DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: I’m making an attempt to get a full refund from Iceland Automobile Rental for our journey to Iceland in August 2020 that was canceled due to COVID-19. On the time we booked the rental, in March 2020, they supplied a “100% a reimbursement” assure. We notified them to cancel our reservation as quickly as our flight was canceled, in July 2020. Are you able to assist me get my $545 again?
— Kristen Nelson, Minnetonka, Minnesota
ANSWER: This shouldn’t have occurred. Most automotive rental corporations don’t cost you till you decide up your automotive. I reviewed the phrases of your settlement with Iceland Automobile Rental, and it really works a bit of in a different way. When you cancel your reservation as much as two days earlier than your pickup date, you get a “100% refund.” When you’re inside the 48-hour cancellation window, they’ll cost you in your rental.
You canceled earlier than two days, so it's best to have acquired your a reimbursement. So why didn’t you?
An Iceland Automobile Rental consultant tried to elucidate it in an electronic mail to you. “The coronavirus outbreak has resulted in hundreds of cancellations,” he defined. “Because of this lots of people have utilized for refunds — together with you. Every refund utility is dealt with individually. And with the nice quantity of instances that we’re at the moment processing, the ready time is at the moment too lengthy.”
However after you requested how lengthy it is likely to be, you bought a special reply.
“As is the case for a lot of tourism associated corporations world wide, the way forward for our firm has been secured all through this tough interval with a survival settlement with our financial institution,” the corporate famous. “Nevertheless, the monetary restructuring of the corporate couldn't embody the refunds of excellent reservations for the foreseeable future; due to this fact, we won't be able to refund your reserving.”
This seems to be a special argument. The automotive rental firm was restructuring, which suggests the previous firm — the one with which you had the reservation — technically now not exists. The brand new Iceland Automobile Rental apparently didn’t really feel it needed to honor among the obligations of the previous firm.
However the Iceland Automobile Rental you had been coping with shouldn’t have charged your card within the first place. I feel you'll have had a reliable case for a bank card dispute, had it come to that.
It didn’t. I contacted Iceland Automobile Rental in your behalf, and it issued a full refund.