refunding deposit for canceled trip

[8u88les]

They are running a business not a charity. Making a living in the dive charter business is hard, I have seen too many boats go out of business because they can't cover cost and take home enough money to feed their families.

As a customer some times you gotta take a big bite of a **** sandwich so you have a boat to dive off of next month.

if every idiot out there didnt try and open a dive business then they wouldnt have to bitch about the customers being spread to thin and try and screw people 6 months out. and most dive operators ive met are too stupid to find success if you held their hand and led them to it.

 

[eedive]

I thank you all for your replies to this post. I'd like to clarify a few things about my original post. First, I chose not to name the operator because I do not believe they did anything technically wrong. I am not trying to get back at them or hurt them in any way; I was mostly curious how others felt about it. It just bummed me out a little that I missed the cancellation deadline by two days.

Secondly, this is a trip to Raja Ampat, which is still another 5 months away, and the operator has re-booked our cabin. Not that it benefits me. They did give me the option of finding someone myself to take my cabin who could then pay me my deposit, but that wasn't a real option for me. They also gave me the option of transferring our deposit to another period. We cannot do that. I guess what annoys me a bit is that they get the booking price from the people who got our cabin plus another 2 grand from us. But that's their prerogative.

Thirdly, we are not cancelling because of an emergency. My husband's office scheduled something he absolutely cannot miss. C'est la vie.

Lastly, we did purchase trip insurance. I would never book a $20,000 trip without it. Hopefully the process will go smoothly getting the money.

They did lose a future customer in me, though. I was already heartbroken to have to cancel this trip I've been dreaming about, so it kind of added insult to injury.

Anyway, thanks again for all the input.

 

[redacted]

I thank you all for your replies to this post. I'd like to clarify a few things about my original post. First, I chose not to name the operator because I do not believe they did anything technically wrong. I am not trying to get back at them or hurt them in any way; I was mostly curious how others felt about it. It just bummed me out a little that I missed the cancellation deadline by two days.

Secondly, this is a trip to Raja Ampat, which is still another 5 months away, and the operator has re-booked our cabin. Not that it benefits me. They did give me the option of finding someone myself to take my cabin who could then pay me my deposit, but that wasn't a real option for me. They also gave me the option of transferring our deposit to another period. We cannot do that. I guess what annoys me a bit is that they get the booking price from the people who got our cabin plus another 2 grand from us. But that's their prerogative.

Thirdly, we are not cancelling because of an emergency. My husband's office scheduled something he absolutely cannot miss. C'est la vie.

Lastly, we did purchase trip insurance. I would never book a $20,000 trip without it. Hopefully the process will go smoothly getting the money.

They did lose a future customer in me, though. I was already heartbroken to have to cancel this trip I've been dreaming about, so it kind of added insult to injury.

Anyway, thanks again for all the input.

Their re-booking your reservation puts it into a somewhat different light. Perhaps you should tell them your plans have again changed and you will be able to keep your booking. Or you could tell them you have found someone to take your booking. I would expect a full refund.

 

[Tigerman]

It depends on the reason. Family emergency? Ok, Changed your mind? Nope. You knew when you signed up what the policy was. Lost your job? Not the ops fault. Try to sell your berth to someone else. Ops have a policy spelled out. They give you a two day break the next person wants three or four. The one after that a month. They have to draw the line.

Where was the trip to?

You have no idea how many excuses people have come up with. I deal with this on a regular basis (although where I work the cancellation has a bit shorter timeframe than 180 days). MOST of the time people either cancel in due time or in busy periods where we have no problem selling their slots, however when they dont cancel in due time or we know the slots wont be sold for other reasons, they do get to pay the contracted ammount/deposit.
That however DO come with a recommendation of bringing their receipt to their travel insurance agency as those quite often have cancellation coverage.

Its not only cancellations people get creative with though, the complaints can be quite "interesting" too. Not only do they have to pay full buffet price for their buffet, they even have to serve themselves
Ghosts in the rooms is of course a classic, not to mention the birds singing in the morning - what the hell do you think, were in the middle of the blood forrest!

 

[Wookie]

I thank you all for your replies to this post. I'd like to clarify a few things about my original post. First, I chose not to name the operator because I do not believe they did anything technically wrong. I am not trying to get back at them or hurt them in any way; I was mostly curious how others felt about it. It just bummed me out a little that I missed the cancellation deadline by two days.

Secondly, this is a trip to Raja Ampat, which is still another 5 months away, and the operator has re-booked our cabin. Not that it benefits me. They did give me the option of finding someone myself to take my cabin who could then pay me my deposit, but that wasn't a real option for me. They also gave me the option of transferring our deposit to another period. We cannot do that. I guess what annoys me a bit is that they get the booking price from the people who got our cabin plus another 2 grand from us. But that's their prerogative.

Thirdly, we are not cancelling because of an emergency. My husband's office scheduled something he absolutely cannot miss. C'est la vie.

Lastly, we did purchase trip insurance. I would never book a $20,000 trip without it. Hopefully the process will go smoothly getting the money.

They did lose a future customer in me, though. I was already heartbroken to have to cancel this trip I've been dreaming about, so it kind of added insult to injury.

Anyway, thanks again for all the input.

If the operator has rebooked your spots, they should refund your deposit. Now, it doesn't seem fair to me at all for them to keep it in that situation

 

[Tigerman]

If the operator has rebooked your spots, they should refund your deposit. Now, it doesn't seem fair to me at all for them to keep it in that situation

Now harsh as it might seem, the op still had expenses with regards to booking and cancelling the OPs reservation. Every time they are on the phone with someone the clocks ticking and theres other tasks they could be doing, other potential customers they could be helping or booking and paperwork to be done. Also, the op probably spent some time answering various requests the OP put forth and all things said and done a single seem-to-be-simple booking thats not done directly over a fully automated web form can easilly take half an hour before the guests actually arriving. Of course $2k is pretty well paid for those 30 minutes or even if its a really demanding guest an hour or more - but claiming that theres no money lost and a full refund is automatically "just" is just too simple.
The OP also agreed to the non-refundable after <180 days to departure deposit and the op are fully within their fair right to keep said deposit. IF they where to refund it, that would be nothing but goodwill and wether or not its good buisness is pretty much impossible for us to say without pretty intimate information about their buisness.

Bottomn line still is - get insurance, wether its part of your creditcard agreement (in wich case you pay with the CC - this is the case for me, plus I have travel insurance), you get it as part of your travel insurance or buy specific cancellation insurance - cause you never know when youll need it.