A BC Civil Resolution Tribunal decision looked at a strange dispute over a summer vacation deposit for a trip that never materialized, ending with a police visit.
Li Wang, the hopeful traveller, says they paid a $1,000 deposit to Wenying Gao for a vacation.
Gao doesn’t dispute that they were paid a deposit but argued that Wang never showed up, choosing not to attend.
Wang asked for a refund for the deposit and $2,000 in damages for mental distress and missed work.
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According to the publicly posted decision, Wang paid Gao in June 2022 for a trip that was supposed to start on July 10, 2022. The tribunal’s decision doesn’t state the nature of the relationship between the two parties.
The tribunal decision states that Wang messaged Gao numerous times leading up to the trip without a response. Gao told the tribunal she didn’t respond because “the Vancouver network was down on July 8, 2022.”
On the night before the trip was supposed to take place, Wang and a friend visited Gao for more information about what was going on due to not hearing back from Gao, which resulted in Gao calling the police.
In defence, Gao says that there was a gathering spot that Wang was supposed to meet at but failed to do so.
Wang claims that they were not given a travel plan or a meeting place, only photos of a hotel. Despite Gao’s claims that she provided all the details, they had no evidence to prove it. Wang also said she messaged Gao several times, saying that if there was no trip, they wanted their deposit back. The lack of a response to these messages is what prompted Wang’s visit to Gao’s place.
Gao claims Wang only came to “make a scene,” forcing her to call the police, but the tribunal sided with Wang, suggesting it was reasonable to visit to learn more about the trip due to a lack of response.
The tribunal decided that Wang was owed a refund for her deposit and also awarded $250 in damages for mental distress, for a total of $1,453.87, including tribunal fees.
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