Zurich Travel Agent Fraud

I have two reasons for narrating my experience.

1) To make people aware of a fraud a particular travel agent in Zurich commits.

2) To provide any info which will help me in dealing with the scam I went through.

I had paid for an international flight ticket at Nageesha travels and tours at Naugasse 41 8005 Zurich and was to travel a month later. When I went to board my flight, I was told the ticket was not proper. (was only booked and not confirmed). I could not fly that day and I went to the travel agent. He gave some lame excuse and told me that he would get me a ticket for tomorrow. He asked me to pay for this second ticket which was exorbitant price since it was a last minute ticket. He said he would refund me this price for the second ticket in a few days and provided me with a refund voucher.

After I returned from my trip, I check the bank account and the refund has not been made by the travel agent. I went to the travel agent and found that he has changed the name of his travel agency. It appears that he probably filed for bankruptcy and now runs that travel agency under a different name. He has been telling me that he will refund me the money but has never done that.

I appreciate anyone with advice.

Never use a travel agent. Book direct every time. I haven't used one for 25 years.

If the amount justify it, you can try claiming through the court. But if the original company has no assets, you'll get nowhere.

Welcome to EF...

Did you pay with a bank card or credit card? If credit card see if you can dispute the charges with credit card company. You don't make clear if you were charged for both tickets, the one that was not booked and the one for the next day that was. It sounds like you may need to seek legal advise. Have you tried sending a letter by post demanding the refund? You may want to think about that. Going forward, force all communication to occur in writing. Good luck. In the future, book yourself! With the Internet it is very easy. I have never used a travel agent.

A bad experience. If I read this correctly you were actually fortunate. The second, more expensive ticket could also have been useless and you would have lost both sums of money.

Officially to be a travel agency, the company has to be accredited by

IATA, and their agents licensed by IATA. Also, travel agencies have to

make a very large security deposits with IATA. Plus IATA travel agencies have to submit their financial records every year for audit.

see http://www.iata.org

http://www.nageesha.com seems to be using the IATA logo on their website.

Perhaps you can put up your story on http://ripoffreport.com

Also whenever you book a ticket, you should always be issued with a receipt containing the e-ticket number, which is around 13 digits.

Never rely on your 6 digit record locator alone!

Looking at the records on nageesha.com, it shows a Sri Lankan address.

Domain Name: NAGEESHA.COM

Registrant Name: Suthaharan Maheswaran

Registrant Organization: Relm Infotex

Registrant Street: 31, Amman Kovil Street, Bandarikulam

Registrant City: Vavuniya

Registrant State/Province:

Registrant Postal Code: 0094

Registrant Country: Sri Lanka

Admin Phone: +94.774145113

Admin Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

I paid the first ticket in cash and the second ticket by credit card but I used the second ticket for the trip.

Will fill the ripoffreport. The company has changed the name and website but still uses one of their previous phone number.

Their new name is http://www.phoenixtravel.ch/index.php

Hmm interesting... phoenixtravel.ch domain is owned by Ambros Diestale .

http://www.moneyhouse.ch/en/u/ambros....045.403-5.htm

http://www.phoenixtravel.ch/travel_about.php

Owner of company is listed as Ambrose Jebapratheepan

http://www.moneyhouse.ch/en/u/nagees....044.141-8.htm

Balakrishnan Thanusha is listed as the owner of Nageesha Travel.

All three names are Sri Lankan Tamil origin.

I am sorry to hear of your experience and appreciate the heads-up about this agency...BUT...I have to ask why you paid for something as expensive and important as an airline ticket in cash? And settled for a confirmation number but not an e-ticket number? There is very little protection and/or recourse with cash transactions, so I think this may just be an expensive lesson. Sorry!

You have to be kidding!?!?! Phoenix travel?!?! That's a giveaway name if ever there was one.

The type of fraud you suspect them of is called Phoenix trading in UK because the new company rises from the ashes of the contrived bankruptcy. Used to be popular with sweatshops in the garment ('rag') trade and I think now estate/letting agents in UK. Don't know the Swiss rules or who enforces them but in UK you'd report them to trading standards and tip off the VAT guys. You can bet they owe the gov much more than they owe you, it's not you they are hiding from with this trick. That won't get your money back but might be satisfying. Must be something similar in CH.

Good luck.

Most travel companies do a good job however you need to make sure they are a member of an accredited bond company. For example In the uk it is atol and/or Abta and here it is Reisegarantie. That way your money is protected in case of failure. IATA simply means an agency is authorised to issue flight tickets.

What you mean is the

http://www.srv.ch/

who assist the customers of members who run into trouble

and as far as possible also the failed company

What I mean is this http://www.garantiefonds.ch/de/home/

What surprises me the most is that the same guy can sit in the same shop and conduct business under a different name. I informed the cops and they don't even want to talk to this guy. They mentioned that this type of cases are handled by some other dept.

Nothing surprising really. And very similar all over Europe. There are "travel agents" who pose as AIRLINES but are neither travel agent nor airline. I have spoken about this with people at the travel agents federations of countries like Iceland and Ireland and Britain in the past. While aircargo-agents are severely supervised, regulated and drangsalated by the CAAs it is different with travel agencies. YOU for example can start a travel agency on Friday morning. Your shield over the entrance can be Star Holidays, Hans Müller You possibly up to now were an IT technician and a cousin of you worked with Singapore Airlines, so that you feel entitled to act as a travel agent. Another cousin of you went bankrupt last week, so that you take over his premises and employ him as "consultant and salesman" and no police chap can stop you

IATA actually DOES accredit travel agencies, and travel agents. IATA travel agencies must provide a bond/guarantee, and I know for a fact , the amount for Swiss travel agencies is over 100k CHF.

Accreditation can be verified if you have the numeric code of the agent/agency.

http://www.iatan.org/accreditation/c...ges/index.aspx

Now http://www.nageesha.com does have the IATA logo on their website.

Although http://phoenixtravel.ch does not have the IATA logo.

I would go to the other department! I just can't believe that the Swiss authorities are not investigating this!

Check this out http://www.nageesha.com/offer Amazing offer; isn't it

I guess there some bunch of jokers behind this travel agency

If the company has filed for bankruptcy, you must lodge your claim against them (the amount the refund receipt states plus 5% interest p.a.) with the "Konkursamt" handling the bankruptcy. This is always the local "Konkursamt" to the registered domicile of the company.

This website provides more information (in german only sorry) for Zurich:

http://www.notariate.zh.ch/kon_gel_for.php

You can find out where the registered domicile is by looking in the Handelsregister here:

http://www.zefix.ch/zfx-cgi/hrform.c...th=366&amt=007

If they have not filed for bankruptcy you can simply file a "Betreibung" with the "Betreibungsamt" (often this is the same place as the "konkursamt") again at the local office in the district of the company's domicile.

I'm sorry for your troubles... most unpleasant

The Swiss authorities are too busy in bed with the IRS. So many Americans laundering money!

my 2 cents..

I highly doubt whether you will get the money back for your 2nd trip as you already used the service, the best in this scenario is that you at least get your money back for the 1st trip that you paid for..

If you are really serious about pursuing this, you should start your communications in writing. From what is written by and you and looking at their website, its clear that you are dealing with a bunch of con-men.

If you can somehow get them to acknowledge in writing that they owe you the money, then you can possibly activate the debt collection route (betreibungsamt)

Good luck and hope you nail them...