Indeed. I do not trust Great American Balloon Company or it's owner Kent Heitzinger. My wife and I purchased two tickets years ago and have yet to see a flight. Based on the expeirences of the 14 other customers that I have come into contact with throughout this ordeal this appears to be the standard experience. There are some people in the group that have been chasing after GABC for three to five years. Per person the cancelled flights are as high as 15 to 20 each.
I have posted a complaint regarding this company as well at:
Hot Air Balloon Flight — Failure to provide service.
I have had a similar experience. You can read my post at:
Hot Air Balloon Flight — Failure to provide service
I've been in touch with 26 people who have had similar experiences with A Great American Balloon Company. We will be filing a lawsuit shortly as there are several Wisconsin statutes that are applicable to the matter.
Dan
Here is a quick update on the balloon case:
As of 7/23/10 I've been in touch with 34 people that have all had remarkably similar negative experiences with Great American Balloon Company. The prep work for the lawsuit against AGABC is moving along nicely.
For those of you that have had similar experiences with AGABC: If you are interested in joining the case as a plaintiff, or if you would just like more information about it then please let me know very soon. Alternatively if you would rather just be a witness instead then we could definitely use your support. Please contact me so we can document your experience. It may be possible to be a witness without appearing in court. The more people that we can find that have had negative experiences with the balloon company then the stronger the case becomes.
In other news: In the two years that we've been chasing after AGABC, we've managed to fly twice with a different balloon company. On both the days that we flew with their competition, AGBAC had cancelled all of their flights, and they appear to have cancelled all flights so far this season out of the Madison area. The competition reports that they have flown a dozen times already this season, totaling about 70 people served. AGABC on the other hand --- Well, I haven't talked to anyone yet that has had a successful flight with them yet, ever. Is there something going on at AGABC? I have my suspicions but you can be the judge of that for yourself.
The best way of contacting me is to e-mail me at:
tetzlaff.dan@gmail.com
Or call me at:
[protected]
Thanks,
Dan Tetzlaff
tetzlaff.dan@gmail.com
Quick update: The group is now up to 41 people. We continue to work on putting the lawsuit together.
However, in the meantime it seems that the A.R.D.C. has taken an interest in this case. I've been told that two people that filed a request for investigation against Mr. Kent Heitzinger have reportedly recovered their money from the ticket purchase.
The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois has standards of ethical conduct that all attorneys practicing law in Illinois are expected to follow. Mr. Kent Heitzinger has an ownership and management interest in A Great American Balloon Company. He is a registered attorney in Illinois, and as such the A.R.D.C. seems to have expressed some interest in the balloon case.
Here's the info regarding a request to have a lawyer investigated:
You can write to the A.R.D.C. at:
Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois
[protected] or [protected]
One Prudential Plaza
130 East Randolph Drive
Suite 1500
Chicago, IL [protected]
You’ll need the contact information of Mr. Heitzinger’s law practice to file a request for investigation against Mr. Heitzinger regarding your balloon ticket purchase. His contact information on file with the A.R.D.C. is as follows:
Mr. Kent A. Heitzinger and Associates
1056 Gage Street, Unit 200
Winnetka, Illinois [protected]
[protected]
To file a request is quite easy, just call the 312 or 800 number and request the form titled Request For An Investigating Of A Lawyer. The form is one page, front and back. You can also obtain a copy of the form from their website at www.iardc.org.
A direct path to the Request for Investigation form is as follows:
https://www.iardc.org/htr_reqforinvestig_form.html
Fill it out and mail it to the above address. It has been alleged in filings with the A.R.D.C. that Mr. Kent Heitzinger may not be in compliance with the standards of ethical conduct expected of all attorneys in Illinois due to the alleged fraud theft or deceptive business practices that may be going on at his company A Great American Balloon Company.
The form asks if you employed the lawyer directly. I answered no, but under the question regarding what my connection to the lawyer was I wrote that I purchased a service from another company (AGABC) that he owns / manages. Under the question that asks you to describe what he alleged did, failed to do, or was improper I described my experience thus far with the balloon company. The other two people that filed similar requests received their money back. If you would like to see a copy of the complaint that I filed with the ARDC just e-mail me and I can provide you a copy of it.
Dan Tetzlaff
tetzlaff.dan@gmail.com
[protected]
Success! My wife and I were able to get our money back.
All together there were 57 people with similar experiences that came forward. Thank you everyone!
Unfortunately the lawsuit fell through due to complications with our attorney's health. So we made one more attempt at going directly to our bank to get them to reverse the charge. Normally banks will only reverse a credit card charge within 60 days of a purchase. Thankfully my bank raised the bar and did the morally right thing. Even though they were not required under fraud protection laws to do it, they reversed the charge and gave us our money back. I guess persistence pays off in the end.
We had inquired about a reversal a long time ago by phone and were told about the 60 day rule, and didn't pursue it because we didn't think it was an option. However, this year we opted to make a second attempt at it and file the fraud dispute form anyway. Our bank's form didn't provide much space for explaining the situation so we attached a letter that explained in great detail everything that we had done over the last several years, i.e. Filing complaints with the company, The Better Business Bureau, the state of Wisconsin consumer protection office, the state of Illinois consumer protection office, and even the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission which overseas the balloon company's owner's professional licensing in his other line of work. Additionally we detailed where they could find several television newscasts about the balloon company from two different television station's consumer protection reporters, and a dozen newspaper and online articles about the balloon company's exploits.
In the end truth prevailed and they reversed the credit card charge. They issued a provision credit while they investigated the matter further. As of yesterday the provisional period concluded and that reversal was officially permanent.
A reporter from channel 3 news in Madison WI got in touch with me. Apparently Great American Balloon Company has filed for bankruptcy and their assets are being liquidated. I have been told that customers with unused tickets qualify as creditors and can submit a claim form to Moglia Advisors which is the company handling the liquidation. It looks like the deadline to submit a claim is soon. The form must be received by Moglia Advisors by 9/23/13 at the latest.
The document gives the following contact information for Moglia Advisors for those persons with questions or in need of the claim form:
Alex Moglia or Matthew Brash, at [protected], 1325 Remington Road, Suite H, Schaumburg, IL 60173.
A reporter from channel 3 news got in touch with me. Apparently Great American Balloon Company (which is actually Sky Rides parent company) has filed for bankruptcy and their assets are being liquidated. I have been told that customers with unused tickets qualify as creditors and can submit a claim form to Moglia Advisors which is the company handling the liquidation. It looks like the deadline to submit a claim is soon. The form must be received by Moglia Advisors by 9/23/13 at the latest. The document provided contact information for Moglia Advisors for persons needing a copy of the claim form as follows: Alex Moglia or Matthew Brash at [protected], 1325 Remington Road, Suite H, Schaumburg, IL 60173.
A reporter from channel 3 news got in touch with me. Apparently Great American Balloon Company has filed for bankruptcy and their assets are being liquidated. I have been told that customers with unused tickets qualify as creditors and can submit a claim form to Moglia Advisors which is the company handling the liquidation. It looks like the deadline to submit a claim is soon. The form must be received by Moglia Advisors by 9/23/13 at the latest. The document provided contact information for Moglia Advisors for persons needing a copy of the claim form as follows: Alex Moglia or Matthew Brash at [protected], 1325 Remington Road, Suite H, Schaumburg, IL 60173.
