Overseas Adventure Travel refund

Glad to hear it, and thanks for keeping us posted.

I'm not familiar with the Elliott Advocacy Group. Did they charge you for their services? Or are they a non-profit type of consumer advocate organization?

Elliott Advocacy is a nonprofit. I learned about them on this forum. You can google them. It cost me nothing. They ask that you submit to them the history of your attempts to resolve your issue with the tour company such as dates of phone calls, emails, etc. to show that you tried to reach a resolution yourself before they become involved. I had kept an accurate record of all calls, whom I had spoken to, etc. so that was easy. Elliott Advocacy said that they have a contact at OAT and said refunds were being processed. I was waiting for the refund until October 15 at which point I was going to contact the MA AG’s office, BBB and possibly send a MA Chapter 93a demand letter. This has been very frustrating but I was finally successful.

Perseverance and Patience!

Bravo!

Oh, I am SO happy for you. I know this has been a serious aggravation and I'm glad you followed it thru to the end. Thanks for the update!

Thanks, Pam and Claudia.

I am so glad for you, Mary. It took lots of determination and record-keeping on your part ! Thanks for letting us know.

Too bad you had to get extra help and that OAT dragged your refund on and on.Kudos to the Elliott Advocacy Group !

Mary, thank you for coming back to share your success. This in itself is very helpful to all of us travelers who have had similar challenges. I commend you for your determination and perseverance. We had refund issues with travel insurance and were successful with the help from our State Insurance Commission. They were also instrumental in helping others in our State who filed a complaint. We are living in unprecedented times and were grateful for swift resolution.

Thanks for the update. I'm very happy for you! It's good to hear that Elliot Advocacy helped you out!

I too was refused a refund by OAT. I went directly by email to the BB and Massachusetts State Attorney General. I got my refund within two week of those emails.

Thanks, everybody. Yes, I was persistent. I was giving OAT an opportunity to do the right thing but my patience was wearing thin. They owed us $2,400 which is no small sum so I was determined to get that refund. If the refund had not been received by Oct. 15, I was going to move on to tougher measures. Happily I didn’t have to do that.

I was owed $22,000. Now you see why I acted quickly.

Holy cow, Bob. I'm glad you did get your refund!

I too was refused a refund by OAT. I went directly by email to the BB and Massachusetts State Attorney General. I got my refund within two week of those emails.

Reminds me of the story about the farmer who asked the mule trainer why he had a 2x4. The reply being "well, first you have to get it's attention"

If it doesn't squeak, its not likely to get oiled

I am so glad that you finally received your refund and am sorry that you had to go through all the stress in recovering it. I guess I was somewhat lucky to get my $8,000+ back without going through an advocate. Perhaps it was because I was willing to incur the $600 deposit penalty by cancelling 90+ days out. At any rate, it’s a shame that OAT didn’t handle things the way that Rick Steves did. It will make a difference to many travelers in the future when they are deciding amongst tour companies.

Cindy,
It will definitely make a difference in the future when deciding which tour company, airline, hotel, etc. that we choose.

Personal experience with Elliot: they provide help if it’s a large corporation (airline, rental car franchise, Airbnb/vrbo, online travel agency) or a large tour company. But say it’s a small or medium-sized tour company, one that’s being dishonest, they won’t help you or respond to your inquiry. Mostly they handle low-hanging fruit like delays or misunderstandings from vendors with deep pockets.

I’ll post my conciliation court claim result when it finally is scheduled “early next year,” about a year after the March cancellation.

Thank you for telling me about this. I'm waiting for a refund, too. I was planning on going to Paris with my family. But....

Segment, welcome to the Rick Steves forum! If you want to learn Paris with a tour company, Rick's Best of Paris tour is excellent (depending on the age of your family members). He has been above and beyond ethical with refunds as well as keeping his workforce employed during this dreadful time. I always sound like a shill for his tours but believe me, it's from the heart.

The only downside I can see to the Best of Paris tour is that it made me develop an addiction to Paris that can only be satisfied by being there....

Mary, this is hood to hear about receiving your OAT refund, although it was so late - even if I’m late reading about it. Your perseverance paid off, although it shouldn’t have required so much effort. I hope Morocco is in your future, however long that will take!