Anniversary trip nothing to celebrate
Promised itinerary and refunds from agent fail to materialise
VASANTHA Naidoo’s 21-day holiday package in Europe included flights, topclass hotels, breakfasts and dinners and eight full-day sightseeing tours.
But she and her husband ended up in dodgy accommodation in two countries and hours from city centres in another two. They lost out on at least four of the promised tours and had to pay for most of their transfers and most of their meals. Even a promised anniversary dinner, included in the deal, was not forthcoming.
So, on top of the R62 000 paid to ATL Tours in Johannesburg for the July trip to celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary and 50th birthdays, they forked out another R14 000 while abroad.
The travel agent had assured Naidoo that the package included visa costs, airfares and airport charges, travel insurance, hotel accommodation, breakfasts and dinners, airport and hotel transfers, eight sightseeing tours and entrance fees. The only costs excluded were lunch and tips.
The itinerary, travel documents and e-mail correspondence with ATL Tours confirmed this. But things started going wrongwhen a refund of their R2 357 visa costs, promised in June, never materialised. And despite repeated requests for the balance of their travel vouchers, they were handed over at the airport just hours before their departure. Unknown to the couple at the time, their hotel bookings in central locations had been changed.
“We arrived at our first stop in Istanbul and discovered that our hotel had been downgraded,” said Naidoo. “The tour on day three of our itinerary had been cancelled. When I phoned ATL from the hotel, I was told they thought we would be tired so they dropped it.”
It turned out that tours in Venice, Tuscany, Florence, Paris and Germany were also not arranged, and hotels had been booked in remote areas about two hours outside Paris and Munich. An overnight stay in Venice did not happen. No airport transfers were arranged in Paris, Germany, Switzerland and Holland, and breakfast was not provided in Rome, nor dinners in Paris, Germany, Switzerland and Holland.
“Our biggest disappointment was when we discovered the ‘special dinner’ in Paris on our anniversary had not been arranged,” said Naidoo.
To make things worse, all the train trips were changed to flights, which meant entire days were wasted at airports and they arrived in two countries only after midnight. “I was in constant contact via e-mail with the agent about the things that were different to the itinerary, but the agent stopped communicating with us after about the first week and another one took over.”
The second agent managed to sort out three tours in Paris and one in Munich, and Naidoo was promised the travel expenses — from their remote hotels — would be reimbursed by the company. She also managed to secure a hotel change in Switzerland.
On their return to South Africa, the couple asked for a meeting with ATL Tours owner Ahmed Talaat at his Rosebank office.
“We advised him of all the mishaps on our trip and gave him all the receipts for payments we had to incur that should have been covered as per the itinerary.
“He was so convincing and sympathetic to our plight and promised that we would have the refund of R14 169 in our account the same day.
“He also promised a 50% reduction in a Zanzibar-Tanzania trip that our children planned to book for us as a birthday present, and said he would arrange something special for our next wedding anniversary as compensation. He even offered us a trip back to the places that they left off the itinerary.”
But the refund has not been paid and neither have the visa costs. Since August, the Naidoos have sent scores of emails and made calls to ATL with no joy.
On four separate occasions in August and September, Talaat told Naidoo the refund would be paid in October. When it did not arrive and Talaat claimed it had been paid, Naidoo asked for proof of payment. It did not come. The last promise by ATL was that the money would be paid by October 28. It was not.
I sent Talaat and his personal assistant a detailed complaint on November 11 requesting a response. I heard nothing. I followed up with a second e-mail a week later and gave a deadline for a response. I said if I did not hear from him, I would assume he was not intending to comment. There was no reply. But the next day, Talaat’s assistant contacted Naidoo to say he would refund the money if she withdrew the complaint. Naidoo declined.
On Friday last week, I called his office offering him one last shot at a response. He said he would get back to me after he had spoken to his attorney, who had been away. He then accused me of targeting him because he was not from South Africa. At no stage did he address Naidoo’s complaint or agree to my extended deadline.
On Monday, his assistant sent an email saying he had consulted an attorney and would reply in the “course of next week”. Too late.
Talaat is no stranger to controversy. A complaint by at least one client has been referred to the Consumer Commission and there are references to poor service and questionable ethics on various internet forums, including Hello-Peter. Even the Association of South African Travel Agents is wary. Following a tip-off in September last year, it discovered that ATL had used its logo illegally on website and promotional material. Asata sent a legal notice to ATL to remove the logo before the material went public. It complied.
ATL is not a member of Asata but of the American Society of Travel Agents (Asta), whose logo it carries on its adverts.
Asata CEO Otto de Vries said the organisation had received queries from consumers wanting to know what Asta stood for and whether ATL was an Asata member. “Our recommendation to the public is to always ask if a travel agent or tour operator is a member of Asata. It is then up to the consumer to make a judgment call,” he said.
Tune in to Power FM’s Power Breakfast at 8.50am tomorrow to hear more from Megan
Our biggest disappointment was when we discovered the ‘special dinner’ in Paris had not been arranged