A TRAVEL agency known for its aggressive sales
techniques has gone bust, leaving holiday-makers thousands of dollars out of
pocket.
Wicked Travel has been placed
into administration, owing about $1.5 million to suppliers, customers and
staff, according to liquidator Laurie Fitzgerald of William Buck Chartered
Accountants.
Promising “the trip of a
lifetime”, the company specialised in selling backpackers packaged holiday
deals to places like Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, Fraser Island, the
Whitsundays and a Sky Dive at Mission Beach.
Now would-be travellers who
booked trips with the agency have been left empty-handed.
Canadian woman Taylor Gray
reluctantly booked a $2000 package deal with Wicked Travel under pressure from
its high-energy sales staff, she told the ABC.
“When I asked if I could come
back the next day they pushed me to make the sale that day,” Ms Gray said.
But she handed over the cash
and set off on her first excursion, only to find it did not live up to her
expectations.
Her efforts to secure a
partial refund were thwarted when the company went into liquidation this week,
and she was advised that she would be unlikely to get her money back.
“I would highly recommend
anybody who comes to Australia not to go through a travel agent, and just to do
it yourself,” Ms Gray told the ABC.
“Get a car and camp around, the tours just aren’t worth it, you pay far too
much, or in my case far, far too much.”
EMPLOYEES OWED THOUSANDS
Former staff member Justin
Crux told travel news site The Byte he was owed more than $10,000 in unpaid
wages, holiday pay and superannuation.
Wicked Travel, which operated
12 outlets in Brisbane, Cairns, Sydney, Byron Bay, Melbourne, the Gold Coast
and Airlie Beach, had recently co-branded with transport operator Greyhound
Australia under a “strategic alliance” when the company failed.
On its website, the newly
formed Greyhound Wicked Travel says that it is “in no way a part of the of the
now liquidated Wicked Travel”.
While it promised to honour
all Greyhound coach travel previously purchased through Wicked Travel, it will
not do so for tours and excursions from other
providers — a position Mr
Fitzgerald described as “unusual”.
He said travellers would be
unlikely to recoup their funds through the winding-up process, as there was “no
wealth of assets left in a company like this”.
Those who booked by credit
card may be able to seek a refund from the bank, he said.
TRAVELLER COMPLAINTS
Online review sites are
littered with horror stories about Wicked Travel’s sales tactics, with
disappointed travellers detailing how they were “ripped off” by the agency
after being lured into its stores by the promise of free internet.
One backpacker detailed how
he was convinced there were only two spots left on a canoe tour in Noosa,
booking the trip only to discover that the excursion was unsupervised.
“Since
our group was quite relaxed and easygoing and we managed to arrive at the
destination and back to the base camp without causing a search operation,” the man wrote.
“We just had a laugh about
it. Nevertheless, it left a bit of a bitter aftertaste, since the guy at Wicked
Travel strongly emphasised the quality of the ‘products’ they sell and how
carefully selected they were.”
The company found itself in
hot water with the ACCC back in 2009, when it was among a trio of agencies
subject to an enforceable undertaking after using misleading prices in their
advertising.
Wicked Travel could not be
reached for comment.