Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb NOT REFUNDING $$ Despite Pandemic Restrictions

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, lexmiller said:

Thank you so much for the advice about Consumer Affairs - I submitted two consumer complaints - one with the ACCC - Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and one with the NSW Fair Trading. 

I believe you will have more success in going for a refund through your credit card than through a government department. With Fair Trading you would probably have to go through a Small Claims Court - not possible for you at such a distance.

 

Over the years we have successfully appealed for a refund of a credit card charge twice. On both occasions it was a scam, but that was not a valid reason to appeal. The first occasion involved $7,000. I was upset that our bank wasn't interested in hearing that it was illegal etc. etc. Our son was helping us discuss it with the bank. He then pointed out that the bank representative was helping us by pointing us in the direction of challenging the Visa card charge (not on the grounds of illegality etc.) but on the grounds that the service/goods were not as described. We had a more difficult job than you as some work was done. We had to prove that it was not as described, and not fit for the purpose. The next time was for a very small amount. I challenged that on the grounds of "non-supply of goods". Our bank (ANZ) was very helpful, but it all comes down to the wording you use when you challenge the charge.

 

Our bank explained that when we challenge a charge, it is immediately reversed on your credit card account (temporarily) and the bank then approaches the trader who has to prove that the charge is valid. If you challenge on "non supply", not cancellation by you, how can the company refute this? I cannot see how it would matter that their non-supply was outside their control (mandated by the Australian government).

 

All the best. Please let us know how this goes.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Aus Traveller

[discoseabear]

It should be a complete refund.

Was it a 3 year credit - no cash refund Bridge Climb offered?

[lexmiller]

13 hours ago, discoseabear said:

It should be a complete refund.

Was it a 3 year credit - no cash refund Bridge Climb offered?

Yes, exactly - no cash, ever.  A voucher for us to use to climb that expires in 3 years.  Despite my detailed explanation as to how, for us personally, this trip was possible for us NOW and only now, but the virus cancelled ours (and everyone's!) plans, a credit voucher was not acceptable.  They cannot deliver the experience we purchased, so we want our money back.  I've had several email exchanges with BridgeClimb, and they are not budging.  NO CASH back for us, only a voucher.  

[Aus Traveller]

An example of different treatment elsewhere - I am booked on a cruise that includes visits to several ports in Norway and Iceland in July. I had booked private excursions and pre-paid for tours in many of the ports. All the tour companies are refunding the money - full refunds yesterday and today.

[rickays]

9 hours ago, lexmiller said:

Yes, exactly - no cash, ever.  A voucher for us to use to climb that expires in 3 years.  Despite my detailed explanation as to how, for us personally, this trip was possible for us NOW and only now, but the virus cancelled ours (and everyone's!) plans, a credit voucher was not acceptable.  They cannot deliver the experience we purchased, so we want our money back.  I've had several email exchanges with BridgeClimb, and they are not budging.  NO CASH back for us, only a voucher.  

I had an extensive trip to USA planned for May this year that included hotels and internal flights on US airlines.  I have only received credit note for the airlines (NO CASH REFUND) and the credit must be used within 1 year of my original booking which was sept and oct last year, so I have to use them by sept this year - as if thats going to happen!  You think Australian company bad for giving you a 3 year credit note.  I had travel insurance, but they say because I got offered credit note cannot claim.  So I just have to put that down to "s..t happens" and get over it.  At least I am home, in my own country with family and friends all healthy - cant say that for lots of tourists stuck in various places around the world.

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, rickays said:

I had an extensive trip to USA planned for May this year that included hotels and internal flights on US airlines.  I have only received credit note for the airlines (NO CASH REFUND) and the credit must be used within 1 year of my original booking which was sept and oct last year, so I have to use them by sept this year - as if thats going to happen!  You think Australian company bad for giving you a 3 year credit note.  I had travel insurance, but they say because I got offered credit note cannot claim.  So I just have to put that down to "s..t happens" and get over it.  At least I am home, in my own country with family and friends all healthy - cant say that for lots of tourists stuck in various places around the world.

Maybe if this shut-down continues close to September, it would be worth appealing for a longer period in which to use your travel vouchers. That would be reasonable.

[lexmiller]

19 hours ago, rickays said:

I had an extensive trip to USA planned for May this year that included hotels and internal flights on US airlines.  I have only received credit note for the airlines (NO CASH REFUND) and the credit must be used within 1 year of my original booking which was sept and oct last year, so I have to use them by sept this year - as if thats going to happen!  You think Australian company bad for giving you a 3 year credit note.  I had travel insurance, but they say because I got offered credit note cannot claim.  So I just have to put that down to "s..t happens" and get over it.  At least I am home, in my own country with family and friends all healthy - cant say that for lots of tourists stuck in various places around the world.

United Airlines is, like what you are experiencing, giving us a 1 year voucher from our time of booking,  (not a cash refund) but with an airline like United since we live in the USA, home of United, we can fly virtually anywhere, so we are not too disappointed with that.  And there are no fees at all, no penalties, which is fair.  But I am sorry for your date restriction based upon your booking - we are more lucky, as we'd booked our fare recently, in February, so we have until February 2021 to use the flight voucher.  (I'm envisioning a land based trip to Hawaii in January 2021??)

I do think that as the above poster suggests, austraveller, that with this pandemic still worsening, that your airline may extend your credit voucher.  Because when you booked your airline in May 2019, planning ahead as is a great thing to do, little did you know this was all going to hit!  Your voucher really should be extended and I do hope that you will be able to get them to do that, as that is the right thing for the airline to do.  

Good luck, and indeed, it is good you're home, safe with family!

[NSWP]

Where is Captain De Groot when you need him, research needed on this one folks re opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge.

 

He would get lexmillers dough back quicksmart.😁

[lexmiller]

37 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Where is Captain De Groot when you need him, research needed on this one folks re opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge.

 

He would get lexmillers dough back quicksmart.😁

OH, thank you, you prompted me to do a deep dive on the internet, great history regarding the bridge/DeGroot, of which I was not aware!  Lots of historical info for me during this time of coronavirus isolation, thank you, very interesting!

[rickays]

3 hours ago, lexmiller said:

United Airlines is, like what you are experiencing, giving us a 1 year voucher from our time of booking,  (not a cash refund) but with an airline like United since we live in the USA, home of United, we can fly virtually anywhere, so we are not too disappointed with that.  And there are no fees at all, no penalties, which is fair.  But I am sorry for your date restriction based upon your booking - we are more lucky, as we'd booked our fare recently, in February, so we have until February 2021 to use the flight voucher.  (I'm envisioning a land based trip to Hawaii in January 2021??)

I do think that as the above poster suggests, austraveller, that with this pandemic still worsening, that your airline may extend your credit voucher.  Because when you booked your airline in May 2019, planning ahead as is a great thing to do, little did you know this was all going to hit!  Your voucher really should be extended and I do hope that you will be able to get them to do that, as that is the right thing for the airline to do.  

Good luck, and indeed, it is good you're home, safe with family!

What I'm trying to say is that I consider it lost money.  With this coronavirus situation lots of people are loosing money, not just us travellers who dont get refunds from some of our holiday plans, the airlines and other tour operators are loosing money, businesses all around us are loosing money, people are loosing their jobs, PEOPLE ARE LOOSING THEIR LIVES.  If we only loose some money on a trip we now cannot take that should be the lease of our worries.

[Aus Traveller]

18 minutes ago, rickays said:

 If we only loose some money on a trip we now cannot take that should be the lease of our worries.

When I mention to my son that we were "losing our $500 deposit on a cruise we cancelled", he replied that we weren't actually losing it, we just weren't getting what we planned for the money. That made me feel a bit better. The money was spent anyway.

[christodan]

Are the vouchers transferable? Can you resell them or just gift them if you are stuck with them?

 

[Aus Traveller]

15 minutes ago, christodan said:

Are the vouchers transferable? Can you resell them or just gift them if you are stuck with them?

 

I don't believe the vouchers are transferable. That is what I remember from reading the T&C several days ago.

[christodan]

Maybe they could strike a deal and say we won't be demanding a refund from you if you could make it transferable.Seems like a fair deal to me in these unusual circumstances.

[The_Big_M]

Aside from extending the timeframe, they have also made these fully transferable in this exceptional situation.

[christodan]

1 hour ago, The_Big_M said:

Aside from extending the timeframe, they have also made these fully transferable in this exceptional situation.

 

Oh I didn't realize. Well it seems fair to me. I have some operas booked at the Sydney Opera House later this year ( they are not cancelled yet) and they are asking if people could not ask for refunds but rather ask for a credit or donate because they are in such dire circumstances that they will have to sell some properties to stay afloat.

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/opera-australia-looks-to-sell-offs-to-stay-afloat-20200316-p54ai2.html

[cruisine21]

On 3/26/2020 at 1:46 PM, rickays said:

I had an extensive trip to USA planned for May this year that included hotels and internal flights on US airlines.  I have only received credit note for the airlines (NO CASH REFUND) and the credit must be used within 1 year of my original booking which was sept and oct last year, so I have to use them by sept this year - as if thats going to happen!  You think Australian company bad for giving you a 3 year credit note.  I had travel insurance, but they say because I got offered credit note cannot claim.  So I just have to put that down to "s..t happens" and get over it.  At least I am home, in my own country with family and friends all healthy - cant say that for lots of tourists stuck in various places around the world.

We had flights booked to New Zealand. Emirates is only providing Travel  voucher for ticket value with a validity of 12 months from date of issue. Thankfully we hadn’t booked anything else,

[MMDown Under]

23 hours ago, NSWP said:

Where is Captain De Groot when you need him, research needed on this one folks re opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge.

He would get lexmillers dough back quicksmart.😁

Family connection - My great aunt told me she was on a boat under the Sydney Harbour Bridge when the two sides were joined.

[subaru94]

I think Credit Card reimbursement would be the simplest solution, I can understand them giving a credit within Australia, however, you are from overseas, and as you say may never get here,  talking about credit card reimbursement,  stayed at a hotel once which just let me say had half day rates, we stayed one night that was enough,  we ended up contacting credit card company explained situation and they got our money back.  

[lexmiller]

I wanted to give everyone the final update - Sydney Bridge Climb has REFUSED to give us a cash refund.  In their opinion, a credit to climb within the next 3 years is dandy.  We worked through our credit card company, which was very helpful - but it is a many stepped dance and we lost.  We were credited the funds, but Bridge Climb clawed it back.  Our card then credited us again, but, again, Bridge Climb clawed it back.  And that was the final step.  We did also go to the NSW Fair Trading and the ACCC - both agencies were sympathetic and helpful but in the end, we had no recourse.  As said, we live literally half way around the world and are getting older by the minute.  A trip like this was once of a lifetime.  We are out the money, end of story.  But Bridge Climb stands absolutely alone amongst all of the other companies and providers we dealt with - all other companies recognized that this is a global pandemic, and that travel of this magnitude is a once in a lifetime opportunity - and all, BUT, the Bridge Climb, gave us cash refunds.  (OK, so, maybe not United Airlines, LOL, but that's another story!)

[nnps]

2 hours ago, lexmiller said:

I wanted to give everyone the final update - Sydney Bridge Climb has REFUSED to give us a cash refund.  In their opinion, a credit to climb within the next 3 years is dandy.  We worked through our credit card company, which was very helpful - but it is a many stepped dance and we lost.  We were credited the funds, but Bridge Climb clawed it back.  Our card then credited us again, but, again, Bridge Climb clawed it back.  And that was the final step.  We did also go to the NSW Fair Trading and the ACCC - both agencies were sympathetic and helpful but in the end, we had no recourse.  As said, we live literally half way around the world and are getting older by the minute.  A trip like this was once of a lifetime.  We are out the money, end of story.  But Bridge Climb stands absolutely alone amongst all of the other companies and providers we dealt with - all other companies recognized that this is a global pandemic, and that travel of this magnitude is a once in a lifetime opportunity - and all, BUT, the Bridge Climb, gave us cash refunds.  (OK, so, maybe not United Airlines, LOL, but that's another story!)

Sorry to hear that, very sad to hear that a Sydney company would act like that. Just had a thought, are the tickets transferable? Do you actually get a physical (paper) copy and does it name you as the customer (with identification required)? Perhaps you could sell them on EBay or such.

[By The Bay]

3 minutes ago, nnps said:

Perhaps you could sell them on EBay or such.

Exactly what I was thinking.

[lexmiller]

18 minutes ago, By The Bay said:

Exactly what I was thinking.

We actually did think of that......let me look into it,  to see if they are transferrable and what that entails - if possible, at least we'd get something for our troubles!  Thank you, and also to "nnps".

[christodan]

3 hours ago, lexmiller said:

BUT, the Bridge Climb, gave us cash refunds.  (OK, so, maybe not United Airlines, LOL, but that's another story!)

Look here's the thing.  Bridge Climb is a family run business (Hammons Holdings)  and comparing it to American Airlines, even in jest, is a tad unfair. 

[Aus Traveller]

4 hours ago, lexmiller said:

I wanted to give everyone the final update - Sydney Bridge Climb has REFUSED to give us a cash refund.  In their opinion, a credit to climb within the next 3 years is dandy.  We worked through our credit card company, which was very helpful - but it is a many stepped dance and we lost.  We were credited the funds, but Bridge Climb clawed it back.  Our card then credited us again, but, again, Bridge Climb clawed it back.  And that was the final step.  We did also go to the NSW Fair Trading and the ACCC - both agencies were sympathetic and helpful but in the end, we had no recourse.  As said, we live literally half way around the world and are getting older by the minute.  A trip like this was once of a lifetime.  We are out the money, end of story.  But Bridge Climb stands absolutely alone amongst all of the other companies and providers we dealt with - all other companies recognized that this is a global pandemic, and that travel of this magnitude is a once in a lifetime opportunity - and all, BUT, the Bridge Climb, gave us cash refunds.  (OK, so, maybe not United Airlines, LOL, but that's another story!)

Incredible!!!