Campervan rental money non-refundable

bossanova

My sister cancelled a trip to France including campervan rental on 16.07 due to serious illness to my father. She was due to fly out on 30.07. She was forced to sign a contract and fax this to the south african based campervan company in order to secure the booking. She has since been informed that the $2000 she paid up front on her credit card is non-refundable although she gave 2 weeks notice. i have not seen the contract she signed. What course of action could she take and what are her options in this a very tough time for my family?

thank you

Thoie

If, when you check the contract, it does say non-refundable, then she should start a claim with her travel insurance. She will probably have to provide a doctor's letter/certificate.

dahamsta

I would have thought the sensible thing to do would have been to read the contract before posting.

kida

claim on the travel insurance - if she has it - if not expensive lesson to get it

dubVdub

Contact the Credit card company, there may be some payment protection, it's worth a try!

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

Why would she use a south african company to hire a camper van in France

dudara

It all depends what was written in the T&Cs of the contract she signed.

Does she travel insurance? There may be comeback if she does.

jor el

Travel Insurance would cover her if she was unable to travel due to illness, etc, but I'm not sure if it covers for a family member's illness. Unless of course the father was supposed to travel too.

She'll have to check exactly what was written in the booking contract, and also what the terms of the travel insurance are.

Very often deposits are non refundable, unless you give a specific period of notice (sometimes a week, sometimes a month). Without knowing what it said, any advice is mostly pointless.

Kensington

dubVdub wrote: »

Contact the Credit card company, there may be some payment protection, it's worth a try!

There's little point in doing this, since the transaction is legit. If OP signed a contract which says (s)he will lose full deposit, if a cancellation occurs within so many weeks of the holiday, then there is nothing the CC company will do, and rightly so.

The accomodation company needs to cover themselves for people pulling out - they may not be able to fill the accomodation on such short notice, and may have had to turn down enquiries due to that van not being available due to the (now cancelled) booking. Therefore, they would lose out by the van lying empty for the period the OPs sister had it booked for.

Of course, without reading the contract, it's all speculation. I would imagine there is a clause in the contract that indicates loss of deposit on cancellation at such short notice. If you've travel insurance, they should cover it, otherwise it's unfortunately a very expensive lesson on the importance of travel insurance!

ShatterProof

Gamesnash.ie (Pat) wrote: »

Why would she use a south african company to hire a camper van in France

and pay in dollars !!!!!

bossanova

thanks for all the advice, very helpful.

MOH

Kensington wrote: »

There's little point in doing this, since the transaction is legit. If OP signed a contract which says (s)he will lose full deposit, if a cancellation occurs within so many weeks of the holiday, then there is nothing the CC company will do, and rightly so.

While the card transaction is legit, there might be a (very?) slight chance that there's some element of insurance on travel bookings made with the card, worth checking out if you have no other travel insurance.

the_syco

bossanova wrote: »

south african based campervan company

For a campervan in France o_O Could you call Nigeria's location "south Africa", I wonder?

OP: could you PM me the name of the company she used? I'm wondering is it a scam site?

The whole "south african" based comapny looking for $2000 up front to rent a campervan in France just sounds dodgy to me.

Xcellor

bossanova wrote: »

She was forced to sign a contract and fax this to the south african based campervan company in order to secure the booking.
thank you

How was she forced? If she was truly forced then the contract was signed under duress and therefore invalid.

It does sound really dodgy though. $2000 is a lot to pay up front.

eth0_

Sounds like she was ripped off. Who in their right mind would send $2000 to a company in _AFRICA_ to rent a campervan in France?

The only thing i'm not surprised about is that she didn't send the money via western union!

olaola

Could she sub-let it as such?