ComplaintsforEnvi Adventures, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  05/26/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My son and I booked a Vista View airplane tour in ******** on 5/10/22 at 6pm. At approx 5:45, I rcvd a call from *****, saying there was a mechanical problem with our plane, so 6pm tour was canceled. He offered to try to get us on a later tour that day, but the 2nd plane was ultimately unavailable. Though we did not ask, ***** offered/encouraged/pushed us to reschedule for the following day. I explained that was our last day in town and we had a very tight schedule. He suggested a tentative time for the next day, and assured me it would be no problem to cancel and get a full refund if the next days timing didnt work out (I never would have taken his offer had there not been a guarantee for the refund he offered) - he only asked that we give them a call if we couldnt make it the next day. He never mentioned how far in advance we would need to call back. As it turned out, the timing on 5/11 didnt work out, so I called back 1hr & 40 minutes before our tentative flight and left them a voice mail that we were unable to make it.After returning home, I emailed Envi with a request for a refund, based on their earlier cancellation of the original flight and our subsequent inability to make the tentatively scheduled replacement flight. The email response I received said I was not eligible for a return, since their policy requires a 24hr cancellation notice, which was before the new flight had been offered.All this could have been avoided, had the original flight not been canceled with almost no notice, and had we not have been pushed to reschedule, with the express assurance that we could cancel the next day and still be eligible for a full refund - no questions-if we called to cancel in advance. No mention of how far in advance the call would need to be made.Though it may or may not have been intended as such, the push to reschedule the subsequent flight & refuse refund for a notification <24 hours - literally impossible - seemed like bait & switch.

  Business response

  05/26/2022

  While the first cancellation was indeed due to a maintenance issue with the aircraft, the option to reschedule was given to the customer to which they agreed and the flight was rescheduled for the next day. The option to cancel and request a refund at the time of that rescheduling offer still existed, yet the customer opted to reschedule the flight in which they received confirmation by email of the reschedule.

  While a phone call *** have been attempted the following day by the customer, 1 hour and 40 minutes prior to the rescheduled departure time, we (the company) received no such request via our company phone number and answering representatives or via email. Therefore, there is no record of the customer requesting a cancellation prior to the rescheduled flight departure time.

  Our cancellation policy clearly states that all refund requests must be made by email and that refunds are not granted if a request is made within 24 hours of the flight. At the time of booking, all customers are required to check a box indicating they have reviewed and agree to the cancellation/refund policy in order to complete the booking. In this case, that box was in fact checked indicating agreement to the terms and conditions of our policy. Our full policy can be view at enviadventures.com/cancellation-policy

   

  Customer response

  05/26/2022

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  **********************************

   

  The business email response to my original refund request is below - contradicting their claim that no cancellation response was received:

   

  Customer response

  06/02/2022

   
  Complaint: 17259918
  
  I am rejecting this response because: 

  I am requesting a full refund from Envi for my original $126.14 payment, based on the following details:
  
  1. The original cancellation was made by Envi - 15 minutes prior to our originally scheduled flight time, when we were already on the way to their site.
  2. I did not request a rescheduled flight, since our next days schedule was too tight, but was encouraged by ***** to tentatively schedule a time for the next day, in hope that our availability worked out the following day.
  3. When I agreed to tentatively schedule a new time for the following day, ***** assured me I could cancel the next day if the timing didnt work out and would still be entitled to a full refund, as long as I called back the next day to let them no. No comment was made about a minimum notice to cancel our tentative new flight time.
  4. We would have never agreed to the new day/time had that guarantee not have been offered, since there was a good chance we couldnt make it happen, which is why we did not initiate/had no intention of requesting a new flight time when the original flight was canceled.
  5. ***** assured me when we agreed to try a new time the next day that we would still be entitled to a full refund if we found we werent able to squeeze the new flight time into our day, as long as we cancelled prior to the new flight time.
  6. According to Envis response to an email I sent on 5/17, they claim my cancellation was needed 24 hours in advance to be eligible for a refund, which would have been impossible, since the new flight time I was offered was already in the window of 24 hours in advance, and we were assured canceling the next day would be fine.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  **********************************

  Business response

  06/06/2022

  As was mentioned in our previous reply:

  The option to cancel and request a refund at the time of that rescheduling offer still existed, yet the customer opted to reschedule the flight in which they received confirmation by email of the reschedule.

  While a phone call *** have been attempted the following day by the customer, 1 hour and 40 minutes prior to the rescheduled departure time, we (the company) received no such request via our company phone number and answering representatives or via email. Therefore, there is no record of the customer requesting a cancellation prior to the rescheduled flight departure time.

  
  Our cancellation policy clearly states that all refund requests must be made by email and that refunds are not granted if a request is made within 24 hours of the flight. At the time of booking, all customers are required to check a box indicating they have reviewed and agree to the cancellation/refund policy in order to complete the booking. In this case, that box was in fact checked indicating agreement to the terms and conditions of our policy. Our full policy can be view at enviadventures.com/cancellation-policy
  

  
  

  Customer response

  06/08/2022

   
  Complaint: 17259918
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  - your note stated that you had no record of my having called or left a message in advance to cancel the 5/11 flight, but the email you sent 5/17 at 11:48 - in response to my refund request - is where I got the time of my notification to you -as you stated, the flight was rescheduled with your approval on 5/10 at 5:41PM to the following day at 6:00PM, as shown in the attachment Ive added.

  - that means that ***** rescheduled the new flight time exactly 24 hrs and 19 minutes before the flight. According to your claim that a 24 hr notice of cancellation is required in order to be eligible for a full refund, that means that I would have had only 19 minutes after ***** rebooking to call back and cancel to be eligible for a refund. 

  - as mentioned previously, I did not request the re-booking - nor did I want it, since I knew our availability would be extremely tight, being the last day before we left ********. It was only rescheduled due to ***** urging - again, with his assurance that the flight could be cancelled without penalty, as long as I called in advance. ***** assured me - and I reiterated - that I would be entitled to a full refund if our day turned out to be too full to make the flight, stating the refund request could be made by email after the fact.

   

  Had I cancelled the original flight due to my own convenience, or if Id initiated rescheduling your cancelled flight, I would agree that I wouldnt be entitled to a refund, but neither of those were true. Based on that  I am once again requesting a full refund of the payment made.

   

  
  Sincerely,
  
  **********************************

• Initial Complaint

  12/01/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I was awarded a gift certificate in a fundraiser raffle, then COVID hit and crippled much of anything. I just called today to make sure my gift certificate was still valid since it had been a while and COVID restrictions have eased a little. The man on the phone said that it was not valid and that I had plenty of time to use it, he was condescending and told me they have been flying since April 2020 so there was no reason for not using it. NOWHERE on the gift certificate is there an expiration date. He refused to let me speak with an owner and just told me multiple times that I had plenty of opportunities during COVID to use the gift certificate (which was without a written expiration). He told me at the end of our conversation that he could only offer that there is an expiration explanation on their website (which is also not on the gift certificate) and told me I should have looked there.

  Business response

  12/13/2021

  All gift certificates expire 12 months from the date of issue, and while that expiration date makes it so someone holding a gift certificate cant redeem it via our online reservation system, we are able to manually redeem it under certain circumstances. Unfortunately we were not able to share this information prior to the phone call abruptly ending.

  Customer response

  12/13/2021

  I am rejecting this response because I spend 18 minutes on the phone with the business and not once during the conversation did they offer to manually accept it. The issue is simple, their gift certificates are misleading and do not give the recipient any information about the certificates. If the business wanted to reissue a new certificate to me of same kind AND add expiration info critical to recipients, I would accept this as resolved.
  ******* Pump

  Business response

  01/06/2022

  This gift certificate can still be redeemed by emailing us with the gift certificate code and requested date/time you would like to go. Our email is ****************************** and please let us know what flight the gift certificate is valid for so that we can manually book your flight.

  Customer response

  01/06/2022

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ******* Pump

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