Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  09/10/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On July 30th I had purchased 5 tickets for a scenic flight of ***************** for September 6 through Viator. It came to my attention at another booking I had made in ****** for whale watching that my days were off by one day. The whale watching company found a way to resolve our error by allowing 4 of us to fill. That days empty spots and they refunded the 5th spot. I notified island wings the same day I found out about the date confusion and she stated there was nothing she could do. She said maybe she could fit us in if someone cancelled. I called the next morning and she said no flights were taking place because of the rain. She stated she would refund the money if she could fill our spots on Friday. She then stated her cancellation policy is no refunds and it was my error so she kept the full $2,100. I know it was my error however as a business owner I feel there should be a set cancellation fee instead of keeping whatever was charged. If it had been only two people the cost would be approx $800. How does she determine what to charge for situations like this? What if theres inclement weather? People lose their money? I feel the business practice of retaining the full fee if the cancellation is not within the prior 14 days could be appropriate however inclement weather or an honest error should be taken into consideration. Absolutely no refunds of any kind while keeping a large sum of money seems unethical. A set fee would seem appropriate such as a $500 cancellation fee. I am sure I am not the only complaint for this company.

  Business response

  09/10/2024

  Please see facts below:  

  Please see below for the events as they actually transpired,we have email proof to back this up. 
  
  July 27th, 2024 - The day the reservation through Viator for the ***** Fjords for Friday September 6th, 2024 at 7:45AM.  We held this reservation, foregoing all other reservations for this time slot for six weeks!

  
  Wednesday September 4th, 2024  - The day client contacted us to tell us the following: Hello. I have reservations for Friday  at 7:45 but I messed up the day. We will be in ********* tomorrow. Is there a way to go tomorrow morning or get a refund?  Really hoping there is an opening tomorrow.  Our whole plan has been wrong for each day. Im so sorry.

  
  Wednesday September 4th, 2024 Our reply : Thank you for reaching out.  I am very sorry to say that we do not have space open tomorrow while you are here in port.  We do have a 14 day in advance cancellation policy for direct bookings, Viator however has a zero refund policy as a 3rd party booking agency.

  
  Thursday September 5th *************************************** *********, our tours were sold out completely, however, it was a weather day and we refunded all of our customers for a weather cancellation.

  
  Friday September 6th 2024 The day of booked tour with us was a beautiful day and we were able to fly all of our tours.  We were not able to resell your seats at such short notice however and we lost that revenue due to your error in making the reservation for the wrong day. 

   

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