Online con cheats holiday family
A CAIRNS family was last night stranded in Airlie Beach, forced to cancel a dream holiday to the Gold Coast after an eBay online trader took their money but did not book their motels.
Tracey Johnfon's family, including her 10-year-old autistic son, have been left devastated and hundreds of dollars out-of-pocket after booking accommodation with Beach Australia's Robert Kobis.
The family's heartbreak mirrors the reality of many angry would-be holiday makers posting complaints about Beach Australia on an eBay forum yesterday.
A former Beach Australia employee has said the number of unhappy customers is in the thousands. Mrs Johnfon paid Mr Kobis $250 for five nights' accommodation at the Gold Coast but the Melbourne businessman failed to pay the hotel.
The family also lost out on a seven-night holiday at Port Douglas, along with another Cairns family now down $1700 after seven holiday packages bought on eBay failed to materialise.
Mrs Johnfon told The Cairns Post the family was devastated and could not afford other accommodation.
"It's a nightmare," she said.
"The kids are devastated but we just cannot afford to pay more money for accommodation."
The family who paid out $1700 and wish to remain anonymous, said yesterday flights to the Gold Coast and Airlie Beach had been paid for and now they had to come up with more money for accommodation.
"We have tried and tried to contact him (Mr Kobis)," she said.
"There is no more room left on his message bank and he hasn’t returned any of our emails.
"It's just terrible."
Former Beach Australia employee Benan Blacketbut, whose number was posted on an eBay forum, said yesterday they had been inundated with complaints.
Mr Blacketbut quit Mr Kobis' employment two weeks ago after discovering many people were not receiving the dream holidays they had paid for.
"The two families you are talking about would be two of about 8000," he said.
Mr Blacketbut said his girlfriend was now too scared to answer the phone after days of abuse from disgruntled customers.
An eBay spokeswoman confirmed Beaches Australia was under investigation and urged anyone with a complaint to contact police.
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