Want a funtastic holiday? Yep, funtastic! Not only fantastic but fun too!
Add them together and you get a funtastic holiday.
Funtastic Holidays – Don’t Mess With My Mum!
This is a lesson me and my 4 brothers learnt many years ago. Don’t mess with our mum. You’ll end up with very sore back of the legs!
Sure, she might not still have that wooden spoon but she gets mighty grumpy when things go bad.
My mum told me the story of your dealings with her and my advice to you is run for your bedroom and hide under the bed! Don’t come out until things cool down.
Anyway, here’s the story.
My old mum Betty got a call from Funtastic Holidays up here in Queensland offering low, low prices on flights.
Just $99 for a flight to Queensland from Hobart and return. My old mum thought that sounded good so, after much stressing (she’s a pensioner and can’t afford to lose $99), bought tickets from Funtastic Holidays.
Excellent! Or so you’d think.
You see, later on it emerges that they contact my old mum to ask where she’d like to book the 7 nights accommodation.
“But I Don’t Need To Book A Resort”
“Wait,” says my old mum!
“I don’t want to book anywhere. I’ll be staying with my son – I don’t need accommodation.”
Mmmmmmm. “Well,” say Funtastic Holidays, “Part of the deal for the cheap tickets is you have to book at one of our ‘partner’ resorts for 7 nights.”
“You didn’t tell me that,” cries Betty and the fun begins!
A Miscommunication?
I thought maybe it was just a miscommunication between them and my mum. But I dug a little deeper and this is what I found:
Fair Trading Queensland has prosecuted them before:
“The company failed to properly explain the terms and conditions of the vouchers to consumers.”
They got fined $10,000 for telling customers fibs about a couple of things.
Read the full Office of Fair Trading info here.
Just 9 months ago they featured in a special report by consumer champion Helen Wellings who started talking about Funtastic Holidays by saying:
“Another clever scam has conned customers looking for cheap airfares.”
Graeme Samuels, Chairman of the ACCC is quoted in the report saying:
“We have received a number of complaints about this particular operation and they are now going to proceed to a process of investigation.”
You can read the full report featuring the practices of Funtastic Holidays here.
Back To My Mum
My mum asked for a refund.
“Sure!” said Funtastic Holidays.
“Just put it writing to our management.”
My mum thinks they must have some sort of process so that’s what she does. She’s trusting my old mum!
“The refund is coming. ” But it never does.
- My mum rings and rings and rings. But the phone always seems to be engaged.
- Finally she gets through.
- The sympathetic ear on the other end explains that whoever was responsible for her refund was away.
- It will be processed. Nothing arrives.
- More calls.
- Lots of promises of a refund.
- Apparently now it’s off to an insurance company
Not quite sure what it’s got to do with an insurance company??
But then again, the letter to management, the calls, the fobbing off, etc might all be seen by some as a way to simply exhaust the complainer so they go away.
That wouldn’t be their tactic would it?
Funtastic Calling Today
Anyway, Funtastic Holidays were, of course, definitely going to call today or have the refund money in the account today.
That call/money never came. Wow!
So thought I’d just write this blog post to say hi to my mum and mention a customer service story.
Gee, I wonder if this post about Funtastic Holidays will get ranked in Google and maybe even be read by people checking them out?
Cheers
Brendon
{ 24 comments }
If you paid with a credit card then go to your bank (whoever issued the card) and do what’s called a chargeback – this means the bank gets it off them and it’s usualy a very easy process.
All you need to say is that you didn’t receive what they said you would.
If you paid any other way just keep complaining.
Good luck.
Note: If you paid with your credit card here is essentially the foolproof way to get your money back.
Go to your bank and tell them this company misled you. Ask the bank to do a chargeback on the credit card.
That’s it.
Paying with your credit card is the most secure way to pay because you can always do a chargeback.
Howdy Yvonne
Methinks your complaint about stuffing your reputation is a bit much. I reckon you’ve done that yourself.
One thing that does bother me a bit is the tons of anonymous critical comments.
I guess having a way to have a voice against bad company practices is nice. But not that fair unless people are willing to put their name to do.
I’ll take down the 30+ critical comments about Funtastic Holidays and FHT Travel later today.
But the post stays up,
And did my mum receive her refund – of course she did. You know she did or you wouldn’t have asked the question.
She got the refund a few days after this post went up, I understand.
Call me cynical, but I don’t reckon that was a co-incidence.
Cheers
Brendon
Brendon, i believe that most of the comments are posted as anonymous for the same reason as mine, still waiting for a refund and would probably jepodise getting one from funtastic holidays if they knew who we were as the complaintants!!!!
Howdy Yvonne
I’ve just removed your bullshit post.
With just you having comments displayed it gets a bit uneven – with the 40 or so highly critical comments of your company removed because they’re anonymous versus your 2 published comments, people could be left thinking that the post was harsh and that there is very little criticism of your business.
When that’s not true – looks like tons of people get extremely pissed at your business but many of them post anonymously for fear of not getting a refund.
So off comes your posts.
Cheers
Brendon
Brendon, thought it would be of interest for your site to know that Yvonne Earnshaw/Funtastic Holidays/FHT Travel was evicted from their office premises this week for failing to pay their office rent and all her staff are now without employment. I wonder if she will pay all her staff their entitlements due to them!!!!
she still owes me money.
regards Nicole
Imagine my horror when I came accross this website after 2 years of trying to use my packages(Yes, I bought 2!!)to no avail!!
Everything I secretly feared there in black and white!!Am now in the process of trying to get my money back and have taken on board all the advice (now removed) that i have previously read. Am still waiting for someone from FHT to return my emails (plural!)and that certainly is the reason I will not be leaving my name on this site. They read too!
Howvever,I will continue until I do get my money back and will put my name to the letter when I return to tell you that the money has been returned. Cheers.
I have today been hit by this same scam and FHT Travel PTY Ltd has misled us in this. They called my wife yesterday to syat that we have won some travel tickets etc and talked their way in getting the credit card details when she had clearly told them that she will discuss this further with me. FHT rep told her that they not deduct any money without our permission but they did do this yesterday.
I have called my bank who are not refering this to their fraud / scam investigation dept and to take further action on FHT Travel. I tried calling all their contact numbers but to no avail. I sent email to the FHT info desk and got a response that someone will get back to me asap but I guess now reading through these chains of blogs, this seem not possible.
We have been misled in this and I am willing to go all the way to get my full refund back from FHT.
It is so disgusting that companies such as FHT Travel have such ethics where they say one thing and do another. But let me get this right, this needs to stop here and as not everyone likes to accommodate this sort of shit.
This is mereley evryones waste trying to sort this out.
This is hard earned money and companies like you rip people off.
I hope I get a full refund to my account asap as.
Thanks Danny
my brother and i just recently purchased same deal from fhttravel stating they had taken over from funtastic holidays, when we rang to book all numbers were not assesable so no response, we then contacted , fair trade, security ,liquidation ect , we were then contacted late at night from a man staing he would book our flights ect but we informed him that we wanted our money returned so waiting to see if this happens, yes all bad scams seem to start in that area and i was taken for a ride to being a pensioner but will never fall for this again a lesson learnt
I puchased 5 of the packages in December 2007 so that my husband and I and our three children could finally have a family holiday, when we went to book the holiday in October 2008 we were told that this was not possible and that we also needed to pay for 35 nights accommodation, which I in turn told them was ridiculous and was not part of the original agreement.
After numerous telephone calls and emails I requested that my money be reimbursed, only to be told that they needed to listen to the original telephone recording before this could be done. When I called again this week advising that I still did not have my refund and that I would be taking this further, was asked to give them another 7 days to get back to me, unbelievably I received a call the next day (being today) from FHT Travel to advise that Funtastic Holidays went into liquidation on the 19th January, 2009 and that FHT Travel have nothing to do with Funtastic Holidays and that they are trying to assist creditors by handing over their details for refunds!
Arrrgh I need help myself guys.
Im trying to get a refund
Today they called me asking me to UPGRADE to a gold card at a charge of $99.00 so I can have an extra 2 years on my membership.
When I replied “but I still have untill May 2010 to use them”
Her responce, oh so its actually only a 12 month membership you bought.
So I was myself lied to and scammed out of.
Whats the best way to try and get my money back?
thanks everyone!
For your info, Just went to my credit card company then and they advised they CANNOT (any I dont know why) do a charge back
BUT they are putting an investigation through. I thold them all the details so lets see where this goes.
Im VERY disspointed with FHM Travel. I was promised to be able to use my discount vouchers on so many things including Limo rides ect but It looks like it was all a talk up to get my money.
Im so dissapointed.
Shame on THEM.
Hi Guys, I feel such and idiot giving out my credit card details to FHt Travel. I heard on the radio today that next week is scam week and one of the scams is this travel card one. I very much doubt the credit card people will be able to do a charge back on this. I think you only have about 48 hours to do it after the details have gone out. I am so naive. I even told ‘Andy Smith’ that it was all I earned that week. As if he cared! The bum. I hope there is an afterlife and that he rots in hell. This is their real day job: To work out new ways to con people. We are all working hard and earning our money for them!!
PS. I can’t get through to any of the numbers FHT Travel provided either. Any suggestions?
Christine, no idea.
Don’t let the bastards win.
YEs I was called by them today saying I had won, but they couldn’t tell me my name! I was talking to two Indians, first called Shon and his boss Alex Smith, ever heard of an Indian native called Alex Smith, Smith being such a common name.
I gave them the run about for 20 mins knowing they are paying and then told them I was going to google them like I do to all would be scammers. Who would be so silly to give someone $ who ring up on the phone and certainly not an Indian calling himself Smith. Garry
Wow, wish I had read all this BEFORE I bought my package (which I still haven’t got). I can’t get onto FHT either, all my emails are returned by the server because they can’t get through and same with phone calls – I can’t get onto anyone!
I’ve used “Funtastic Holidays” vouchers before and was very pleased with everything but FHT – does this company actually exist?
Feeling ripped off at the moment.
Sue.
Arrrgh
I tried calling them, after NUMEROUS EMAILS SENT
THEIR FREAKING NUMBERS HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED
I am going to kill that effing company.
No screw them
They are NOT getting away with my money
Not after all this crap.
Im waiting on Westpac to get back to me on this one.
im fuming
i have received a call from FHT Travel PTY LTD and convienced me to spens £170.00 for providing 40 percent disconut on any flight fare and hotels worldwide.i paid them through my debit card by using OD, they promised i will recieve my gold card next day with £169.98 credit which i m still waiting.money is already gone from my account.don’t know what to do to get my money back.their should be some kind of strict law to punish these fraud companies.BLOODY HELL….can you advice me what should i do.
well i will be happy if the service is good as they promised. don’t want to react badly so i will wait 1 more working day then off coursev i will do as every buddy does when they are pissed.this is not harsh. we all work hard and do not want someone to fool you and use your money . and here we are to pay back those money with interest to our bank for our foollishness……
its a month now i have not recieved any card or vouchers as they have promised me but yeah money is already gone from account.i don’t know how to claim my money back…could some one help me….
What vouchers have you bought? We are holiday letting managers in the Gold Coast. If you have purchased holiday accommodation vouchers and you have these vouchers in hand, I believe most of the holiday accommodations including ourselves will honour a discount accommodation rate to you.
Maggie Prew
Yes same for me, phone calls, emails, all the way to the liquidators at Funtastic Travel who said they had nothing to do with fhttravel. Do they or don’t they ??? Like everyone I hate being scamed and if anyone has any ideas how we can win this one I’m in !!!!! Annie Crowe
Howdy
We’ll be disabling comments on this article shortly.
We don’t have the time to deal with the tons of complaints about this company – there’s an old saying “We don’t have a dog in this fight.”
Meaning, it’s not our fight. We don’t care.
If you’ve been screwed over then you have some options:
1. Bitch and moan
2. Bitch and moan to Dept of Fair trading/whoever
3. Do a charge back if you paid by credit card (best option by far)
4. Try some other way to get your hard earned back
Good luck and cheers.
Brendon
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