travel agent scam

[pauly]

Im not sure which section to post this in , but i hope some of the well informed members here can offer some advice- youve certainly been a lot of help in the past.
ill do my best to make my grievence short.
just befoe chinese new year i was scrambling for tickets to thailand with my girlfriend. she found a couple of cheap ones and asked them when the deadline for payment was- the lady informed her it was the next day .
my girlfriend asked me to transfer the money the next day.
i did this at lunch time and moments after i had transfered the money she called me and told me not to send the money- as she had got the dates wrong - (silly i know) i told her to call the company immediatly and inform them what had happened.
She did this and the lady said it was fine and that they would refund the money 2 weeks later.
after 2 weeks we called and the lady said that it would actually take 4 weeks. I this was still ok with me as i had no reason to question her integrity.
well the date came and went when the refund was supposed to be returned to my account . 3 weeks passed and still no refund. we sent an email but it was ignored.
yesterday my girlfriend called to inform them that the refund had not gone through yet . The woman told her she would talk to her accountant and call her back. ( which she didnt do)
By this point i was becomming suspicious so i called the lady and asked her what was going on . the lady then informed me that they were going to charge me $1000 per ticket for cancellation ! i couldnt believe it . i talk about adding insult to injury.I let her know that was out of the question and got very angry- she went away and said she could reduce it to 500 per ticket - but she wouldnt come down any more.
this was yesterday and im still fuming about it. its not the amount - its the principle. Also the manner in which she keeps changing her story. does anybody have any experience or suggestions ?

[PDLM]

It's annoying that their story keeps changing, but travel agent discount tickets are normally non-changeable, non-refundable once ticketed. So once you send the money in you're pretty much committed to the T&Cs of the ticket. Frankly you're lucky it's refundable at all.

Having said that, you might be able to get a better deal by asking for a credit with them which you can spend on some other ticket rather than a cash refund.

[pauly]

Thanks Pdlm its a good idea , but at this stage id rather not have anything to do with the lady- i hate dealing with dishonest people i find it very draining. It was an amazingly short term decision for her though as had she been honest - id would have given her plenty of business in the future. The logic of some people baffles me. what is it they say ? if you get good service youll tell about 2 people , but if you get bad service you make sure you tell at least 20 !!!!!

[Star Gazer]

have you tried contacting the consumer council? it probably won't do anything significant but at least the lady will be rattled by someone "official" investigating the case.... and probably something will be done about it.

[psf]

I would suggest you have the final warning with this travel agent if they do not send you the refund, then you will complain this to the Travel Industry Council. TIC is located at RM1706-1709 Fortress Tower, 250 King's Road, North Point, HK. Tel: 2807 1199.
Good luck

[PDLM]

Have you actually had a copy of the T&Cs of the ticket that you purchased? Those should define what refund is possible. That's what I would start by demanding, although clearly at this stage if you haven't ever seen any T&Cs then they could send you almost anything.