Bureaucracy loves little boxes on forms and the people who enter those little boxes. This is how, on the eve of the third anniversary of the pandemic, parents are still waiting for the reimbursement of their teenager’s school trip by the FICAV, this compensation fund of the Consumer Protection Office (OPC).
“It annoys me to know that many parents may give up because it’s too complicated. It’s infinite, the mazes, it doesn’t make sense, ”says Geneviève Bélisle, mother of two teenagers who were to discover Greece, in the spring of 2020.
“What shocks me is that we are talking about a trip for children. My son worked at Super C to raise $1,000. In addition, it is the Consumer Protection Office and we have to fight to assert our rights, ”denounces Stéphanie Blais, mother of a teenager who planned to fly to Costa Rica with his comrades.
For those who don’t know, the FICAV is the Compensation Fund for customers of travel agents. Administered by the OPC, it reimburses tourist services not rendered (flights, overnight stays, excursions, cruises) due to bankruptcy, a natural disaster or a pandemic forcing the cancellation of non-essential trips. Its funding comes from the mandatory contribution of 0.35% added to the passenger bill.
It was very long and frustrating, as I’ve written before, but thousands of travelers ended up being reimbursed for trips that were ruined by COVID-19.
Still 2900 cases are not settled, including 150 concerning school trips, the OPC told me. The latter seem particularly complicated to manage. Because, you see, the bill was not paid by the teenagers themselves, but by their parents and through fundraising campaigns. It’s hardly surprising, minors rarely have a credit card.
At the end of January, Stéphanie’s son, Édouard Dalphond, learned that the FICAV was refusing his request for reimbursement of $2,800 on the pretext that he had not paid for the trip himself. “In June 2022, when I spoke to them, they didn’t feel like telling me that the request had not been made in the right name? “, protests the mother.
In addition, Édouard paid for part of his trip of 4e secondary by selling chocolate, cheese and jam. The money raised was administered by the school foundation, which paid the travel agency on its behalf. For FICAV, this seems to add an incredible layer of complexity to the case.
In her form, Geneviève had taken the trouble to clearly detail who paid what for her two children. “If someone had read it with just a bit of benevolence, they could have followed up by saying: ‘Listen, I see that it was not the children who paid, we would have to reapply in your name. ” But no one tells us that. She claims $3,300.
Poor and difficult communications with the FICAV and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), responsible for handling claims, are a major source of irritation for Quebecers.
“It’s impossible to talk to someone,” laments Marc Tremblay, father of a youngster who was to go to Costa Rica with his school. There are like two types of emails they send to you: “Documents are missing” or “Documents have not been sent”. I got this at least five times. »
Geneviève says she left a voice message containing a specific question on the notion of payer. We called her back after several days. Without answer. “The lady was defensive and told me she didn’t know anything. It’s super frustrating, because we can’t talk to someone who will answer us intelligently and coherently on what to do to move our case forward. »
The wait, which can now be counted in years, and the administrative complexities look like a “strategy not to pay”, says Marc Tremblay. He remains optimistic that he will get his money back.
“As soon as it’s complicated or it doesn’t pussy not in their little boxes, it’s as if they were telling themselves that it doesn’t meet their conditions, so too bad. It’s boring because they are children, teenagers. Some have worked for minimum wage to make that trip and they lose their money. These are organized trips to school. It breaks my heart,” says Geneviève.
On the OPC side, I was told that the delays were due to the fact that school trip files sometimes required “additional checks” to ensure “that the sums which were paid for the benefit students belong to them”.
If travel trains youth, bureaucratic red tape teaches the need to be patient and relentless.
Complaints to FICAV for the COVID-19 event
- 45,200 requests received
- 11,500 refunds made
- 19,500 claims canceled by claimants reimbursed by a third party
- 9000 applications rejected
- 2,300 “ghost claimant” files where PwC has no news of the claimant
- 2,900 complex cases being processed
As of January 23, 2023
