The South African football fans who spent thousands of rand on travel packages to the UK that never materialised are planning to take legal action against a Johannesburg travel agency.
Last week the Daily News reported that Dhanaseelan Naidoo, of Chatsworth, had paid for a trip for himself and his nine-year-old son, Kaylin, through SA Sports Packages to travel to the UK for two English Premier League games.
But when Naidoo arrived, he found that neither his accommodation, nor his tickets for the games had been paid for.
He then had to pay for his own accommodation at a hotel in Manchester – along with 50 other South Africans who had bought the same package.
More comments:
http://www.hellopeter.com/complaints/never-use-sa-sports-packages-734091
To make a few comments who in their right mind would let a group of 50 people fly to the UK where no hotels are paid for and no game tickets are waiting for them. Certainly home that more comes out soon the story and that people who have been wronged are compensated.
50 people at R40 000 a person – this amounts to the tune of approximately R2 million rand. Guess someone has taken this a step to far and ended in a deep hole where they could not climb out. Liquidation is one thing however from the one sided stories I have read it seems that liquidation was started weeks before the trip? If this is so then shame on the owners and the way they have handled this.
With that been said I am sure we are going to see a few more agencies go down in the next few years, this will not be the last – so how does one protect yourself against this? Travel insurance ? Liquidity insurance ? or does the passenger now have to call and confirm arrangements prior to leaving from SA? ? Why ? why should they ? is this not why you go through and agency or a tour operator to start with?
We will investigate options and provide solutions and hints and tips to all travellers within the days and weeks to come.
