Loclly travel deals left me chasing emails and phone calls. Not the trip I was expecting! | Gripevine
I purchased a travel voucher in January 2012 and after over 30 emails with five people and three websites, a BBB complaint, and phone calls, the issue remains unresolved and I have yet to receive a refund for an un-booked trip from Atlanta to Las Vegas.
Loclly originally connected me to Next Stage Promotions, who then connected me to their "travel partner," Hotel and Air Promotions. Hotel and Air tried to book me a trip that cost over $1,200 additional ($300 of expected fees, the rest unanticipated and without any proof of why the costs were that high). I emailed Hotel and Air three more times with questions about the high fees, and they never responded.
I asked for a refund the first time at that point. Loclly sent me back to Next Stage Promotions.
Next Stage Promotions received 8 emails from me, three of which were answered. I was told for two weeks that I would get a new itinerary ASAP. I offered a range of a year of flexible travel dates in order to ensure I would not pay exorbitant fees. They sent me only one itinerary option, with the same fees as the first option. I asked several times why they had not researched the alternative travel dates, and again, asked why the fees were so high, and did not get an answer.
I went back to Loclly and they asked me to re-redeem my voucher so they could book the trip through someone else. I filled out the form they sent me. After several days, I again asked for a refund of my money, as I was continuing to be ignored and did not trust the process. I filed a BBB complaint.
The BBB complaint was answered by Loclly and I was again told I could get Loclly credits, and that Loclly had already spent $65 TWICE on redemption fees of my voucher. I was not told that $65 would be charged to Loclly when I filled out the form a few days prior. I responded and again, asked for a refund through the BBB. Loclly did not respond by the requested date of 4/20/12.
Last week, while awaiting another response through the BBB, I got a brochure from Hotel and Air Promotions thanking me for redeeming my voucher number and giving me instructions on how to continue and book my trip. This leads me to believe that Loclly sent me to exactly the same company that had failed me in the first place, and then mislead me into thinking they had paid a redemption fee twice. I have not pursued the process Hotel and Air outlined for redemption, as I'm no longer interested in redeeming, they failed me last time I tried this with them, and I don't trust that would not pay exorbitant fees.
All I want is a refund of my $198, credited back to my credit card, or mailed as a check. I've been offered Loclly credits instead, but as I don't trust the site and its practices, I'm only interested in a refund. This has been over four months of struggle and I really just want to be treated fairly.
Comments
We are so very sorry for any inconvenience you've experienced. Unfortunately, there are those rare times when our partner merchants do not meet the exceptionally high standards we set for accommodating our customers. We regret that this was the case with your purchase.
As we have already paid the merchant, we are unable to refund your purchase. However, we appreciate your business and would like to turn your experience into a positive one. You paid a total of $198 for your travel deal, and we'd love to generously offer you a $250 Loclly store credit.
Please contact us using the e-mail address on our previous correspondence so that we can get your credit set up for you and address any other concerns you may have.
Have a terrific day!
Hello,
Thanks for your response. I am pursuing a refund to you of the $65 fee Loclly paid to Next Stage Promotions on my behalf.
I look forward to receiving a refund when that is resolved. Please let me know if there is anything else holding up a refund to me and I will be happy to pursue that as well. Since the second time I tried to redeem my voucher, it ended up with Hotel and Air Promotions anyway, I am assuming that first $65 is the only redemption fee you have paid.
Thanks,
Alexis
Hello,
You can see from the comments below that this gripe is beginning to snowball. I understand that you've paid fees out on my behalf, but since I purchased this deal through Loclly and was not able to redeem it, Loclly is responsible for my refund and for any fees incurred on my behalf. If I purchased a defective product at WalMart, WalMart would owe me my money back, and they would have to eat the costs they paid for the defective product (or it would be their responsibility to pursue their own refund).
I really hope we can work this out. There are clearly a lot of unhappy customers involved and we would all like some satisfactory answers. None of us want Loclly credits, as we don't particularly trust your company. The Loclly name is beginning to be associated with words like "scam" and "unethical" all over the web. If only from a PR perspective, I suggest your resolve issues with the people who've been seeking solutions for months.
Thanks,
Alexis
P.S. I should note that I had an exchange directly with Next Stage about this and even though they are not responsible for refunding my money, they offered me certificates and other offers to try and resolve the situation (I declined). They genuinely feel terrible that I have been dragged through this situation, and I appreciate their concern and willingness to come to my defense. They are happy to work together to resolve everything.
Hey Loclly,
I haven't received a follow-up to my last reply, and I'm not sure any of the other 3 people on this chain have, either. I intend to continue pursuing this until I receive a refund. You can see from all our frustration that it's clear we feel mislead - this isn't an issue of just me, it's an issue with how business was conducted. I'm sorry you're responsible for fees on your end, but if I bought a broken radio from WalMart, WalMart would have to eat whatever their costs were to process my refund. It's the cost of doing business.
Thanks,
Alexis
I see that I am not the only one that has been duped by Loclly and their cohort, White Glove Deals/ Hotel and Air Promotions. This is exactly what I am going through! This is absolutely absurd; the way that they are treating people who, in good faith, thought that they were purchasing from a reputable company. I was also offered a Loclly credit but there is no way that I would ever again buy something from their site after clearly being scammed.
I do plan on filing a report with the BBB and I'm also sending the documents and emails to all of the local stations. I am going to tell everyone who will listen on Facebook, Twitter and any other Internet blog or whatever to stay far away from Loclly and any other business associated with them.
I'm so glad I'm not crazy! My BBB mission didn't result well. They responded once and not again, and after a certain period of time, the BBB "closed" the complaint as "unresolved" because Loclly isn't part of the BBB as a business (shocking). I saw on the BBB that 8 other complains have been filed against Loclly in Atlanta alone since late February 2012.
Please let me know how I can help further the mission - I'm happy to tell my story to anyone who will listen. I've started a Facebook page called Victims of Loclly: http://www.facebook.com/VictimsofLoclly. No traction yet, but it's intended to be a place where people can share their stories and put some pressure on the company to treat customers fairly.
At Next Stage, we take our relations with our customers very seriously. Many times, we have found ourselves in the middle of customer and vendor issues. Often times it is not either parties fault, but a miscommunication of some sort. I know that Veronica from our staff has been in touch with you. I hope that we can reach out to you, and do what we can to help you feel better about your dealings. We are trying to upgrade our customer service at Next Stage and Veronica and our other reps have done an amazing job at trying to keep the lines of communication open. Please keep in touch with us. I hope that we can show everyone a positive result at the end of this posting.
Thank you to Next Stage for your help with this. I will keep in touch about the progress!
I came across this posting when I did a search on your company because of the issues I've had redeeming my voucher. I realize this reply is several months after your post, but I'm desperate here to make some progress with my reservation and hope this gets someone's attention. I bought the deal from Loclly, $69 for basically a BOGO round trip plane ticket to anywhere. I read all the fine print very thoroughly before I purchased. When I redeemed my voucher back in September I was very happy with how your company did business. I heard back within 5 business days as promised and I got a very fair and reasonable quote. I replied back the same day with a change in my departure date and was ready to book and pay after it was made. However, I never heard back from my broker. I tried everything I could think of to get in contact with someone: emailing my broker again, filling out the online request form, calling customer service, requesting to talk to a supervisor. Customer Service is nice enough, but they are quite useless, they can only take a message and have a broker contact me "within 3-5 business days". A supervisor is never available, but "will be in contact with me in 24-48 hours". Right. Now the number has been taken off the website altogether. 2 months after our original correspondence I FINALLY heard back from a broker. I was irritated that he asked for passengers and travel dates/destinations, which should already have been in my reservation file, but I was glad at least to be making progress. 6 business days later I got new itinerary. The total came to about 3 times more than my original quote in September and included a hotel, an additional $99 per night fee (@9 nights), and a $500 credit. I don't know where any of those came from. I'm not complaining about the credit but I'm not sure why it's on there, and I don't need a hotel or any additional per night fees. Ticket prices for my flight have increased quite a bit since September, and while I don't believe I should be held responsible for paying for this increase since it's the fault of your company for dragging this out so long, I understand price fluctuation is beyond your control and am willing to pay that extra expense. However, my flight leaves in 3 weeks and I am very worried this will not be resolved in time if left in the hands of your brokers.
I did a little "investigation" into Next Stage Promotions and through a link on your website I came across what seems to be a "parent company" of sorts, Next Stage Companies, who has a number of other sketchy businesses. It was a very unprofessional website, made using website.com, with plenty of typos; one of the links even took me to an "inactive site" error. I was surprised to find the phone numbers were out of Atlanta, where I live, since the number I called for Next Stage Promotions before was out of Nevada. But when I tried calling one of the numbers it was a fax line, and the other I got after business hours. Given these findings and the thousands of complaints I've come across online I'm convinced your company is a scam. Even if this did get resolved I'm very leery about giving my money to your company...
So, if you would like me to believe that your company is not a scam and that you do "take relations with your customers very seriously" and that you are "trying to keep the lines of communication open" I would very much like to hear from a representative of your company ASAP, preferably a manager, and preferably by phone since my trip is just around the corner and I can't afford emails several days apart. If everything is resolved to my satisfaction I will likely still purchase my tickets through you. If it is not I will be forced to abandon this very important trip.
I have also been scammed by loclly and white glove deals. I have left multiple emails with half answers when the do respond which is very rarely. I spent $169 with them because I believed they were reputable. I have filed a complaint with the bbb today. It's awful how these companies take advantage of people.
Hey Banks - please join me at http://www.facebook.com/VictimsofLoclly and help spread the word about these unethical practices. We deserve to be treated better than this.
The same thing happened to me. I purchased a trip to Orlando for 99. I waited about 4 weeks and was told that i would have to pay 1000.00 just to go to Orlando from Atlanta, Ga.
Imagine the thousands of people that are getting ripped off. Someone has to be held accountable.
Hi Alexis,
In my initial response I asked that you contact us directly at the email address you've been using for previous correspondence. That post was on April 23 and the last email we've received from you was on March 29. I am still awaiting your e-mail. Please do so as we are happy to further assist you with this matter.
For all other inquiries, our awesome customer concierge will be happy to help you here: http://www.loclly.com/help/
Have a great day!