I-Team Call For Action Helps Cape Couple Get $15,000 Refund For Canceled Cruise
OSTERVILLE (CBS) - Dick and Carolyn George of Osterville love looking through pictures of the European River cruise they took a few years back.
"We went [from] Amsterdam to Budapest. You stop in so many places, you can get off and take little tours," Dick recalled.
"The food was wonderful," Carolyn added.
They had such a great time, they decided to book a second trip through Boston-based Vantage Travel. The couple was scheduled to set sail in May 2020.
"The pandemic struck and we were told in April that our cruise had been canceled," Dick said.
According to the couple, Vantage agreed to fully refund the $15,044 they spent to book the trip. But months went by with no refund.
"It was very frustrating for sure," Dick said.
Dick called Vantage multiple times. He tried the Massachusetts Attorney General's office and even his state senator.
"Nobody got any results and then I called WBZ Call For Action. You made one phone call and all of a sudden, everything changed," Dick said.
When the I-Team contacted the company, a spokesperson got right back to us saying:
We did review the George's case and they are due a refund. We will reach out to them to take care of this within the next 7-10 days.
Since the pandemic began we have had an enormous number of customer inquiries we have responded to as well as trips we rescheduled and adjusted. We have made every effort to keep up with requests, but we have fallen short in our ability to stay ahead of the continuing influx of queries (the Delta variant caused another huge spike in requests from guests who are scheduled to travel). We are in the process of hiring additional staff and changing procedures to help us better serve our clients.
Thank you for your patience in letting us look into this particular situation.
Dick showed WBZ-TV an email he got from Vantage apologizing for the inconvenience. He also said the money from Vantage was wired to his account.
