How can I get a refund from a dodgy travel agent in Hsinchu?

Update: He said he can’t give my ticket. I bought my own ticket. There are a few more people like me who had this experience in last few days. Maybe he is planning to run with our money (I hope not!).

It sounds like he’s buying last minute cheap deals. It seems unlikely that he’d do a runner if he runs a successful restaurant.

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What biggus said.

And I’d go to his restaurant at the busiest time of the day and explain him loudly how he can not do this and that if he doesn’t return the money you will come back with the police.

EDIT: indeed, try to go with the police. And sue go to the police station and make a complaint. Also at some tourist office if possible. I’m not sure if he has a license for that other business but I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t, and if he has one he’s going to lose it.

One would think if he is “ licensed” , that whomever issued this license , should be informed . Also the airlines should be warned as to his shenanigans , to prevent him purchasing in the future . Threat of newspaper reporting sometimes works . Have a word with K- man :blush:

Never buy air tickets from anyone other than the airline or legit travel agent

Been burned once with a similar promise of a cheap ticket , was hard getting the money back

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How does one verify if someone is a legit travel agent… apart from word of mouth reputation?

Are they advertising in the newspaper?
Have your Taiwanese friends take a look to see if anyone has heard of them

Even then I don’t understand how he consistently managed to get issued tickets in the past for so many customers. He used to give a confirmation number immediately after paying him (and promising to give the issued ticket a few days / hours ahead of flight. Check the stack exchange thread above for more discussion.

I will try to find out.

I am feeling so much stress. Woke up at 3.30 am and can’t get sleep. I lost more than half of my monthly salary because of this agent…

Post on Trip Advisor shaming him, then threaten him with getting 10 friends to post one star reviews. He’ll soon cough up the money.

What was your friend’s experience with Mr. Kamal? Presumably it was positive enough for them to recommend him to you?

It looks to me like you are going to get your cheap tickets just before the flight. If a 10-15% saving isn’t worth the amount of stress you are putting yourself through then pay the full whack in future.

Licenced travel agents ( and maybe those who were canceled their licenses too) are listed on government and 中華民國旅行業品質保障協會(travel quality assurance association)'s sites.

https://www.taiwan.net.tw/m1.aspx?sno=0000148&lid=7

http://www.travel.org.tw/consumer2.aspx?item_id=4&class_db_id=46&article_db_id=82&t=1

Added

I meant I think I saw some alert notice or list of bad agents somewhere.

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One of the posters there explained that he is probably a consolidator.

yes. but not all consolidators give ticket at the last minute (see the comments below answer). i think there is more to this than just being a consolidator. he didn’t even know this word when i asked!

He couldn’t get the ticket and he’s not giving you your money back?

He said he will return money by month end.

That’s outrageous.

A post was merged into an existing topic: Why so much 𝖗𝖊𝖕𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓? :dvd:

He said he is facing financial crisis. I had no energy to argue with him on phone. Needed to prepare for travel.