UA students accuse tour company of scam

UA students blamed a nationwide travel service, Surf & Sun Tours, for excessive airline delays, down-grading of hotel rooms upon arrival and poor or nonexistent communication with company representatives in Mexico.

Travel Troubles Company consists of four divisions: College Tours Student Tours Mexico Tours Ski America 1965 Cerkvenik-Anderson Travel Inc. established Late February Better Business Bureau drops company as member This month Bureau registers 452 inquires into company, 600 in 1999

"Basically, they did a bait and switch," said Chris Hippler, a communication junior who visited Cancun with about 20 friends. "I think simply, they felt they were dealing with college students and they could take advantage of us."

But one University of Arizona student has pledged to fight back, threatening to sue the people she says took advantage of her.

Stacie Gindes, a communication sophomore who traveled to Mazatlan, said she intends to file a lawsuit to recover the $700 she spent on the disaster-ridden trip.

"I hope that the company gets shut down, but I'm concentrating on getting a refund right now," Gindes said, adding that she will file a complaint with the state attorney general.

However, the players in the travel debacle may not be easily discerned. The Surf & Sun Tours company was working from the offices of Phoenix-based Cerkvenik-Anderson Travel, which ran ads in the Arizona Daily Wildcat under the title of College Tours.

College Tours' phone is answered by a recording that does not allow callers to leave messages, and a worker refused to talk to a Wildcat reporter who visited the office Friday.

The Better Business Bureau, which reported 452 inquiries into Cerkvenik-Anderson this month alone, canceled the company's membership in late February when investigators connected the travel agency to Surf & Sun.