The good news for anyone following my experience of dodgy services in South Australia is that we eventually recovered all our money back from Exotic Sportscar Hire. On the 27th January they took our $3,000 deposit. On the 29th January they informed us that there would be no refund until after 28 business days. $701 was paid back to us on the 14th March well after the stipulated refund period. After a lot of complaints by me to ESCH and perhaps action by Travel Zoo, a further $2,000 was refunded on the 19th March. We still had $299 outstanding, for which ESCH finally provided a readable reconciliation statement on the 15th March. In addition to the $189 we had paid for the original voucher, they were now claiming all sorts of reasons for making extra charges. I have already detailed how ridiculous these charges were in my previous post.
On the 15th March I phoned Consumer Affairs (Consumer and Business Services in SA). The first question the counsellor asked was whether I had contacted our credit card company. She explained that we had 90 days to raise with them a disputed payment and ask them to recover our money. If only I had known this from the start. It took two phone calls to the 28 Degrees MasterCard call centre to get some action. The first fellow tried to fob us off, but the second time we got a more professional worker. She immediately agreed to refer the matter to their disputed payments section in Melbourne. I had to supply copies of all our correspondence, and on the 15th April we got back the final $299.
I'm not sure if the 90 day dispute rule applies to debit cards as well. I had once been fobbed off by the people at ING DIRECT when I tried to recover my money from a company called the Decorator Bug after it went into liquidation. The man who ran this, and a number of other companies that install blinds, shutters and so on, appears to have been trading while insolvent. I had paid a forty percent deposit with a Visa Debit card. The person at ING DIRECT said that there was nothing that they could do. Maybe I should have been more assertive. It all worked out okay for me in the end but I know a lot of people lost large sums of deposit money. Interestingly the Decorator Bug is up and trading again.
I got another emailed response (11th March) from TravelZoo, which issued the voucher for Exotic Sports Car Hire. This basically stated that they bear no responsibility for us losing our money and having such a terrible experience. They did take some credit for our getting back some of the original $3,000. At least it seems that they will not be promoting Exotic Sportscar Hire in the future. I do despair about companies like ESCH. Eventually it will disappear from the scene, perhaps through bankruptcy and take with them all the money they have taken from their victims, and then probably re-emerge under another name, and it all starts over again. They are only a subsidiary of Stemidoju Pty Ltd.
Living Social is still promoting this company. They have varied their name to Exotic Sports Car Hire. I complained to Living Social and they claimed they would investigate. I also tried to add my complaint to the others on the LACARTES website but failed. They are still promoting ESCH.
The best thing about my experience with ESCH was a reminder of how many good people there are still out there, particularly those people who made comments or emailed me offering assistance. They had all lost money to ESCH, but they were still giving some of their valuable time to helping others. So many good people also helped me get the shutters I had ordered from the Decorator Bug and at the original cost. These experiences serve to remind me how many good people there are out there.
Most problems seem to have reasonably positive solutions, even if they are not evident at the time. In 2006 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and I have been keeping a separate blog of my journey with this disease entitled "God, Prostate Cancer, and Me". My father had it as well. They removed his prostate in a major operation that involved cutting through his stomach. When this didn't work they operated again and removed his testicles. After that there were no further treatment options.
I was diagnosed too late for the operation, which is now pinhole surgery. I have received external radiation therapy and internal radiation administered through small tubes inserted into my prostate. Castration has not been suggested but I have received medication that has the same effect. When these all failed to stop the progress of the cancer I was placed on a trial of a new drug Ipilimumab, marketed as Yervoy, and used primarily in the treatment of advanced cancers associated with melanoma. Maybe I was on the placebo but that do not do me any good either. I am now on chemotherapy, Docetaxel, every three weeks, and Prednisone, a steroid, twice daily. This has reduced the spread of the cancer and negated earlier symptoms, like lymphedema. My point is that there are options that weren't available to my father and the prospect of further advances. Don't give up. I like the old saying: "Tough times pass, but tough people keep going."
On the 15th March I phoned Consumer Affairs (Consumer and Business Services in SA). The first question the counsellor asked was whether I had contacted our credit card company. She explained that we had 90 days to raise with them a disputed payment and ask them to recover our money. If only I had known this from the start. It took two phone calls to the 28 Degrees MasterCard call centre to get some action. The first fellow tried to fob us off, but the second time we got a more professional worker. She immediately agreed to refer the matter to their disputed payments section in Melbourne. I had to supply copies of all our correspondence, and on the 15th April we got back the final $299.
I'm not sure if the 90 day dispute rule applies to debit cards as well. I had once been fobbed off by the people at ING DIRECT when I tried to recover my money from a company called the Decorator Bug after it went into liquidation. The man who ran this, and a number of other companies that install blinds, shutters and so on, appears to have been trading while insolvent. I had paid a forty percent deposit with a Visa Debit card. The person at ING DIRECT said that there was nothing that they could do. Maybe I should have been more assertive. It all worked out okay for me in the end but I know a lot of people lost large sums of deposit money. Interestingly the Decorator Bug is up and trading again.
I got another emailed response (11th March) from TravelZoo, which issued the voucher for Exotic Sports Car Hire. This basically stated that they bear no responsibility for us losing our money and having such a terrible experience. They did take some credit for our getting back some of the original $3,000. At least it seems that they will not be promoting Exotic Sportscar Hire in the future. I do despair about companies like ESCH. Eventually it will disappear from the scene, perhaps through bankruptcy and take with them all the money they have taken from their victims, and then probably re-emerge under another name, and it all starts over again. They are only a subsidiary of Stemidoju Pty Ltd.
Living Social is still promoting this company. They have varied their name to Exotic Sports Car Hire. I complained to Living Social and they claimed they would investigate. I also tried to add my complaint to the others on the LACARTES website but failed. They are still promoting ESCH.
The best thing about my experience with ESCH was a reminder of how many good people there are still out there, particularly those people who made comments or emailed me offering assistance. They had all lost money to ESCH, but they were still giving some of their valuable time to helping others. So many good people also helped me get the shutters I had ordered from the Decorator Bug and at the original cost. These experiences serve to remind me how many good people there are out there.
Most problems seem to have reasonably positive solutions, even if they are not evident at the time. In 2006 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and I have been keeping a separate blog of my journey with this disease entitled "God, Prostate Cancer, and Me". My father had it as well. They removed his prostate in a major operation that involved cutting through his stomach. When this didn't work they operated again and removed his testicles. After that there were no further treatment options.
I was diagnosed too late for the operation, which is now pinhole surgery. I have received external radiation therapy and internal radiation administered through small tubes inserted into my prostate. Castration has not been suggested but I have received medication that has the same effect. When these all failed to stop the progress of the cancer I was placed on a trial of a new drug Ipilimumab, marketed as Yervoy, and used primarily in the treatment of advanced cancers associated with melanoma. Maybe I was on the placebo but that do not do me any good either. I am now on chemotherapy, Docetaxel, every three weeks, and Prednisone, a steroid, twice daily. This has reduced the spread of the cancer and negated earlier symptoms, like lymphedema. My point is that there are options that weren't available to my father and the prospect of further advances. Don't give up. I like the old saying: "Tough times pass, but tough people keep going."
