A Gatehouse businessman is furious after being left more than £500 out of pocket by a London-based travel company – two and a half years after paying for flight tickets.
Francois Van der Zee stumped up £537 to Dream World Travel in August 2019 to fly from Scotland to Johannesburg the following April.
But plans to visit his family in South Africa fell apart amid waves of Covid chaos and he asked for a refund.
On April 21 last year the company confirmed it had received Mr Van der Zee’s refund cash from the airline.
It told him by email: “After deduction of admin fee (of) £35 per passenger your refundable amount will be £502.
“We will be processing that against your refund request.”
Almost a year later Mr Van der Zee is still waiting – despite repeated demands for his money back.
He told the News: “I have been diplomatic all along and understand that everyone has been under pressure.
“But I’ve had enough of waiting and being given the runaround.
“They acknowledged my request for a refund and confirmed they had my cash.
“I paid them two and a half years ago – I have been sending them emails almost every month.
“The money is there and they are just stringing me along.”
As a last resort, last week Mr Van der Zee completed an online date change request to use up his refund.
Dream World Travel arranged a return flight to South Africa with a different carrier.
But they wanted an extra £388 – despite having banked his original ticket money.
Mr Van der Zee’s was angry at being asked to stump up more cash and demanded his money back.
Now he has arranged fights himself – and will fly out to Johannesburg next month for a long-awaited family reunion.
He said: “I was very upset and thought it was totally ridiculous they came up with that additional cost.
“I’m at the end of the line and have bought another plane ticket to go to South Africa through another
airline.
“I need to go because I have not seen my family for four years.
“My father is over 80 and not very well, my son is still there and my brother as well.
“I am flying out with Swiss and will be in South Africa for 20 days.”
He added: “I’m still fighting and will keep on fighting.
“I know there will be other people in the country who will have been treated similarly. People should not
give up.
“Companies should be held accountable for their actions and should not exploit situations.”
The Galloway News contacted Dream World Travel about Mr Van der Zee’s case.
A supervisor with the firm, Shayan Ahmed, said: “Our lines have been busy with four times the normal load of calls.
“I will follow this matter up myself and ask our finance team to process this refund as soon as possible.
“I will do my best to get this processed in one to two weeks maximum.”
