Question: I’m at the end of my rope. I recently I booked a trip to Mexico online through Apple Vacations for my wife, daughter, son-in-law and myself. As always, I also bought an insurance package.
My daughter and son-in-law couldn’t make it because of a new employment situation, so for the first time ever, I had to make a claim on our insurance. We were told by Apple that there were no penalties and to expect a travel voucher, minus the payment for insurance, within 10 days.
But that didn’t happen. It turns out the insurance only covered a small portion of our trip. What’s more, only one room had been booked for our group when I made the reservation online. An agent I spoke with suggested the error was caused by Apple’s Web site.
Apple’s position is that since we booked a room for four people, the remaining couple’s rate would have to be adjusted to a double rate. It also based its refund on the prevailing double rate at the time of cancellation. The bottom line to me is that Apple has refunded only $544 instead of the $1,286 I believe I’m entitled to.
I feel like the little guy being taken advantage of by a large corporation. At this point I am about to give up. Can you help? — Donald Dinsmore, Boothwyn, Pa.
Answer: Apple Vacations or its insurance company should have refunded your daughter and son-in-law’s share of the trip at the time of the purchase. I can’t think of any reason to recalculate the rate and offer a refund based on a new price.
But in reviewing your letter and Apple’s response (I’ll get to that in a second) I’m left with a laundry list of errors on both sides.
Let’s start with Apple. When you bought your Mexico vacation, you should have been able to book the two rooms you wanted. When an Apple representative promised a refund within 10 days, you should have received one. The insurance you purchased through your online agency should have covered you for the full amount of the trip, if that’s what it promised.
You, on the other hand, should have reviewed your reservation immediately after you made it. Then you would have known about the room problem immediately. You should have read your insurance policy carefully, which would have indicated only part of your trip was covered.
How could you have prevented this? Asking yourself “is this a good time for a vacation?” might have prompted you, your daughter and your son-in-law to reconsider the Mexico trip. I wouldn’t plan a getaway if I anticipated a job change in the near future. Most employers take a dim view of new hires that take a vacation right after starting a job.
Second, and more important, you should have written more letters and made fewer phone calls. In fact, you really only needed to make one call to Apple Vacations — to get the email address of the appropriate customer service contact. That way, when you need to escalate your complaint, you can do it with a few keystrokes instead of spending half an hour talking with a customer service representative who is unfamiliar with your case.
You bought an insurance policy through your online travel agent at the time you booked your vacation package. I might have shopped around a little. The first insurance offered by a travel agent isn’t necessarily the best one, and any travel professional who advises you not to kick the proverbial tires on a few policies doesn’t have your best interests in mind.
I contacted Apple Vacations on your behalf. The company says it was already working on your refund request before my inquiry. It refunded an additional $742. Without going into specifics, a company representative told me there were “a few technicalities” with your case. I’ll say.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
You know, Chris, the letter writer didn’t say that his children had started a new job. He just said that a new employment situation suddenly came up. While this could mean that a new job was started, it could also mean that their employment status changed. They could have suddenly lost their job, had hours cut, etc which would have rendered them financially unable to take the trip.
And I would add that you don’t necessarily anticipate job changes, if that was the case. Sometimes, a job presents itself that you can’t pass up, or a job removes itself unexpectedly and you must find another immediately.
But Chris always likes to cover all his bases on both sides, so asking this question just makes sense. He’s not passing judgment on the the traveler, he’s simply making suggestions for other future travelers to consider before they run into similar problems.
The economics of the tourist industry is opposite of normal economics, they do not care if they have repeat customers. If a Hotel or Tour irritates a guest there is no long term ramificaitons. My advice as a traveler of over 10 years is assume with every transation there is no possible way of ever getting a refund and take care.
Andy HoboTraveler.com Travel Blog
What are the best travel insurance companies?
As a seller of Apple Vacations, I am aware of some issues with booking Apple online. As with any site, it has its issues from time to time. As for the insurance, there are currently 3 levels of insurance that can be purchased from Apple. It sounds like he purchased the lowest one from Apple, so maybe he should have checked all of his options first. This is where a live travel agent may be a better choice over booking online.
Chris is right that there are other insurance options out there. When I’m booking one of my clients, I explain all of the insurance options — with the tour company vs. an insurance company such as Travel Guard or iTravelInsured or, for example, Both of these companies are bookable on our agency website, so the consumer can look at what they offer and cover vs. what the tour operator or curise line offers so that they can make an informed decision.
One thing to note about Apple Vacations is that it is our experience that while their handling of customer service issues has improved in the past few years, they can be fairly slow at resolutions. For this reason, our agency uses other suppliers if we believe that it would be a better choice for our clients, but still is beneficial price-wise for our clients. But if it is the best choice to book Apple, we do. Avoiding Apple has made a negative impact on our commissions by going around them at times, but in our opinion it is worth it if our clients are happy.