BEWARE: OARS river trips
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they are confiscating my $1000.00 on a Yampa trip because I broke my heel climbing last month. |
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How much advanced notice did they get? |
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Sounds pretty standard to me. Even on private trips you forfeit your cash if you bail without a replacement. |
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I imagine this and other policies were all communicated very clearly prior to the booking of the trip. OARS is a quality operation and is not to blame here. Regardless, I wish you a speedy recover and hope you get to float the Yampa soon. |
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Did you pay with a credit card? If so, call and have they company remove the charge. Say you didn't authorize it. Let me know how it goes! |
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Sounds like a great way to go to court. |
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I feel for the OP as I once had to cancel a trip hours before leaving. We lost a good chunk of money. Almost all travel related businesses have a limited to no refund policy such as OARS: |
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It looks from Allen's link that they are treating the deposit as a penalty rather than a liquidated damages provision. In which case, it's likely unenforceable. They also seem to be keeping the entire cost of the tour (which presumably includes profit) rather than what could be said to be a reasonable assessment of damages. |
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The season on the Yampa is very short - usually not much more than a month or maybe two. A client bailing is a big opportunity cost for the outfitter on top of the losses incurred for permit fees, food, guides, etc. They just don't get to guide it very many times a year, and each trip is 5-7 days so there is a fair bit of commitment there for them. |
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Jeremy B. wrote:It looks from Allen's link that they are treating the deposit as a penalty rather than a liquidated damages provision. In which case, it's likely unenforceable. They also seem to be keeping the entire cost of the tour (which presumably includes profit) rather than what could be said to be a reasonable assessment of damages. The OP's problem is that getting actual legal advice, or fighting it, will likely cost more than the kilodollar he's already out. Note: I'm not a lawyer; I just semi-randomly Google stuff and spit back up what looks reasonably plausible. I'm sure there's some lawyers floating around here who can make some non-specific comments on the topic.We don't know how much advanced notice was provided to the tour operator. From the vendor's perspective, they have limited slots to fill and those slots are income. If someone prevents them from filling a slot they are withholding income from the vendor. It's not complicated. I'll guarentee the tour operators don't have a mansion on the French Riviera, get a grip. |
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Rick Blair wrote: We don't know how much advanced notice was provided to the tour operator. From the vendor's perspective, they have limited slots to fill and those slots are income. If someone prevents them from filling a slot they are withholding income from the vendor. It's not complicated. I'll guarentee the tour operators don't have a mansion on the French Riviera, get a grip.That's true; he could have booked the tickets 60 days in advance and tried to get the refund two days later. Or, booked them 90 days out and cancelled the week before the trip. Who knows? My take is that OARS should have someone review the wording of their terms to make them more enforceable. They did make the cancellation costs clear right up front, so it is hard to have sympathy for the OP if he feels surprised at them. |
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Go on the trip there is one rapid and you are rafting which means drinking beer and sitting on your ass. Perfect for rehab. I worked two seasons raft guiding on crutches people do way tougher things than rafting with way less don't be a pity party be part of the party |
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I worked in guiding and outfitting for a dozen seasons. If you didn't buy either their insurance, or have some sort of travel insurance on your own, that's your problem. |
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Cancellation policy seems to be clearly stated at time of booking. So as a consumer you have two choices - buy insurance or assume the risk of loss of deposit / payment. |
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Mark NH wrote:Cancellation policy seems to be clearly stated at time of booking. So as a consumer you have two choices - buy insurance or assume the risk of loss of deposit / payment. Sounds like the OP made a decision to assume the risk and now wants to gripe that the operator is doing bad business by "confiscating" his money. I sure don't see it that way. The OP just needs to "suck it up" to a lesson learned.Technically, this is true. In this particular instance, due to the truly unexpected reason for the cancellation (injury), and in the spirit of maintaining a good name and image, it MIGHT be a nice thing on the part of the company to offer at least a partial refund - but, legally speaking, it's entirely up to their discretion. |
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On the business end of this, it points out that OARS, and many guided tour companies |