Am I being scammed in China?

cm256

Hi,

I'm hoping to go to China, and have been talking to the only travel agency (*) that was prepared to do the package that I wanted

They've been actively listening, acknowledging disability, foibles etc; and now it comes to pay...

And it's a bit strange: they want me to transfer the money to them now before arriving. They can't accept a credit card - it's basically a cash situation.

Does anyone know the company?

I've found only one post on the web, and that was positive

Please advise!

Cass

(*) As a new poster opn the forums I can't include a link - but they're called Tour Ease and a google for that shows them near the top

Voyager2002

Well, you understand the risks. Personally, I would travel independently. Perhaps you could compromise: sign up for a tour with a well-known operator for say half your holiday, and spend the rest of the time visiting the other places that interest you, either by yourself or arrange something on the spot with this agency.

Moonchild

Unfortunately that was always going to be the case with trying to book with an overseas company.

There is every probability that they are 100% safe and you have a wonderful holiday. After all, they havn't produced their website based on trying to extort money from you, and they would have lots of bad internet press if that's what they did.

The first thing I would do is re-post your question on the China Trip Advisor Forums.

The second thing I would do is ask why you can't pay by credit card - after all they say the following:

" * Q: Can I pay by my credit cards via PayPal?
* A: Yes. You can use Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express credit cards to checkout your payment easy and fast. Please visit https://www.paypal.com for details. Note: We reserve the right to hold your bookings and require another method of payment when either PayPal or bestourchina|CITS has reason to believe that the payment you made is fraudulent."

(Question for others - does credit card payment by Paypal still afford the same level of protection - I don't do Paypal??)

Thirdly, you may wish to contact one of the UK based China specialists like Wendy Wu (other specialists do exist!). You may pay may, but you are guaranteed financial security, support on the ground and pre/post help that you wouldn't get booking locally.

One thing I wouldn't do, irrespective of disabilities, is if you were on a limited time frame is travel independently. It's one country that is so difficult to pre-organise all aspects of the trip efficiently, you would spend half your time on the trip dealing with beaurocracy.

malkie76

I did China (and Japan) earlier this year, and would not recommend trying to do China independently unless you are fluent in the language(s). [We have friends based in China who looked after us and booked excursions on our behalf]

I've never used Wendy Wu, but have heard good things about them - I'd be nervous booking anything with an overseas operator, particularly one in a country known for fraud.

delwynshd

Dont book with an overseas travel agent, you will be ripped off, loads of these scams happen all the time

They sometimes dont even exist

Stay Clear!!!!

cm256

Thank you all for comments this morning - quite a mix of opiniotns and all very clear.

I have asked again about credit card payments, and we shall see.

I intend to visit the Expo, and unfortunately my experience for the last 3 was that UK travel agents just didn't get it ; and so I travelled independently to them all (Germany,Japan,Spain)

I really think that travelling independently or using this company is the only possibility (other Chinese based companies that I tried, even the popular ones only really offer Expo extensions to standard packages)

If TE come through on the credit card I will report the good (to me) news, and if not think again about independent travel. (I do have a friend of a friend who works in Shanghai)

Again - thank you all very much. (When I work out how to do the thank you voting thing I will do that as well)

A very positive first experience of Money Saving Expert

Thanks

CM

colmil

Dont pay by any other method than credit card.

I have been scammed in China recently by a company who had a proper website of electrical goods and they insisted on payment by Western Union, once the money was sent, they disappeared, if you pay by credit card you can claim the money back if anything goes wrong.

maggie111

When we went to Kenya we transferred our money over to a company over there for our safari. We were lucky in that there was slightly more information about them online so we could trust them easier.

From memory, it was all of the money via transfer a couple of weeks before (we were booking it short notice).

This isn't too helpful except to say some people do it. Perhaps we were lucky - but as I have said, we had a bit more information to go off than you did.

cm256

...I have now come back from Shanghai, and as I thought I should report back...

I took advice (outside of MSE) to contact the hotel to see if they had a booking in my name: and they did, and then bearing in mind:
* the idea that they could have been left pickled by a previous customer not showing up
* they seemed really really nice (e.g. understood wheelchair & that I really did want to spend 2 weeks at the expo
* and I really wanted to go!

So ignoring all the very sound advice about not wiring & despite what I said earlier ... I wired the money!

Encouagingly emails didn't dry up there was i dotting/t crossing and I got on a plane and there was ...

* someone there waiting
* with Expo tickets and
* I was taken to the (quite amazing) hotel and checked in successfully.

You may well think that I had no right to come out of this as well as I did - and I tend to agree with you. But like maggie111 it worked for me

And although I very clearly ignored lots of advice from you all I did appreciate the time that you took to help out. And I think I have come out from the experience slightly wiser.

I also think that I would use the same compny again should I ever travel to China (or if they cover Korea maybe for the next expo)

Thank you all

Moonchild

Thanks for returning and letting us know what happened. I'm glad everything worked out well for you.