Ryan F.
Deplorable Handling of Customers
I was one of the ones stranded abroad during the COVID-19 crisis. The country we were in was one of the first to close its borders. We were concerned about leaving on Friday, but remote year told us to wait until Monday before they would announce their decision - unfortunately borders shut on Saturday. None of this was Remote Year's fault, but unfortunately the way they handled the situation afterwards was disgusting. Staff supporting programs were immediately fired and communities dissolved before our eyes. We were left stranded in a country under martial law with no help or communication whatsoever from Remote Year, and were kicked out of our apartments within a week. We had previously been told to book all external excursions through the Remote Year Marketplace as it was considered to be "safe". Unfortunately that statement has no basis in reality. In addition to our deposits, Remote Year is refusing to refund thousands of dollars paid to them in escrow. It was never their money to keep, only to pass on to third party vendors - but they are keeping it nonetheless. Every other individual who booked through third parties directly received refunds, but those who booked through remote year did not. I lost approximately $8000 because of how Remote Year has been handling themselves. They have been behaving deplorably and need to do the ethical thing and refund their customers in a time of crisis.
Response from Remote YearJun 19, 2020
Hi Ryan - I'm sorry that you had a frustrating experience with Remote Year. Throughout the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were constantly in touch with our health and safety advisors, International SOS. We followed their guidance throughout, including our decision to pause programs on March 20th. At that point, we did the following: - Told all customers that they could stay in their current apartments until the end of the month, and that we would connect them directly to the landlords if they wanted to stay longer - Offered to help anyone find flights to get home through our travel team - Offered support finding new places to stay for those that wanted to shelter in place - Kept one member of our city team on board through April in cities where we had a higher number of customers that sheltered in place Since then, we've been heads down working to launch Remote Village, our US programs so that we can deliver experiences to you as quickly as possible. We are also working on relaunching global programs as soon as possible. We have communicated how you can use any down payments and credits toward Remote Village, and will mirror this for global programs as soon as we are able to launch them. If you have any questions, you can contact [email protected] and our team will help. Sam Pessin Co-Founder & CEO, Remote Year