A group of pensioners who paid R26 000 each for 14 nights in Thailand say they’ve been scammed and want their money back in response to being abandoned on the eve of their departure.
According to IOL, 80 travellers were expected to leave on 20 June but were informed a week prior that their much-anticipated tour was cancelled without refund.
Sharon Lategan (64) from Strand explained that a group of 10 people in her area each paid R26 000 to Prudence November from Angelique’s Tours.
“We know the woman who was the organiser, someone saw the flyer on her WhatsApp status last year, but before this, we heard about it from our friends.”
Lategan notes that the organiser had a track record of successful boat trips to Namibia, which garnered rave reviews.
“We enquired and she explained to us and sent banking details. In May 2023, we sent a deposit of R5 000 and we had to be done with our payment by December last year. We found out there were about 77 people who booked, some booked for 10 people and paid more than R100 000 to Prudence and the estimate for everyone was more than R2 million.”
Lategan said everything seemed on course when they received their itinerary in February.
“We exploded with excitement because this is a place you can go, nice hotels, 3 and 4-star hotels. I Googled all of them, so the places were real.”
Lategan explained that, over time, something seemed off. When travellers asked for their tickets, they were told they wouldn’t receive them until June.
“We again asked on June 8 for the tickets. We began to worry when we didn’t get the flight details.”
The group received confirmation last Monday that their trip to Thailand was cancelled.
“We called a meeting with Prudence and then suddenly there was another person who was from another travel agency, which was odd because she never mentioned any of this to us,” said Lategan.
The representative attending the meeting in place of Prudence announced that the Thailand trip was cancelled and that the travellers would not receive a refund.
Subsequently, the group decided to open a case with the police.
Complied by: Jareed Moogas
First published on Cape ETC
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