Vacation Hub International under fire over cancellation practice

Wholesale travel club Vacation Hub International has come under fire over its cancellation practices but insists its contracts are completely in line with the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).

This comes after some of the club’s members unsuccessfully tried to cancel contracts within the five-day cooling-off period allowed by the CPA where contracts are the result of direct marketing efforts.

In an interview with RSG Geldsake, Hannelie Jacobs, member service manager at Vacation Hub, said the club would never refuse to cancel a contract. The only reason a contract may not have been cancelled is due to non-compliance with the terms and conditions of the contract.

“Our agreement is completely in line with the Consumer Protection Act,” she said.

Asked what the terms and conditions are, Jacobs said the CPA requires that a request for cancellation during the cooling-off period be done in writing. In terms of Vacation Hub’s terms and conditions, the written request has to be delivered to the club’s street address. Clients would need to have proof that this was done before they could get their money back. After five days, cancellation would still be possible, and the same procedure would apply, but a cancellation fee would have to be paid.

Cancellation fee

During the 24-month fixed-term period the cancellation fee is 50%. Jacobs said this is fair and that most businesses levy much higher cancellation fees.

But consumer law attorney Trudie Broekmann says one of her clients who tried to cancel the contract via registered mail as well as email and fax was still unsuccessful.

She argues that the condition that cancellation must be done via registered mail is contrary to the CPA and thus invalid. In terms of the CPA, a consumer must notify the supplier of the cancellation of the contract in writing or another recorded manner and form. This may include email, a hand delivered letter, SMS, fax, Whatsapp message, voice note or by phone if the call is recorded.

“If you could circumvent a legal principle through a contract, all our laws would have been ineffective.”

Broekmann believes a requirement to cancel contracts via registered mail was intended to ensure consumers don’t meet the five-day deadline. The Post Office is not efficient and postal packages would usually not reach their destination within five business days.

Responding to suggestions that the Vacation Hub offer is not good value for money, Jacobs said “nothing could be further from the truth” and that many of their clients receive discounts that exceed their membership fees within the first 24 months.

But Broekmann says some of her clients had to pay R87 000 within the first two years. With discounts of between 10% and 65% for holiday accommodation, a client who was lucky enough to get a booking through Vacation Hub every time they wanted to take a break and who received the full 65% discount, would need an accommodation budget of more than R130 000 in a 24-month period to break even.

One client paid fees of around R39 000, but received discounts of less than R2 400, she adds.

Citing client testimonies on its webpage, Jacobs said Vacation Hub works hard to ensure members get the best service and discounts.

Trevor Hattingh, spokesperson for the National Consumer Commission (NCC), has confirmed that the report the commission compiled on its investigation into Vacation Hub has been referred to its prosecutions arm. The NCC investigated various complaints against Vacation Hub.