Bend customer struggles to get vacation refund from online travel agency

(Update: Adding video)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ ) -- Summertime is prime vacation season, and as states encouraged people to cancel travel abroad due to COVID 19, people who scheduled trips using a third-party agency called BookIt are now having difficulties getting a refund.

BookIt posted a message on its main page on March 25, stating that all call centers are closed because of the pandemic and that resort bookings have automatically been canceled. BookIt said they are currently unable to process refunds and referred customers to contact their cardholders.

Heather Rodgers of Bend said last October, she spent upwards of $8,000 on a vacation to Cancun planned for July. It was a 50th birthday present for her husband. Rodgers says she's having trouble getting her money back.

"You have to dispute the charges from your individual credit card company. It sounds like half of the people are getting refunded and half of the people are not getting refunded," Rodgers said Thursday. "They're getting denied because BookIt is responding back, saying they have already refunded their customers -- and they really, truly have not."

Rodgers said she reached out to the Better Business Bureau, which referred her to the attorney general in Florida, where BookIt is based. She received an email that states the office is investigating allegations against BookIt.com regarding its failure to provide paid-for travel services.

"For most of us in these days, we don't have thousand of dollars to just toss around," Rodgers said. "Most of us have worked very hard for this money to be able to go on vacation with our families, or whatever the purpose is. It's really discouraging that people could be out thousands and thousands of dollars on a product, and they're not getting their services for it."

The Florida attorney general's office is encouraging anyone facing a similar problem with book it to pursue a private attorney regarding their complaints.