ANOTHER tour operator
has vanished into thin
air leaving clients and
airlines out of pocket.
Gary Smith, md of Renwick
Business, recently contacted
TNW to report that at least
nine different people had
phoned him to
complain about a
company trading
as Globetravel
(www.globetravel.
co.za). Gary owns a
website called www.
travelmonkey.co.za
and disgruntled
clients have been
confusing his site
with Globetravel’s
registered company
name – Travel Monkey.
TNW has since
spoken to four of
these people. In at least three
cases, clients booked and
paid for their tickets online
through Globetravel. They all
received booking confirmation
and reference numbers,
however when they arrived
at the airport on the day of
travel, they were told that
Globetravel had not paid the
airlines in question.
They have all attempted
to contact Globetravel via
phone and email but were
not successful.
Two of the affected clients
initiated their searches on
Cheapflights and were then
redirected to Globetravel.
After receiving complaints
from customers about
Globetravel in late October,
Cheapflights removed the
company from its site.
“We experienced similar
difficulties when querying
these complaints,” says Phil
Bloomfield, global head of
Communications and PR.
Cheapflights says it vets
all partners as thoroughly as
possible. “We also validate
their financial status with the
local government regulatory
body,” Phil says. Cheapflights
makes use of the CIPC
(Companies and Intellectual
Property
Commission) to validate SA
partners’ status.
Iata terminated Globetravel’s
ability to issue any more
tickets and placed it into
default in accordance with the
Resolutions of the Passenger
Agency Conference, once it
failed to pay for the tickets it
had issued.
Meanwhile, TNW
visited Globetravel’s
(Travel Monkey) offices
on 38 Melle Street
in Braamfontein on
November 18. The
office door was locked
and knocking produced
no response. The
security officer on
duty told TNW that
the couple who owned
the tour operator had
not appeared at the
offices for three weeks
and that several
parties had been to the
building looking for them.
“Sites offering holidays that
are ‘just too good to be true’
are probably just that,” says
John Ridler, pr and media
manager of Thompsons
Holidays.
Advocate Louis Nel says,
given the state of the
economy, there will be more
than the usual number of
businesses falling on bad
times so agents should be
very cautious. He advises
the following to avoid falling
victim:
Only deal with members of
professional bodies such as
Asata and Satsa (members
of the latter have to take
out obligatory insurance
that covers inter alia
liquidation but not voluntary
liquidation).
Always pay with a credit card
as you may have a right of
recourse via the credit card
company (read their T&Cs).
Failing all else, you may have
a legal right of recourse
against the owners,
members or directors if they
have traded recklessly.
