As a tour operator myself, I sympathize with Topdeck going from being liquid to cash strapped in a matter of weeks. This seems to be the story of businesses across the world and unfortunately most may not survive. Having said that this does not give Topdeck the right to rewrite their refund policy AND then promptly refuse to refund trips that they previously communicated to customers as approved. Now what Topdeck is offering in it’s place is a full credit plus an additional $100 that expires December 2021.

After cancelling her trip because of the Covid-19 outbreak a New Zealand lady was told by Topdeck via email that she would receive a 100% refund. A few weeks later she received another email telling her she would only be receiving her refund in the form of a travel voucher plus an additional $100 that expires December 2021. Topdeck did say that they are flexible with the expiry date. A complaint has since been filed with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). A review was also left on the Topdeck facebook page expressing her concerns that has been promptly removed.

ACCC has said that giving refunds in the form of vouchers is allowed and normal practice amongst tour operators, however applying a policy change retrospectively is not. Now while all this is happening, the Council of Australian Tour Operators (CATO) posted an advice via their website for tour operators to issue vouchers instead of cash refunds. The reason is so operators can remain liquid throughout the travel supply chain during this pandemic.

There seems to be a lot of confusing information that is coming out of different camps, but I guess that is to be expected when you are navigating a pandemic. That doesn’t give any business the right to change a policy and then apply it retroactively in their favour over the customer. If anything the customer should benefit on any changes made retroactively not the business. This is what our federal government is for, isn’t it enough that the people will be paying for these bailouts to begin with via their tax dollars but to punish them again and get help from the government is almost criminal.

I think Topdeck is going to get crucified in the media, especially since one of their main competitors Contiki has changed their policy the same way except they will not apply it retroactively. The smart thing to do would be to ask each client individually if they would like to take a travel voucher plus 10% towards a future trip in lieu of cash. I guess we will see what develops over the next few months. Let’s hope that Topdeck changes their position under all the media attention and does the right thing.

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