer Bay) A few days ago, during a weak moment over the holidays, I was suspicious but taken in. I am usually more wary. Later in the day I realized that it is not even the sort of holiday we would like!! I feel stupid but human, and have begun taking the steps to write the letter,with carbon copies to the bank, etc. Is good to be protected by a law; is nice to read other comments here so I’m not alone. Hopefully it will all work out. We can’t afford to lose the money, but if it is the price we have to pay to get smart…well, then, it is part of life. Still, I will do everything I can to get a refund; and to send emails to everyone I know to watch out for this sort of thing. Keep you posted from Canada, thanks again. p.s.: who works for these companies????
January 2nd, 2006 at 3:56 pm
So far so good. Summer Bay took my call and agreed to refund the package. Phew. I’ll mail the letter anyway. Thanks for the site
January 17th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Family friend just got hit with got certificate 32 days! after initial payment although it seem that
florida law says the days do not start counting
until after the certificate is received (i hope) oh
man i hope following above steps works, scared yet
hopefull. What really agitates me is warning this
person against these excact schemes regularly has
not prevented there stupididy!!! oh well good luck
me .
January 18th, 2006 at 6:30 am
It seems they’ll try anything. Today in Australia i recieved a call from an autodialler (computer voice “you’ve been randomly selected to win a florida bahama’s Cruise” blah blah blahh press 9″, advertising urprize.com/celebration) I knew it was fake right away. The best way to tell is to ask “Where did you get my number?” Answer “FROM OUR DATABASE”, Don’t be a fool just hang up these ppl are criminals and if you did hang up you just beat them! Web sites such as this one (boakes.org) do a great service to hard working ppl read it and know what to look out for. for thousands of years ppl have run this type of con. Dilligent ppl can help stop it. Regards Wesley from Australia
February 7th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
I have just fallen victim to the same scam. http://www.calysocay.com was given to me on phone as their website after being notified of my being the lucky winner of a holiday at miami beach and a cruise on the bahamas. this happened 3rd February 2006 and since then i hadnt checked with my bankers to see if there’s been a debit on my account since i stupidly gave them my card details. I was surprised when at the beginning a lady called Alice told me that olny visa card are accepted but when she handed me to her collegue Johm Moore, he said even my electronic card will be accepted as a special offer. He gave me their help line 0114079971732 and a confirmation no of CC02020612. i AM YET TO RECEIVE MY FULL PACKAGE IN THE POST BUT will try and cancel it 1st thing tomorrow morning.
February 17th, 2006 at 2:20 am
I got a call from Great Vacation Destination after signing up
for a free trip give-away at the Home and Garden Show in
Cleveland. For 299/per person, we can do the Florida Disney
World/Epcot/Univeral Studios for a few days and then end up
on a cruise to the Bahamas.
Is anyone familiar with Great Vacation Destinations????
Thank you
Kristin
February 21st, 2006 at 3:39 am
I am attempting to cancel my trip that I purchased from Ramada Plaza Resorts. I have heard nothing but horror stories about this company and the vacations they offer. Unfortunately, it is past the 30-day mark since we purchased the vacation, and all of the reports that I have found state that it IS indeed possible to get my money back after the 30-day mark, but I want to make sure that I take the most efficient route possible to getting my money back. Any suggestions?? Any information would be appreciated.
February 25th, 2006 at 4:43 am
Thank you for this website. I was contacted by the Celebration World Resort offering the Florida/Bahamas package - very tempting. I live in Australia and fortunately I was able to log onto this site whilst I was talking to the promoters of these vacations and quickly and without hesitation told them to get lost. So many thanks to you all. Susie
February 28th, 2006 at 11:58 pm
I have been caught up in the a same situation. I wish i had found this site earlier. The company I am booking through is Florida Travel Bureau (FTB). I recieved my certificates back in 2005, and was displeased to see that they were not what i had expected. But i figured there was nothing i could do, so i tried to use the certificates and book a vacation in ft lauderdale & bahamas cruise so it wouldnt be a total loss. I am scheduled to travel on march 22-26, but since i just found out about this site i am getting skeptical. I paid $358 in port fees for the cruise on 2/10/06 which was charged to my credit card. I finally got through to the unresponsive FTB today who told me that my vacation got reserved and they send me the confirmation documents via fax. However, upon calling the actual hotels/cruise line to confirm reservations, i am in thier systems but the hotel days are incorrect, and the cruise line needs the travel agency to reconfirm the reservation before it will be valid. I need to talk to FTB again to rework things out.
I know i already submitted my travel certificates, but do i still qualify for the 30 day rule if i paid for the extra fees for the vacation on 2/18/06? Ideally, I would like to go on the trip if there are no more strings attached. but now that i know people are being scammed by this, ideally i would just like to get my $358 back and just forget about it. I think i may be able to get my reservation dates fixed, but i am scared that i’m going to get there and everything is going to be messed up (reservations mixed up/hidden fees)…in which case i probably should just try to cancel and not go at all and try to cut my losses (i would rather lose $358 now, then spend that plus more to get a rental car/airfare/spending money etc and find out that things aren’t what they seem when I actually get there). Is the whole thing is a scam (there is no vacation package) or the scam part of it is all the hidden fees but there is actually a vacation hiding there.
Another thing is that although i am aware of the 30 day rule, does that get negated by terms and conditions that says “no refunds”? I briefly asked about a refund, but FTB told me there are no refunds, and that all my reservations had been booked already.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:14 am
Hi there,
I also got a call on feb. 25 2006 and this time it was Royalty Holidays 1415 Halsey Way 310 Carrollton TX 75007. 1-800-778-1789
They told me I had won a vaccation to Florida includes Orlando, Daytona Beach, Ft. Lauderdale etc.
I was not feeling well at this time and I asked the man called Ronnie
to send all the information to my home adres in The Netherlands.
We got trough the information they need like name, adress etc. and he told me he needed the information from my credit card just to verify I had one.
It didn’t feel right so 2 days later I contact my credit card company and they told me there was a company called ‘Global Destinations’ who had tried to take € 795 from my account but that didn’t work because my card has a limit for € 500. Then 3 minutes later another compagny called ‘AG-Guys’ took €440 from my account. I know it was very stupid of me to give my credit card info trough the phone but I am so glad to read that I am not the only one.
I followed the steps you write on this site and I called my credit card company every day to make sure they will do anything that they can do to help me.
I received the package yesterday and I will send it back today with a letter to let them know I cancel my price.
I also sent a complain to Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. I hope I did the right things and I also hope to see my money back.
Wishing you all the best and sorry for my bad english!
Greetings from The Netherland.