Probing Companies That Earn Frequent-Ire Points

If you’re in business and you deal with customers, you’re bound to make a few clients unhappy, perhaps even provoking a formal complaint to a third party. And if those complaints start to add up, consumer advocates begin to take notice.

One of those advocates is Gary Almond, the general manager of the Southland Better Business Bureau, based in Colton, telephone (909) 835-6077. When I called recently to ask whether any travel companies were showing up frequently in his complaint tallies, he came back with three names.

Each remains in business, and each has a different specialty: One sells student-oriented school vacation packages, one sells travel club memberships, and one sells travel certificates to companies that, in turn, offer them to consumers as sales incentives. Together they have been named in 90 complaints to the BBB since 1996.

But what exactly does that mean? The BBB’s Web site (https://www.bbbsouthland.org) includes a disclaimer saying it “does not endorse, recommend or disapprove of any product, service or company.”

So how much weight do these assessments deserve? That depends on whom you ask.

“People should always call the Better Business Bureau,” said Jerry Smilowitz, a Los Angeles-based deputy California attorney general who routinely checks BBB files for prospective prosecutions. “It’s an excellent resource for flagging the really bad companies out there.”

But Stan Bosco, assistant director for consumer affairs at the American Society of Travel Agents, said, “I wouldn’t base an entire decision on either one Better Business Bureau or one consumer agency’s reports.”

ASTA, based in Alexandria, Va., tel. (703) 739-2782, also keeps tallies on complaints against its members and drops those that are unresponsive.

A quick look at the three companies in question:

* Class Travel International. This Redondo Beach company, in business there since 1991, arranges trips for high school and college students.

Marc Radow, the company president, labels the BBB’s actions a “personal vendetta,” which the BBB denies.

The BBB, which has given Class Travel International an “unsatisfactory” business performance rating, says the company has been named in 52 BBB complaints in last three years. Of those complaints, Almond said, 31 have gone unanswered by the company.

The BBB’s “reliability report” on the company says complaints involve “general dissatisfaction with services and difficulties with cancellation and refund policies.”

But Radow said that given its client numbers--100,000 in the last three years--and the many challenges of transporting college students and high schoolers abroad, the customer satisfaction record is “absolutely outstanding.”

Meanwhile, at the federal level, “we’re reviewing complaints that we’ve received” about Class Travel, said Dayton Lehman, deputy assistant general counsel for the Department of Transportation’s aviation enforcement office in Washington, D.C.

Radow noted that because many of his customers are minors, their trips require parents’ consent and other paperwork. When families change plans or the clients fail to meet deadlines and lose deposit money, he said, some blame his company instead of themselves.

Class Travel is registered as a California Seller of Travel (a legal requirement for most travel companies that sell to Californians) and has belonged to the American Society of Travel Agents for nine years. ASTA officials say their complaint files show nothing unusual, either in number of complaints or in company responsiveness.

* Infinity Privileges: This Los Angeles company operates as a travel club. A sales pitch on the company’s phone line says Infinity Privileges offers 20% savings on more than 7,000 restaurants, up to half off on 8,000 hotels worldwide and up to 40% off car rentals.

Infinity Privileges has been named in 18 complaints to the BBB since December, including several cases in which consumers say their credit cards were charged for items they never agreed to. The BBB rates the company’s performance as “unsatisfactory.”

The BBB’s report notes that the company has not answered most of the customer complaints. Neither ASTA nor the state Seller of Travel program shows Infinity Privileges on its rolls.

Infinity did not return several phone calls seeking comment.

When I called as a consumer to ask about the company’s products, an operator explained that for $69.99 yearly, I could receive member discounts on rental cars, vacation packages, cruises and hotels. He said that the program included more than 50,000 hotels worldwide--but that the company wouldn’t identify any participating hotels until I’d sent in my payment. Smilowitz said the attorney general’s office has just started looking at the complaints.

* QBI Inc. Operating from Torrance, QBI offers certificates for travel packages and services.

QBI sells travel packages to banks, for example, which then offer them as incentives to customers who open accounts. A typical package offers free air fare to Hawaii, London or the Bahamas if the consumer agrees to stay seven to 10 nights at a specified hotel, generally paying brochure rates.

The company has been named in 20 complaints to the BBB since 1996. According to a complaint filed earlier this year by the Federal Trade Commission, some customers said they were paying higher hotel rates than other guests. The FTC also cited complaints that QBI often failed to honor requests for return of deposits and was slow to schedule travel bookings. ASTA doesn’t show QBI on its membership rolls, but the company is registered with the state Seller of Travel program.

Under a proposed settlement reached with FTC attorneys in late September, the company admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to advertise its product more clearly and to refund more than $51,000 to past customers.

John Pound, QBI’s president, said that half the money was refunded before the agency began negotiations with the FTC. Some consumer frustration, Pound said, may have stemmed from QBI client companies “overzealously” describing the packages. New requirements in client agreements should prevent that, Pound said.

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Christopher Reynolds welcomes comments and suggestions, but cannot respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 or e-mail chris.reynolds@latimes.com.