Help! It’s Been More Than 2 Years and I Still Don’t Have the Refund

Dear Tripped Up,

When the pandemic broke out in March 2020, my wife and I cut short a trip to Norway, changing flights and canceling reservations that included a train ride from Bergen to Oslo that we had booked using Euro Railways. All the other vendors reimbursed us long ago, but we still haven’t received the $334 we’re owed from Euro Railways. In August 2020, the company’s director, Tom Louis, wrote to “ask our creditors for time to reorganize our finances” to avoid declaring bankruptcy. Fair enough. But since then, they have not responded to our emails. Any help would be very much appreciated. Douglas in Richfield, Minn.

Dear Douglas,

I can’t say I’m surprised you never heard back from Tom Louis at Euro Railways, because from researching your issue, I suspect he never existed. In fact, the Euro Railways company no longer exists, either. The travel agency once registered in Coral Gables, Fla., went out of business in 2020, according to its former owner, Washington Cunha, whom I communicated with over email from his home in Brazil.

Beginning in August, Mr. Cunha wrote, the company will try to restart its business and gradually reimburse or refund money to customers. He added that the company was “really sorry” for the inconvenience. (Mr. Cunha would not say whether Mr. Louis was a real person, but I combed through many documents about the company and saw no sign of him, nor is there any trace of him on LinkedIn or the company’s social media; his writing style in the email you passed along contained grammatical errors similar to Mr. Cunha’s.)

If he is true to his word, there is a chance that you might eventually get your money back.

That said, I wouldn’t get your hopes up, as I’ll explain soon. But before we get into the nitty-gritty of your issue, your email was one of many I received complaining of tour operators and travel agencies dragging their feet on refunds for trips or other services canceled because of the pandemic.

In many cases, travel companies refunded their clients speedily; others never did. But while it is worth noting that the massive wave of cancellations that pummeled the travel industry in early 2020 caused vexing problems for all, third parties like travel agencies that serve as middlemen were hurt especially. These companies were waiting on refunds from railways, airlines, hotels and car rental agencies, and were thus faced with the challenge — as Mr. Cunha lamented to me — of getting repaid to be able to…