This travel club is no holiday
CONTRACT: CANCELLATION TERMS CONTRARY TO CPA
NCC refers its investigation into Vacation Hub to its prosecutions arm.
Act.” Jacobs said the CPA requires that a request for cancellation during the cooling-off period be done in writing. In terms of Vacation Hub’s Ts&Cs, the written request has to be delivered to the club’s street address.
Clients would need to have proof this was done before they could get their money back. After five days, cancellation would still be possible and the same procedure would apply, but a cancellation fee would have to be paid.
During the 24-month fixedterm period the cancellation fee is 50%. Jacobs said this is fair and that most businesses levy much higher cancellation fees.
But consumer law attorney Trudie Broekmann says one of her clients who tried to cancel the contract via registered mail as well as e-mail and fax was still unsuccessful.
She argues that the condition that cancellation must be done via registered mail is contrary to the CPA, thus invalid. In terms of the CPA, a consumer must notify the supplier of the cancellation of the contract in writing or another recorded manner and form.
This may include e-mail, a hand-delivered letter, SMS, fax, Whatsapp message, voice note or by recorded phone call.
“If you could circumvent a legal principle through a contract, all our laws would have been ineffective.”
Broekmann believes a requirement to cancel contracts via registered mail was intended to ensure consumers don’t meet the five-day deadline. The Post Office isn’t efficient.
Responding to suggestions that the Vacation Hub offer isn’t good value for money, Jacobs said “nothing could be further from the truth” and that many clients receive discounts exceeding their membership fees within the first 24 months.
But Broekmann says some of her clients had to pay R87 000 within the first two years.
With discounts of 10% to 65% for holiday accommodation, a client lucky enough to get a booking through Vacation Hub every time they wanted to take a break and who received the full 65% discount, would need an accommodation budget of over R130 000 in 24 months to break even.
One client paid fees of around R39 000, but received discounts of less than R2 400.
National Consumer Commission (NCC) spokesperson Trevor Hattingh confirms the report it compiled on its Vacation Hub investigation has been referred to its prosecutions arm.