What would you do if you were planning a vacation with another couple who canceled at the last minute and insisted on a refund? Unfortunately, this happened to this person who went to Reddit to see if he was wrong. For the sake of his story, we’ll call him Bill.
Annual vacation with friends
Bill explained that this is an annual event and that the couples in general are great friends. They spent five years befriending the couple and never tolerated any arguments or riffs in their friendship. In addition, Bill is close to the couple’s husband, and their wives are best friends. They live just five minutes apart and hang out at least once a week.
The couple planned their mountain vacation plans six months ago. So they split the cost in half. Unfortunately the travel company used has a two week cancellation policy whereby you cannot cancel and receive a refund if it happened within two weeks of your stay.
Bill explained, “Well, we’re all due to arrive in three days, and they texted us this morning that they don’t think they can go. They have gone out of town to visit their family and are afraid that their pipes have burst or at least froze because they did not drip from the tap before leaving.”
After an unusual freeze, their thermostat showed that it was offline. “Therefore, they do not plan to return home before they go on vacation with us. Hence, they can take a holiday with us to check out their house.”
Eventually the couple asked them to find a new family and give them back half of the vacation ($1200) we were supposed to continue. “We said no.” Here’s how the internet reacted.
Why should this be your responsibility?
One user asked, “Why should it be your job to find a replacement family willing to shell out $1,200 in the shortest amount of time? This should be their job if and only if you are willing to share your vacation with your replacement family.
Don’t give them back their $1,200, even if your family is alone. Sometimes unforeseen things happen and sometimes lost costs can’t be recovered – but that’s not your responsibility.”
You’re not wrong, but prepare to lose your friendship
“That’s why everyone pays their share in the first place!! Because people are less likely to cancel at the last minute, knowing that in this case THEY will lose THEIR money. It’s completely up to them. However, be prepared for the fact that you will be blamed and lose friendship, ”warned another.
Remove yourself from the equation
Someone suggested, “Take yourself out of the equation completely and tell them that unfortunately you would like to refund them, but since you both paid directly to the company, they will have to talk to them about a refund. Tell them you can’t find anyone on short notice and ask how their friends are doing.”
Popular Reading: 14 High-Paying Jobs Nobody Wants to Do
Something else happened
Finally, many people in the thread said they didn’t believe the story. One noted, “Something else is going on. If they thought the pipe could burst. No one local can check them (as your other comments show). They will rush home to deal with damage, mitigation and insurance.
If everything went well, they could still go on vacation and spend extra time on the road. They ask you to eat $1200. Think about it for a second.”
What do you think? Should this couple feel compelled to pay back the $1,200 or find another vacation couple with three days’ notice? Or is the other couple funny? We hope you enjoyed this discussion on Reddit. This article is inspired by the Internet and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Wealthy Nickel.
More from Rich Nickel:
