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Despite numerous e-mails and phone calls by our company to Mikeal Audebert get VIP Escapes to settle their bills for 2 groups of agents that they sent on FAM's in South Africa, we have been promised payment but nothing has materialized. They were accommodated at our 5 star Relais & Chateau establishment on two occassions and have not settled their accounts with us as of yet. Upon further investigation it has been confirmed that they have not paid the company that did their all their land transfers by coach as well as another 5 star hotel in our province. Shocking state of affairs!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Our trip was cancelled two weeks before we were scheduled to depart. A full refund was promised. Numerous e-mails, (with many discrepancies) and still no refund. From the number of other similar complaints, this appears to be more than just an isolated incident. VIP Escapes promised a full refund of $3, 200, and to date has not refunded a single penny.
Hey I don't defend them but you guys do know that a company does not have to file for bankruptcy for them to be "out of business". Are they still doing business? Did they notify the bonding institution of their official closing? If they are bonded you can get money from the bond.
Filing for bankruptcy only works if you have many assets to distribute. It's possible this service company had no assets worth anything, maybe the printers? Anyways it costs money to declare bankruptcy so there is no point in doing it unless the assets are significant.
In 2008 there was a rash of closings and bankruptcies by many travel related services. Because Florida does not require that client monies be held in escrow (with bonding), many people lost their payments. As a judge in a small claims court I know.
Anyways I looked up the public records for Mikael Audebert (sp) and it shows that he was under investigation but the detective found no cause to continue the investigation. He is being investigated in other counties but once one investigator finds no cause you can bet the others will. It sounds like the company was a victim of the economy.
Florida statutes need to change to prevent travelers from losing their money even when the company is bonded as the bond can max out. Without this regulation travel agencies will not do that willingly since competition is fierce.
The banking industry is a perfect example of this. Millions of people are losing their homes because of bad mortgage notes. This caused banks to have bad books. This in turn cut their ability to borrow money secured by those bad notes. Cause that's what banks do they borrow money secured by money they already lent out. Funny huh. Anyways when the banks couldn't borrow nobody could buy a home. Homes became plentiful and demand went down.
What caused the bad mortgage assets? The banks unregulated issuing of variable rate interest only loans.
The reason for regulation is to remind us of what we would never do had we the ability to know all the lessons learned of doing business.
I'll get off my soapbox.
Advice is always pay with credit card even if the cash price is better.
Good luck.
Judgelady
How can I contact THE ECONOMIC CRIMES UNIT IN ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FLORIDA AND SPEAK WITH A DETECTIVE PIERSTORFF or The Orange County Sheriff's Office?
They aslo kept my money! I'm out $5400. My trip was paid in full, and they sent me an email in December 2008 stating they were filing for bankruptcy, but never did.
They took my money and can't be located.
Please HELP!
They kept my money too! I'm out $6141. My trip was paid in full, and they sent me an email in December 2008 stating they were filing for bankruptcy, but never did. My trip was scheduled for January 2009, and they never paid for my resort. They took my money and can't be located. The Orange County Sheriff's Office is working my case.
YOU SHOULD CONTACT THE ECONOMIC CRIMES UNIT IN ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FLORIDA AND SPEAK WITH A DETECTIVE PIERSTORFF
Be careful with this company. They book travel and then cancel the trip and keep your money.