Ron D

I have an EF Tours Travel Voucher for $1,125 that I can't use. My son
was scheduled on a trip to Europe last year that got cancelled by his
School because of the Iraq war. Does anyone have any experience with
getting a refund from EF Tours? Or is anyone planning a trip with EF
that would like to buy it? It is also good for Go Ahead Vacations and
Explore America. Any advice and tips would be appreciated.

Skat

(Ron D) wrote in message news:<>...
    > I have an EF Tours Travel Voucher for $1,125 that I can't use. My son
    > was scheduled on a trip to Europe last year that got cancelled by his
    > School because of the Iraq war. Does anyone have any experience with
    > getting a refund from EF Tours? Or is anyone planning a trip with EF
    > that would like to buy it? It is also good for Go Ahead Vacations and
    > Explore America. Any advice and tips would be appreciated.

I am made enough to spit nails at EF. My daughter's trip has been
cancelled because it was to Madrid, Spain and they want to either give
a travel voucher or take keep $495 of what I have paid. We are
working with our credit card company to get our money back. We are in
the beginning stages of this - our first call was two days ago, but I
am very unhappy with how they are treating us. They are acting as if
we are cancelling and won't acknowledge the threats in Europe.

So the deal is: the trip my daughter was supposed to be on isn't
available anymore, but they keep the money. Great company - they
won't see a dime of my money again.

Ron D

I know how you feel. Keep me informed at how you make out, I'll
update you on my situation. Basically, my son had a school trip
scheduled for Europe the day after the war started in Iraq last March.
The school cancelled the trip ( there were anti-American
demonstrations going on at most major European cities) and EF would
only give us this Travel Voucher for $1,125. We had paid them $1,600.
The school scheduled a trip to Puerto Rico a couple of months later
but we didn't send our son because we didn't think it would be
educational (we turned out to be right on that). We had hoped the
school would have another trip this spring to Europe, but they didn't.
So, know we are stuck trying to get something for this voucher that
needs to be used by 9/30/04 and booked by 6/15/04.

EF has put so many conditions on its use that we are in an impossible
situation. We had found a buyer for it, another school group going on
an EF Tour, but they will only let you use it for new applications,
not ones already booked; even if they have not paid yet. Also, the
voucher can only be used for one person, it can't be split up. We had
thought about taking a family vacation, but the cost of the tour for
the unpaid family members was so high it didn't make sense, we could
have done the trip cheaper without the voucher. We also thought of
just having my son and I take a trip, but since we can't split the
voucher; I would have had to pay even more money to EF for my share on
top of all we have already paid.

We have contacted EF a number of times on this, and even though they
are polite, they won't give us a break on anything. Although
technically and legally they may be in the right, I feel that
ethically they are very wrong. They seem to be very unsympathetic to
our situation. I am not saying we should get a full refund, just give
us something; or let us sell the voucher without all the restrictions.
After all, we are not to blame here. What happened to the customer
always being right?

Ron

Keith Anderson

On 31 Mar 2004 10:59:31 -0800, (Ron D) wrote:

    >I have an EF Tours Travel Voucher for $1,125 that I can't use. My son
    >was scheduled on a trip to Europe last year that got cancelled by his
    >School because of the Iraq war. Does anyone have any experience with
    >getting a refund from EF Tours? Or is anyone planning a trip with EF
    >that would like to buy it? It is also good for Go Ahead Vacations and
    >Explore America. Any advice and tips would be appreciated.

Having worked as a tour manager on one EF tour (never again!!!),
albeit many years ago, I wouldn't touch the money-grabbing filth with
a barge pole.

Ron D

I know how you feel. My son was scheduled to take a school trip to
Europe last March with EF that was to leave the day after the war
started in Iraq. The school committee cancelled the trip (there were
anti-American demonstrations in European cities at that time)and EF
would only give us this travel voucher for $1,125. We had paid them
$1,600. The school scheduled another trip with EF to Puerto Rico a
couple of months later but we didn't send our son because we didn't
feel it would be educational (we turned out to be right on that). We
had hoped that his school would have had a European trip this spring,
but they didn't.
So know we are in an impossible situation because we are stuck with
this voucher and we have no way to use it and time is running out. It
has to be used by 9/30/04 and booked by 6/15/04. EF has put so many
restrictions on its use that we can't sell it or use it. We had found
a buyer for it who was going on an EF Tour, but EF said they couldn't
use it because they had already scheduled their trip, even though they
hadn't paid. We thought about going on a family trip, but when we
priced it out we found we could do the trip cheaper by ourselves
without the voucher. We also thought about just my son and I going on
a trip, but EF won't let you split the voucher amongst users, so I
would have to pay them more money after all I had given them.
We have contacted EF a number of times, and although they are polite,
they won't give us a break on anything. They are very unsympathetic
and I get the feeling they would like us to not use the voucher so
they can keep all the money without providing any services.
I understand they may be technically and legally right, but I feel
ethically they are very wrong. After all, we did nothing wrong.
Whatever happened to the customer always being right?
We are not demanding a full refund from them, just asking if they
could ease up on the voucher restrictions or give us a partial refund.
Please keep me updated on your situation and I'll let you know about
mine.
Good luck,
Ron

Ron D

(Skat) wrote in message news:<>...
    > (Ron D) wrote in message news:<>...
    > > I have an EF Tours Travel Voucher for $1,125 that I can't use. My son
    > > was scheduled on a trip to Europe last year that got cancelled by his
    > > School because of the Iraq war. Does anyone have any experience with
    > > getting a refund from EF Tours? Or is anyone planning a trip with EF
    > > that would like to buy it? It is also good for Go Ahead Vacations and
    > > Explore America. Any advice and tips would be appreciated.
    >
    > I am made enough to spit nails at EF. My daughter's trip has been
    > cancelled because it was to Madrid, Spain and they want to either give
    > a travel voucher or take keep $495 of what I have paid. We are
    > working with our credit card company to get our money back. We are in
    > the beginning stages of this - our first call was two days ago, but I
    > am very unhappy with how they are treating us. They are acting as if
    > we are cancelling and won't acknowledge the threats in Europe.
    >
    > So the deal is: the trip my daughter was supposed to be on isn't
    > available anymore, but they keep the money. Great company - they
    > won't see a dime of my money again.


;

Skat

    > Having worked as a tour manager on one EF tour (never again!!!),
    > albeit many years ago, I wouldn't touch the money-grabbing filth with
    > a barge pole.

Can you give more details about what happened and can you give me any
hints about getting my money back?

More details available on the dejanews would be very helpful. If I
could help someone else not risk their money with this company, I
would do it.