Recovering from the 1time blues
Posted on November 11, 2012Yesterday was an unfortunate day for many South Africans with the demise of 1time. There was chaos at the airports around the country as passengers were left stranded, some literally at the boarding gates after their luggage had been loaded, others hearing the news while on their way to the airport, and arriving to find closed check-in points and service desks. Twitter was abuzz with the news, reports of tearful employees asking sorrowfully about their jobs.
I was at OR Tambo, for a change very thankful to be flying SAA, observing all this going on around. One of the passengers boarding with me had paid R2800 to get a one-way ticket from Jhb to Durbs on the fateful Friday night. At the boarding gate there were a handful of standby passengers hoping that one of the regular fliers wouldn’t arrive so they would be able to get home. Only a few made it on, the rest were left hoping to catch another flight. A passenger relayed the story of how he flew up Friday morning, the plane only had around 40 passengers on-board, the emptiest flight he had ever been on. The pilot then made a strange comment after they landed. Instead of the usual “hope to see you aboard an xxx flight soon” he remarked that he couldn’t say he hoped to see them on a flight soon, then seemingly realising what he had said cut off the comment halfway through. Seems to indicated that even if the staff had no inkling, the pilots had some forewarning of sorts.
A number of friends, and colleagues are affected. They had bought tickets around the country to go on holiday and visit loved ones during the festive season. This comes as a double blow, with risk of the tickets being lost as well as the need to either pay cancellations and disappoint their loved ones, or buy new tickets at massively inflated prices given the sudden spike in demand for a much lower pool of available flights.
A few days ago, a Twitter friend, Graeme (@grabocrippler) had asked me around the stability of 1time, and having read about the R200 million cash injection not so long ago, and the CEO having stated in an interview that he put up personal guarantees (including his house) I thought they were through the worst and were on the up. Sadly this was not to be. Sorry Graeme.
In our exchanges on twitter I came across a post referencing a discussion on CapeTalk (@CapeTalk567) with John Maytham (@johnmaytham)suggesting that recovery from the Credit Card companies was likely if booked using a credit card. Annie (@26degreessouth), a travel guru of sorts (my term, thanks Annie), then pointed us to an article by consumer advocate and guru Wendy Knowler (found here). This suggests that the credit card companies must give refunds as there is non delivery of service from the vendor. The article stems back from the collapse of Velvet Sky not so long ago. Sadly though, the comments section seems to indicate that the banks were very reluctant even to give people the forms to submit their claims and wanted them to claim from Velvet Sky, claiming that the funds had cleared. Not positive, though definitely still worth pursuing.
This article here by Marke Corke on Business Masters, suggests that since 1time was in a business rescue, creditors created after the rescue was instituted will take precedence over creditors from before, suggesting further that ticket holders have a high likelihood of getting their cash back. Marke’s view is different from that of a IOL reporter (here) who offers the view passengers will be out of pocket. No supporting evidence is offered for this view, unlike Marke’s.
Finweek (here) have comments from Nedbank indicating that they and American Express (operated by Nedbank) will be refunding consumers when the correct forms are completed. Their customers have 60 days to fill in the forms which can be obtained from customer services (Nedbank Call Centre on 0860 555 111) and supply the complete dispute form with proof services weren’t rendered ie copy of the ticket.
Please share your experiences of what the banks are saying. My partner has two tickets with 1time so will be pursuing the matter, I will share her progress as things go along. Knowledge is always power so they more we know and share the better chances of getting a successful outcome.
Good luck in recovering your funds, and in getting new tickets.
Links that are useful :
Lead SA pointed consumers to this site : http://1timehub.co.za/ Very useful information, quotes from all the major banks confirming they will be doing refunds
Wendy’s article : found here
Mark Corke on Business Masters : here
IOL thinks you wont get any cash back : here
Finweek has comments from Nedbank that are positive : here
Tags: 1time, money back, recovery, travel
Categories: Consumer Protection Act, Travel
Still no refund from Discovery. Their service really sucks. Now been 2 months and nothing. Service like this and one has no use for them, better to just stick with Investec and be done with Discovery, at least then I would have already been refunded.
29.12.2012 17:12
I forgot that I had booked a flight for my daughter on 1time. I called Discovery now and they first reaction was that “they had been informed that customers must lodge the dispute with 1time directly”. After I pointed out the other banks responses and that I didn’t believe their response was in accordance with contract terms nor Visa’s normal procedure they put me through to the “dispute” department who found the transaction and are hopefully now emailing me the forms.
Fight for your rights, don’t let banks swat you away and not fulfil their obligations. They get paid enough in fees.
My daughter also heard that Mango is doing some kind of special deal, putting on extra flights and giving discounted prices to 1time customers with existing tickets. Not sure how I feel about that since deep down I do partly blame Mango for the demise of 1time. Still, may help out a lot of people to avoid unnecessary pain and drama.
04.11.2012 12:08