Student travel club under fire
Clark Howard, WSB-TV consumer adviser
Read Part 1
It's the new rite of passage for high school seniors, the senior trip. And right now the hottest destination is Cancun, Mexico. But consumer adviser Clark Howard says cool your heels before signing up.
Jessica Bailey thought she was giving herself the perfect graduation present, a trip to Cancun.
"I was like yeah! I was all excited," she said.
Excited because she was getting a 7 day stay at a first class hotel, airfare, meals, everything for $800. A Florida based company called Surf & Sun Tours was pre-selling this trip to Jessica and other students during their junior year.
"So I had a year and a half to look foward to this you know," Bailey said.
But two weeks before graduation, months after her final payment, Surf & Sun was scrambling to find her a roommate.
"They said what we can do is you can pay us $200 more to stay in a double room with a guy," she explained. "I dont think it was fair for them to tell me I was going to stay alone, in a room with a guy, that I don't know. So I made it quite clear I justed wanted my money back. And I wanted out."
Surf & Sun declined to refund her money, so Jessica declined to go. Now She's out $800.
"That would give me two and a half more car payments," she said.
Unfortunately, Jessica didn't check out Sun & Surf Tours before signing up. We found all we needed to know by pulling their Better Business Bureau report. Surf & Sun Tours is really five different travel companies, all with an unsatisfactory rating. Last August, the state of Californiafiled suit against them, alleging Sun & Surf was "defrauding vactioners through misrepresentation, hidden costs, charges for services not provided, or failure to disclose restrictions on travel."
That same day the state of Arizona sued them for "violating the consumer fraud act of Arizona." And now, the state of Florida is looking for answers with these two subpeonas. The Florida Attorney General has logged 300 complaints in the last four months.
We brought our findings along for Jessica to read. Her reaction?
"This is crazy, oh my gosh."
We then called Surf & Sun for their reaction. A spokesmen said "there is no merit to these lawsuits." "We have reference letters from many happy travelers." As for Jessica's $800, Surf & Sun is willing "to provide a travel brochure to be redeemed over the next four years."
Jessica isn't interested.
"It's been awful for me," she said.
And it was awful for hundreds of Metro-Atlanta students who traveled with another company called class travel international. Their seven-night Cancun vacations included less than promised hotels, expired meal coupons, and upselling that pushed their $600 vacations well over $1000.
The class travel international horror stories are so numerous that the Govenor's Office of Consumer Affairs has issued this consumer alert to Georgia high schools.
"I think the schools bear a responsibility here to look carefully at these companies they are allowing to market their services in the school, no question about this," said Barry Reid.
And parents need to be critical of what's being sold. Student travel companies demand payment more than 60 days out. So if things don't go well, guess what, you have no credit card chargeback rights. But they have the right to change depature dates, hotel rooms and flight times. You have no recourse. That's why I prefer you avoid these types of trips, and use a travel agent.
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