Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/04/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On 01/15/2023, I signed-up for Tour #2 (05/07-05/14) and paid a $750 deposit, which was charged to my credit card. On 02/27/2023, I mailed a check for the remaining $2,400 to the address shown on their website. That check was not cashed and on March 31, I emailed Brian ****** to inquire. He told me that they don't check that mailbox and gave me a different address in Coffeyville, OK for mailing the check. I mailed a second check on 04/03. That check also went uncashed. I followed-up on 04/11 and Brian ****** told me that they had not looked in the mailbox. By 05/02, the check had still not been cashed and I was getting worried since my flight was scheduled in less than 4 days and I had received no information about where to meet the group on the first day. I emailed him and didn't hear anything for more than a day. By the time he emailed back to say that they had the check, I had already stopped payment and cancelled my flight and hotel reservations. I requested refund of my deposit due to their failure to provide a timely acknowledgement of receipt of my full payment and provide information on meeting the group with a reasonable amount of lead-time before departure. On 05/04, Brian ****** told me by phone that they had to let their office staff go during COVID and they "don't refund deposits". He said that I could still do the trip, which is not possible at this point as I have already cancelled my flight reservations. This phone call from Mr. ****** came 2 days after my request for confirmation and less than three days before the tour is scheduled to meet.

  Business Response

  Date: 05/04/2023

  It's unfortunate the customer decided to cancel their upcoming trip with us and forfeit their deposit per our agreement. We're a small company that requires a lot of traveling and I lead our tours personally, which puts me on the road across many states. Outside of our tour season, I am also on the road a lot traveling for work. Unfortunately, because of this, I am not personally available to always check the mail. And, we did let our part-time office helper go during covid because we had to cancel the entire 2020 tour season due to flight cancelations with more than 90% of our customers. We request from our customers that they make their payments online, which alleviates much of these problems even though we lose money with online transaction fees, as opposed to accepting checks. We do however accept checks if the customer so wishes to pay that way, upon conditions, but we never cash the check outside of the customer's presence, so that would have been done upon arrival at the airport. I personally do not understand why this would be a problem and we have around a hundred customers per annual tour season and rarely ever have an issue, especially not this one. Our reservations process to straight forward and clear and customers much check a box acknowledging their deposit is non-refundable, which is standard practice across the entire travel industry. Deposits allow our company to make the necessary preparations for an upcoming season and if we were to refund deposits or even balances shortly before the start of a tour, we simply would not be able to operate a business with such high overhead expenses. I personally called the customer to explain our payment policy, but it wasn't to their satisfaction and I've called them several times in the past since their reservation to answer questions. Deposits are non-refundable, as per the tour agreement.