Many people buying tours to Europe and other countries in Asia have been left hanging for over a year by a tour company in HCM City.
On August 17, many people flocked to the headquarters of Golux Company in District 1 to demand their money back. According to the customers, they came to the company several times but the staff had always said that their boss was not at the company
According to Dtinews, the customers already paid for the tours but they have been told that their tours were cancelled “because of various reasons.” Nguyen Van Hung, a customer who bought a tour to Europe said, “We had to pay VND30m (USD1,300) per person in January. The company promised that we would have gone to Europe in May then they delayed it until July then nothing happened.”
Another customer, Huynh Kim Long, said he bought a Singapore-Indonesia-Malaysia tour for five people at the price of VND50m (USD2,100). On August 6, he called the company for confirmation and was told that the trip would start on August 9. But the next day, he received a notification that the trip will be delayed until September.
Nguyen Thanh Nam, who paid VND1bn (USD43,000) for a group trip to the US, said he would sue the company if they failed to realise their promises.
This is not the first time Golux was complained of. Last year, another customer in HCM City paid VND48m (USD2,000) for a group trip to South Korea but the trip was delayed to July 22 then to 23, August 3 and 6. When the customer asked for their money back, the staff said their boss was not at the company.
Golux Company was established in August 2014 with Vo Anh Kiet as their current CEO. The Inspectorate of the Department Tourism fined the company VND45m for lack of business licence for outbound tours.
“The company still hasn’t registered to work in tourism yet,” an inspector said.
Several customers have reported the company to the police for fraud.
Vo Anh Kiet, Golux’s CEO admitted that they delayed many trips and promised to return the money to their customers in October. When being asked why they didn’t have a business licence for outbound tours, Kiet said he was too busy and forgot.