38 want travel firm to refund money for overseas package

THIRTY-EIGHT Malaysians who have booked overseas vacation packages are taking a travel agent to the tribunal court for cheating their money. They said they had paid the full cost of the packages but their vacation did not take off. Some, who demanded for their money be refunded upon suspecting something amiss, said the cheques issued to them bounced. Their plight were brought to the attention of Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, who took them to the tribunal court at The Mall in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

Vacation gone to dust: Some of the victims waiting inside the tribunal court with Tan (in white shirt, standing).

“This case has already been reported to the police and the travel agents had been arrested and released on bail. “Investigations are still ongoing but a decision has not been made by the Attorney-General on whether the operators will be charged,” he said. He said many of the victims had bought their packages at the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) fair in September and that the company was a member of the association. “This company does not have the licence to sell overseas packages. “Although the association found this out on the second day of the fair and cancelled its booth, it was too late because many people had already bought the packages. “Even with the booth’s cancellation, the public were not informed about this travel agent nor was there any assistance offered to those who have bought the packages,” he said.

Tribunal court president M. Suppiah only allowed the cases of two victims to proceed because the rest did not have the reply slips from the defendants to show as proof that the victims had served notice letters to make their claims. Suppiah adjourned the hearing for the remaining victims to either Jan 13 or 14 whereby they would have to produce proof that they had served letters to the defendants. One of the two victims who had his case heard was Phang Hooi Kiang, who said he had paid RM20,066 for his family of four for a trip to Japan. Suppiah ordered the defendant to pay RM20,066 to Phang within 14 days from the date the order was served.

The victims present said they had bought packages to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Japan, Vietnam and Europe. Tan said he would be going with the victims to meet the Matta council on Jan 7 to present their case. Matta president Datuk Mohd Khalid Harun said notification was already made in the papers as soon as the association took the company’s booth out on the second day of the fair.

-thestar online.