I knew they had a terrible online reputation (1.2 out of 5, with 1 being the lowest option), but I didn’t know they are, basically, thieves and can somehow think they can get away with something so obviously illegal.
They are a Singaporean company? Singapore protects them as they illegally take money from consumers?
Trip sent me the following message: "If you cancel the chargeback and contact us before the departure of the first flight segment, we will honor the TripFlex package and process the promised refund of USD 378.80 accordingly.
If you choose not to withdraw the chargeback, to prevent further losses, we will have to cancel your round-trip booking before departure. In this case, no refund will be issued to you, and any refundable amounts will be retained by us."
So, when I asked for a refund and Trip offered a very low sum (which seemed obviously in violation of their policy that I paid for), I asked PayPal to investigate and to either delay sending my payment or to withdraw it and investigate the deceptive practices behind Trip’s (fake) “Easy Cancellation” system (which is not easy and does not seem to lead to a cancellation or refund).
Trip is telling me that unless I withdraw a legitimate complaint to PayPal, it will cancel my entire round-trip booking and keep all my money.
This is outrageous. A company is threatening to steal money from customers to pressure them into abandoning a legitimate complaint.
I have to check on this but for now it looks like deceptive business practices and unlawful coercion.
I am a retired teacher. I worked hard for over 25 years in poorer neighborhoods to save up some money for my retirement. I paid for this trip in good faith.
I just have to say it - Trip seems like a criminal organization and I do not understand why hotels or airlines would partner with them.
I am sharing this publicly because other travelers deserve to know how Trip treats customers.
There are more ethical travel companies to choose from. Please do not support what amounts to a criminal organization operating out of Singapore to defraud Americans.
This is completely lawless behavior - I am sending this out into the world to let you know that there are more ethical travel sites to use. Please do not support a site that basically steals money - anyone could be next.
Forward the communications/threats to Paypal along with anything relevant like their cancellation policy that they are refusing to honor.
I’ve stopped using Paypal years ago, but when I did have legitimate issues, they were pretty quick to help me out.
Yeah, I even sent them the crazy email where Trip stupidly threatens me if I don’t drop my complaint (criminal behavior). To explain, Trip is hoping to take action before PayPal can make a determination on this matter. They set a resolution date of November 10th. That’s why the idiots at Trip tried to pressure me to cave in before then. Not a chance. I’m taking these assholes down.
I must be missing something here. If you thought you were going to get a refund through the vendor directly why did you issue a chargeback?
If you’re asking for a chargeback from the payment provider on the payment you gave the vendor, why would you expect to still receive the product/service or a refund directly from the vendor instead of receiving it from the Paypal dispute process?
It sounds like they asked for a refund from the vendor who would only give them a partial refund, so they went to Paypal for the full amount, which is not unreasonable.
I get that, but then the response from the vendor saying they won’t refund if the dispute goes through is entirely expected.
Once you go the chargeback route you are an enemy of the vendor. Expect nothing from them and continue to seek your restitution from the payment provider. Anything the vendor says after chargeback is just noise to ignore.
The payment processor is working on your behalf and they’ve essentially stuck their hand in the till and pulled put out the money they previously put in. 100% have no idea what OP expected to happen.
Lube up…