Help! My balloon trip refund is up, up and … away

balloonHere’s a balloon disaster with a happy ending.

Michael Buss and his fiancée booked a balloon trip this spring through a company called Go Wild Ballooning in Melbourne, Australia. When strong winds prevented them from taking off, they asked for a refund. They never got one.

Was Go Wild keeping their money?

Buss believes it is. “The secretary agreed on that and promised to give us a $750 refund via my credit card,” he told me. “Despite her promise and a couple of reminders I sent her we actually never got the money back.”

Go Wild’s refund policy is clear:

Unlike powered flight, hot air balloons depend on wind currents and wind direction to travel from one point to another, so inclement weather such as gusty or high winds and rain can prevent a flight from taking off. In the event of possible inclement weather, passengers will be notified the night before when they ring their pilot; they then have the option of rescheduling the flight or receiving a refund of any deposit monies.

So what happened?

I contacted the company on Buss’ behalf. It promptly responded:

We tried to contact Michael Buss by phone to refund his credit card as his credit card had been stopped but we could also not get through on his phone. A cheque for $750 was sent out to Michael Buss [at his address].

In other words, Go Wild made every effort to refund the money.

I asked Buss about that.

My credit card was replaced by a new one in May, yes. And of course I do no longer use my Australian mobile. The address corresponds to my friend’s place where I was staying in March when I booked the flight. Unfortunately, I cannot check right now since my friend is on vacation and will not return until September 1st. But I will keep you posted.

Please do. In the meantime, for those of you who are still waiting for a refund from a company, here’s a little advice: Make sure they have your latest address and phone number, and try not to switch credit cards. Otherwise, your refund could be gone with the wind.

Frankly, my dear, I couldn’t resist that conclusion …

(Phto: ronnie44052/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • MarkieA

    So, the phone number Mr. Buss provided Go Wild Ballooning is one that he no longer uses, the credit card he provided is one he no longer uses, and the address he provided is one he no longer -if ever – uses. And he complains that the company didn’t get hold of him to provide the refund they promised. Geez, I guess they should have…well, I can’t really think of anything else that they could have done to track him down. Seems like Mr. Buss made it nearly impossible to get his refund.

  • Joel Wechsler

    Seems to me that Go Wild went above and beyond to take care of someone who screwed up bigtime. Would that all travel suppliers were so honest and diligent.

  • Christopher Elliott

    @Joel

    Above and beyond?

    I love it! Wish I had used that in the original post.

    And I agree with you, too, by the way.

  • LeeAnne

    The only thing that makes any sense on this one is that Michael Buss must not realize that when your credit card gets replaced with a new one, the old one is inactivated and things like refunds don’t just follow it to the new one. Otherwise, why on earth would he have have bothered Christopher with this? It sounds like Go Wild Ballooning is a company that has to process refunds on a pretty regular basis, just by the nature of what they do – so I’m sure they know how to do it. I’m also sure that had Mr. Buss given them a SINGLE working avenue for doing so, he would have had his money back promptly.

    I can’t help but wonder why it didn’t occur to him to contact the company HIMSELF and give them some actual method of refund. But it does go to show us all just how giving Christopher is – he’ll even take on the cases where the traveler is his own worst enemy! ;-)