Travel Agent Ripped Us Off

[Tango7]

THAI NETWORK TRAVEL & TRADING CO., LTD is the travel agent we used to buy our return, economy deluxe Eva Air tickets to the UK.

My wife and I have used them in the past for tickets to Hong Kong and all was OK.

We booked our tickets in November for a 19th of Dec flight and paid 20k in bank transfer as a deposit.

Nearer the time we paid the rest by credit card abd after insisting we get the e-ticket, received the e-tickets by email.

All was in place until we turned up to the Eva Air check in counter to be told our tickets had been cancelled.

We assumed there was an error and called the agents who messed around trying to get us a new ticket.

After much stress, we managed to get them to get us a ticket but when we tried to check in on that new ticket, we were told it was economy only.

We called them back, told them to cancel the whole thing and booked a new ticket with Eva which cost us 146,000 Baht instead of the original 100,000 we'd paid to the agent.

We have sent emails and called the agent insisting they refund all the money and to pay us the extra money we'd paid for the new ticket, but we've had no response at all.

Is there any point in getting a lawyer to chase this case for us and what could we expect back ?

If we get nothing back from them, the whole trip will have cost 250,000 Baht for two economy deluxe tickets...

Any advice appreciated.

A Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all...

[barryofthailand]

First of all you don't say whether the booking is to Thailand, or from Thailand. If it was from Thailand, you should have confirmed your reservations with Eva three days before traveling, so you have time to clear any concerns. If you had done so, and you were in Thailand, you could have notified the Tourist police to help you out. If you are outside of Thailand, and you are trying to get a refund, forget it. At that point you would have been better off flying economy, and only losing a little money rather than losing 100,000 Baht. Sorry for your troubles.

Barry

Edited December 24, 2008 by barryofthailand

[G54]

Surely the credit card company can refund the balance you paid using that card?

[Birdman]

First of all you don't say whether the booking is to Thailand, or from Thailand. If it was from Thailand, you should have confirmed your reservations with Eva three days before traveling, so you have time to clear any concerns. If you had done so, and you were in Thailand, you could have notified the Tourist police to help you out. If you are outside of Thailand, and you are trying to get a refund, forget it. At that point you would have been better off flying economy, and only losing a little money rather than losing 100,000 Baht. Sorry for your troubles.

Barry

He said it: our return, economy deluxe Eva Air tickets to the UK. 3 days pre departure reconfirmation is not any more required by most airlines like Eva Air. And: The issuing agent could cancel the tickets at any time, also on the departure day.

Tango7:If the credit card company does not help, you have to clear the situation back in Thailand at that agency with all invoices and receipts. I assume it will not be easy, because it's a lot of money, but it looks like they made a unintentional mistake. You can also contact EVA Air in Bangkok and ask who cancelled when the ticket, how much they charge for the cancellation and try at least to get the rest from the agent. Try to get the infos from Eva Air on paper.

[bkkjames]

Get ATTA involved if they are a member or PATA, most of these travel agents are. Failing that, office of Consumer Protection. Don't forget EVA as indirectly it does reflect on them.

[ThaiEye]

office of Consumer Protection. Don't forget EVA as indirectly it does reflect on them.

Great advice mate

Perhaps better, instead of calling and sending emails, simply go to the office!

Edited December 25, 2008 by ThaiEye

[LivinLOS]

My brother recently got scammed by a bangkok agent to.. His was a bit different made a booking got email confirms of the flights and booking, made payment (by bank !!) and then assumed all was fine.. 2 days before the flight he checks to find out that the booking was never executed and no tickets booked. He was then offered a lower quality (3 month open not 6 month open) at a higher price in true bait and switch tactics, as he had connecting flights and commitments he had little choice but to take it.

He contacted the ATTA and they made soothing noises and said they would help.. And didnt.. The airline said (quite rightly) it wasnt thier fault..

LOS.. Land Of Scams..

[bkkjames]

My brother recently got scammed by a bangkok agent to.. His was a bit different made a booking got email confirms of the flights and booking, made payment (by bank !!) and then assumed all was fine.. 2 days before the flight he checks to find out that the booking was never executed and no tickets booked. He was then offered a lower quality (3 month open not 6 month open) at a higher price in true bait and switch tactics, as he had connecting flights and commitments he had little choice but to take it.

He contacted the ATTA and they made soothing noises and said they would help.. And didnt.. The airline said (quite rightly) it wasnt thier fault..

LOS.. Land Of Scams..

ok, if that doesnt work, get yourself a yellow or red shirt and start protesting in front of their offices

[offset]

Surely the credit card company can refund the balance you paid using that card?

If the credit card is a UK one I believe that they will be liable for the whole amount of the ticket and I think that I read about a case when in the UK that they are also responsible for use in foreign countries so I would inform the Credit card people ASAP by phone and the in writing

[Soutpeel]

ok, if that doesnt work, get yourself a yellow or red shirt and start protesting in front of their offices

Dont forget the plastic hand clappers...

[Tango7]

Thanks everyone...

I paid a 20k bank transfer as a deposit and then insisted on the remainder by card.

I have contacted my issuing bank and they've promised to send me some papers to contest the amount.

Actually, we had been on a waiting list for a return flight on the 3rd of Jan but we were booked to return on the 2nd. On the 18th, the day before we flew, we had a confirmation of the 3rd.

During the "crisis" at the checkin counter, we managed to get EVA staff to talk to the agents. It transpired that the agents were actually sub agents and the ticket had been cancelled by much larger agents through whom our sub-agents had been booking our flights. The reason for the cancellation was due to our agents not being able to pay for our tickets.

Issue here is: why not ? We had paid them money and so they'd obviously not been spending it correctly.

On my return, I'll see what can be done but I'm not holding my breath.