Travel of the graduates: they paid in dollars, and after canceling it, they claim that they will receive a nominal amount and in pesos

Without the trip and without reimbursement. After a year of poor epidemiological predictability and several flight date changes, the travel of graduates of students received last year from the San Andrés School, originally scheduled for November 2020, has been truncated. Upon learning that the date of the tour was going to be postponed to March, the month of departure for university courses, the parents decided to cancel the service, which included a week in the Club Med Punta Cana, and request a refund of the money paid. But the repayment plan travel agency hiring, Soulmax, aroused the indignation of the educational community: Most families would receive a “token” amount, between 5% and 20% of what they paid for months in dollars, and would receive it in pesos and at the official exchange rate.

In an email, the company informed families that it would return the money, but would withhold 25% of the total package price per person. The news sparked controversy because most families had paid less than a third of the value of the service, Therefore, the reduction would be almost the equivalent of the amount paid and the refund would be almost zero.

“For my son’s trip, they paid $ 775 and they want to give us back 30”, manifested Maria cecilia, mother of one of the young people who was going to travel to Dominican Republic a THE NATION. Like many other parents in the group, María Cecilia’s family stopped paying the monthly installment plan in April, when, given the economic and health crisis, Soulmax offered the option to stop paying the tourist package until that there is news on the possibility of making the Trip in November.

“We expected them to return our money to us in pesos and at the official exchange rate. But what is wrong and unacceptable is that they keep 25% of the total price when no one has paid that total, ”he said. Andrés Murchison, father of Nina, one of the graduates. The cost of the trip was $ 2,980.

In recent months, faced with the worsening epidemiological situation due to the new coronavirus, many groups of parents have decided to suspend the travel of their children’s graduates. In this context, conflicts between student tourism companies and their users have become commonplace, and in some cases, they even ended with the intervention of lawyers and the presentation of documentary letters by both parties to the conflict.

Asked about the issues triggered with the parents of San Andrés, Soulmax spokespersons highlighted several issues that they believe are vitally important to understanding their way of dealing with cancellations. “Student travel companies We have up to a year to make the trip which was taken on by a group of students. In the case of San Andrés, the parents decided to suspend the service after we had warned them that they were going to lose money, ”they explain. The company offered them other options, like changing what was paid miles or make the trip later, but they didn’t want to.

Compared to This takes 25% off the total price – not what was paid, as parents demand the company justified its position. “Before selling a service to boys in a school, you must already book transport and accommodation. If the date of travel is changed for any reason, we may change reservations. But if the students don’t travel that year or if we can’t find another school to fill those reserved seats, we lose money. This is why we charge 25% of the total value of the service, as allowed by the Ministry of Tourism ”.

However, the sources of Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Nation consulted by THE NATION indicated that this way of dealing with the suspension of a service is not correct, because according to the Resolution No. 498/20, issued in November of last year to regulate cancellations of graduate study trips, Student tourism agencies can keep up to 25% of what each family has paid for, not the total service contracted. In the event that a company claims a higher percentage, the injured parties can lodge a complaint on the website of the national tourism portfolio, the sources consulted underlined.

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