Voyageurs International will pay 235 Washington high school students and their families more than $464,000 to reimburse for unlawful cancellation fees
OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that music travel company Voyageurs International must pay more than $464,000 for full refunds to 235 Washington students who signed up for the company’s 2020 European tours.
The Colorado-based company, which organizes yearly tours to Europe for high-school musicians, unlawfully charged each of the 235 Washington students at least $1,900 in cancellation penalties after the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the company cancelling its July 2020 European tours. The company also illegally retained an additional $775 fee, for a total of $2,675 per student, from 23 students who signed up to extend their tour to Greece.
Where a travel agency like Voyageurs cancels a consumer’s travel, Washington law allows the travel agency to recoup its losses by charging consumers cancellation penalties if the company was appropriately transparent with the consumer about the potential for those penalties. When the travel agency cancels, the law prohibits travel agencies from charging cancellation penalties greater than those the company incurs from its third-party vendors — such as airlines or hotels. Voyageurs failed to lawfully disclose the risk of penalties and illegally charged consumers penalties greater than what the company incurred from its vendors.
Voyageurs deceived its customers by sending them a letter claiming the company “paid out more than $1,900 per student for the upcoming tour season that it cannot recoup.” That statement was false. In reality, the company was able to recoup more than 60 percent of what it charged consumers.
“Avoiding travel during a worldwide pandemic is the right thing to do,” Ferguson said. “Deceiving consumers about the costs incurred is not. Today, we ensured these hardworking families will get their money back.”
Under the consent decree, filed in King County Superior Court, Voyageurs is legally required to pay the full refund amount to the Attorney General’s Office. The office will then contact the Washington students and their families directly to set up their full refund. Questions about this refund may be directed to Khalid Ali in the Consumer Protection Division at Khalid.Ali@atg.wa.gov.
Ferguson’s complaint, filed with the consent decree, asserts that Voyageurs’ conduct violated the Sellers of Travel Act and the Consumer Protection Act.
Voyageurs failed to properly disclose cancellation penalties imposed by its travel vendors, such as airlines and hotels, as required by Sellers of Travel Act, which regulates travel agencies and tour companies like Voyageurs.
Moreover, Voyageurs deceived Washington families by providing false information about cancellation costs the company incurred in a letter to families canceling the trip — a violation of the Consumer Protection Act’s prohibition on unfair and deceptive business practices.
The Attorney General’s Office launched an investigation into Voyageurs’ conduct after receiving 23 complaints from Washington families describing the burden of this fee during a pandemic. Some students earned the money to pay for the trip themselves, and were disheartened to hear they had to forfeit a sizeable portion of the trip cost in addition to the trip itself, which they had been looking forward to for months.
As one parent wrote: “While this [cancellation] is understandable given the pandemic, the company is keeping $1900 as a cancellation fee, and students are forfeiting any money paid towards the Greece extension (my daughter's favorite country, and she chose to add this to her trip). …She fundraised and earned money for this once in a lifetime opportunity and we were devastated when it was canceled rather than postponed a year. To pour salt in her wounds, the company has not refunded the full amount paid by this hard-working young woman.”
Another Washington consumer wrote in a complaint: “I can't understand the punitive fees families are being charged through no fault of their own. …Many families are struggling to pay bills and keep their jobs and should not be additionally burdened with over-reaching cancellation fees at this time.”
As a result of today’s announcement, these consumers will receive full restitution.
Ambassadors of Music tours
Voyageurs International formed in 1970 in Colorado. The for-profit company organizes and facilitates European travel tours, dubbed “Ambassadors of Music,” for high-school music students from at least 14 states, including Washington. Typically, the students are nominated by a teacher to participate in an Ambassadors of Music tour.
More than 3,200 students nationwide signed up for the 2020 tours. The students signed up for the tour in the summer of 2019, before the pandemic began. The tours cost a minimum of $6,345 for a 16-day trip to Europe. Students also had an option to sign up for a $2,075 four-day trip extension to Greece.
As part of the application for the trip, students and their parents were required to sign an application and contract that outlined a cancellation fee schedule imposed on students who cancel their participation in the trip. The company’s contract seeks to retain between $700 all the way up to the total cost of the trip, depending on how soon before the trip students cancel.
Under Washington law, if travel agencies like Voyageurs cancel a trip, they can only charge consumers for the cancellation penalties imposed by its third-party vendors — such as airlines or hotels — and only if those penalties are timely and properly disclosed in a written statement to the consumer.
On March 17, 2020, a co-owner of the company, Gilford Mahaffy, sent a letter to the participants that unilaterally canceled the 2020 European tour in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same letter, Mahaffy told students and parents that Voyageurs would be keeping $1,900 of the funds paid for the tour as a “cancellation fee” and would not be refunding any of the $2,075 Greece extension. The company later returned $1,300 to the students who paid for the Greece tour and did not refund the remaining $775.
The letter claimed the company “has paid out more than $1,900 per student for the upcoming tour season that it cannot recoup.” In reality, the company was able to recoup more than 60 percent of what it charged consumers.
Legal requirements
The COVID-19 pandemic made international travel unsafe. Washington’s Sellers of Travel Act, which regulates travel agencies and tour companies like Voyageurs, is designed to protect consumers during unexpected cancellations.
Ferguson’s lawsuit asserts Voyageurs violated the Washington Consumer Protection Act and the Sellers of Travel Act when it retained $1,900 to $2,675 in cancellation fees after it canceled the trip. Under this law, if a travel agency cancels a trip, it can only retain the amount they were unable to recoup from third-party travel vendors like airlines and hotels if it timely and properly in writing discloses the unrecoverable charges to consumers.
Voyageurs retained much more than that. In the letter to students announcing the cancellation, the company claimed its cancellation fee was comprised of costs paid by Voyageurs on the consumer’s behalf that Voyageurs could not recoup — a statement that is simply not true. In reality, the company was able to recoup more than 60 percent of the cancellation fees it imposed on the students. Ferguson asserts Voyageurs violated the Consumer Protection Act when it misled consumers in its cancellation letters.
Under the Sellers of Travel Act, companies like Voyageurs must provide full refunds if they do not properly and timely disclose to consumers the cancellation penalties imposed by third-party vendors. Travel agencies must disclose known information at or before a consumer’s first payment (within three business days if payment is not made in person) and must thereafter provide any further details as soon as that information is received from third-party vendors. Voyageurs did not make these disclosures, nor did it provide consumers with a legally required written statement informing consumers of their cancellation rights under Washington law.
Today’s court order makes the company legally responsible for full refunds to the students and their families. It also requires them to follow the Sellers of Travel Act and the Consumer Protection Act if it does business in Washington in the future.
Assistant Attorneys General Breena Roos and Daniel Allen are leading the case for Washington.
The Attorney General’s Office Consumer Protection Division enforces the Consumer Protection Act and other statutes to help keep the Washington marketplace free of unfair and deceptive practices. The division investigates and files legal actions to stop unfair and deceptive practices, recovers refunds for consumers, seeks penalties and recovers costs and fees to ensure that wrongdoers pay for their actions.
(2) AG FERGUSON TO HOST REMOTE PUBLIC COMMENT MEETING ON NATIONAL ARCHIVES FACILITY AND RECORDS
Press release issued 12.29.20
Feds did not solicit input in the Pacific Northwest before deciding to sell the building and move the region’s records
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced he will host a remote public meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, so the public can share their comments on plans by the federal government to sell Seattle’s National Archives building and move the records thousands of miles away.
The federal government did not hold any meetings of its own in the Pacific Northwest, and did not consult with state, local, or tribal leaders in the region prior to announcing its decision to sell the Archives facility.
One member of the Public Buildings Reform Board (PBRB) recently said the sale would allow the Archives building to “become a part of the community, as opposed to what it is today.”
The office will record the public comments and forward them to the PBRB. Ferguson will also formally invite the PBRB members to attend the remote public hearing. The public meeting will be held via Zoom from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 19, 2021.
Zoom link: https://atg-wa.zoom.us/j/83852186385?pwd=amIvSHA4MHJJdzRVcDgzRSthQjdpQT09
Meeting ID: 838 5218 6385
Passcode: 426894
Phone: 253-215-8782, 838-521-863-85#
Find your local number: https://atg-wa.zoom.us/u/kBnoJrmI5
Individuals with questions about the meeting or looking to provide assistance with the case should use this form.
“The federal government continues its complete indifference for the communities, tribes and individuals impacted by its plan to sell the National Archives facility and export archival records out of the region,” Ferguson said. “The bare minimum American taxpayers should expect is the ability to provide public comment before bearing the brunt of important government actions that cannot be undone. Unfortunately, in this matter, the federal government utterly failed to meet that low bar, which is why my office is forced to do it for them. I’m inviting Washingtonians to tell the federal government what this building, and the millions of records it houses, means to them and their communities.”
On Thursday, Dec. 4, Ferguson announced that his office recently uncovered a dramatic change in the plan for the proposed sale of the National Archives building buried in a 74-page meeting minutes document from October. During the October meeting, the PBRB disclosed that it would move to immediately sell the Archives facility, along with a “portfolio” of other federal properties, in early 2021. It had planned on selling the properties individually over the next year.
Ferguson’s legal team is finalizing a lawsuit to stop the federal government from proceeding with an expedited sale of the National Archives facility in Seattle.
Additionally, Ferguson’s office already filed four lawsuits seeking access to public records about the PBRB’s decision. Judge Robert S. Lasnik of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington will preside over the four cases. On Dec. 10, Ferguson filed a motion for summary judgment in the records case against the PBRB.
Decision to sell the Seattle National Archives building
Last year, the PBRB identified a dozen federal properties around the U.S. as “High Value Assets” and recommended their sale in a manner that will “obtain the highest and best value for the taxpayer” and accomplish the goal of “facilitating and expediting the sale or disposal of unneeded Federal civilian real properties.” Among those properties — many of which involved abandoned or unused warehouses or buildings — was the National Archives building in Seattle, a building housing critical historical documents of the Pacific Northwest, including extensive tribal records. No local, state or tribal officials were consulted in its initial selection.
In January, OMB approved a recommendation from the PBRB to sell the building on Sand Point Way in Seattle. The board’s recommendation included removing the contents of the Seattle archives and relocating them to facilities in Kansas City, Mo., and Riverside, Calif.
The Seattle archives contain many records essential to memorializing Washington’s history, including tens of thousands of records related to the Chinese Exclusion Act, records of the internment of Japanese Americans, and tribal and treaty records of federally recognized tribes throughout the Northwest. Researchers, historians, genealogists and students routinely use these records.
Washington’s tribal leaders, historians and members have noted the federal government has excluded them from most discussions on selling the building and moving documents — many of which are the only tribal treaties or maps in existence — more than a thousand miles away. Notably, tribal officials were never consulted regarding the proposed sale notwithstanding agency tribal consultation policies requiring such consultation.
In other state headlines...
WDFW to temporarily close target shooting range at W.T. Wooten Wildlife Area for upgrades.--WDFW
WDFW and Snohomish County partner to provide public access for waterfowl hunting--WDFW
DNR to Begin Transition of Orchard on State Lands in Richland--DNR
(2) IN TODAY'S HEADLINE NEWS:
WORLD NEWS HEADLINES:
UN Yemen envoy condemns deadly Aden airport attack
UN confirms closure of Darfur peacekeeping mission.
First Person: family tragedy and the UN as ‘saviour’ in Darfur
Millions of children in crisis hotspots ‘on the brink of famine’, warns UNICEF.
NATIONAL HEADLINES:
Statement by Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen on the Pakistani Proceedings Relating to the Abduction and Murder of Daniel Pearl
Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen has released the following statement:
“We understand that Pakistani authorities are taking steps to ensure that Omar Sheikh remains in custody while the Supreme Court appeal seeking to reinstate his conviction continues. The separate judicial rulings reversing his conviction and ordering his release are an affront to terrorism victims everywhere. We remain grateful for the Pakistani government’s actions to appeal such rulings to ensure that he and his co-defendants are held accountable. If, however, those efforts do not succeed, the United States stands ready to take custody of Omar Sheikh to stand trial here. We cannot allow him to evade justice for his role in Daniel Pearl’s abduction and murder.”--press release issued 12.29.20
Make Every Bite Count: USDA, HHS Release Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025.--USDA, dated 12.29.20
DHS Announces Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras Have Signed Asylum Cooperation Agreement---DHS
Secretary Azar Statement on Executive Order Supporting In-Person Schooling
On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order directing HHS to allow funds available through the Community Services Block Grant program, administered through the Administration for Children and Families, to be used by grantees and eligible entities to provide emergency learning scholarships to disadvantaged families for their children who lack access to in-person learning. HHS Secretary Alex Azar issued the following statement:
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump Administration has made it a top priority to support safe access to in-person education for American children. President Trump’s executive order will help children and families without access to in-person schooling to secure it with scholarships and other funding mechanisms for private options where public options are not available. We know that in-person learning is essential to children’s flourishing, especially for vulnerable children, and that it can be done safely. We can defeat this pandemic and support healthy futures for our children at the same time.”--HHS/ dated 12.28.20
BUSINESS & FINANCE:
Editorial note: I guess the US Treasury Dept. Didn't get the memo that Trump issued. The President to cut cut the Pork spending of the bill, he wanted to send $2000 to each American, family of four would receive $5,200. Additionally.
That was according to his speech on 27th of Dec.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-from-the-president-122720/
Maybe Steven T. Mnuchin, of the Treasury should do some catch up before making the statement he made yesterday, and before issuing any checks.
WASHINTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) today announced new guidance in its ongoing efforts to support the American workforce through the pandemic recovery. As employers continue to meet the challenges presented to their businesses by the coronavirus, and as telework arrangements and virtual communication increasingly provide solutions, the agency provides additional guidance to maximize the benefits of these arrangements for employers and workers alike.--DEPT. of Labor
(4) IN OTHER HEADLINES...
Gabbard’s Exit From House to Leave Democrats With 1 Less Centrist Voice---Daily Signal
Pelosi presses McConnell to allow vote on bill for $2,000 stimulus checks--THE HILL
Hawley Says He Will Object to Electoral College Certification--National Review
Offering free Bible studies: WBS
https://www.worldbibleschool.org/
