WILD11 Refunds

Thank you for your patience as we work with our partners to provide refunds regarding WILD11 registrations, hotels, tours, and airport transfers. Please see below on this page for updated information; we will post updates here as soon as they become available. Please contact Frank Palumbo with any questions on refunds: frank@wild11.org.

Delegates requesting travel refunds from airlines or other providers may use this official postponement letter from the Government of Rajasthan to aid in their efforts. 

 


 

REGISTRATIONS

PLEASE NOTE: WE ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTING REGISTRATION REFUND REQUESTS.

Because of the continuing global insecurity and resulting indefinite nature of the postponement, WILD11 will refund delegate registration fees. Both WILD11 India and Global will charge zero in-house administration fees to delegates for this refund.

  1. Delegates within India will receive a full refund less the fees charged to us by PayPal.
  2. International delegates outside of India will receive a full refund less the fees charged to us by credit card companies.

To create an orderly and delegate-authorized system, a secure online form is available below. Please submit to WILD11 on or before 31 March 2020.  If such request is not received by the deadline, WILD11 will regard – with sincere appreciation – the registration fee to be a donation to help WILD11 offset its considerable financial losses due to our unavoidable postponement. A tax exempt receipt will be issued to the delegate.

Questions can be directed to frank@wild11.org.

 


 

HOTELS, TOURS, AND AIRPORT TRANSFERS BOOKED THROUGH WILD11/LIBERTY INTERNATIONAL

Thank you for your understanding and patience in this difficult time for the hospitality industry. We are with working partners in India to negotiate refunds on hotels, tours, and airport transfers for all of us involved with WILD11 – delegates, speakers, co-hosts, and sponsors. The global spread of COVID-19 is straining the capacity of travel and hospitality operators to respond to all requests at this time. Our team is working as swiftly as possible in your interest.

On Tuesday, March 24, India’s government announced a nationwide lockdown that will be in effect for at least 21 days in response to the coronavirus. This may cause a delay in the refund process, but we are committed to recovering these funds related to WILD11. Please know that this matter is an active and ongoing process and remains a top priority for WILD11 organizers. More information will be provided on this page as it becomes available. Your personal involvement is also important.  We encourage you to please contact Rahul (Rahul.dhruga@liberty-int.com) and Ajay (ajay.barua@liberty-int.com) with any questions related to tours, hotels, and airport transfers booked through Liberty International. The more they hear from all of us, the better.

30 March 2020 Letter to Delegates

Dear WILD11 Delegates,

Thank you very much for your patience.  Some days those of us at WILD also have to remind ourselves to be patient, because we, too, await a considerable refund.

In this difficult time, we want to keep you updated as we receive news regarding WILD11 hotel, tour, and airport transfer refunds from our partner, Liberty International. India’s 1.3 billion people have been told to stay home by the National Government. This countrywide lockdown will last at least 21 days and will heavily impact everyday life and business. 

While this is indeed a unique situation, we assure you that we are doing all we can to obtain WILD11 refunds. Even on good days with no pandemic or other emergency, repatriating funds from India is a cumbersome process because of anti-terrorism and anti-corruption  policies. To keep you as fully informed as we are, below is a summary of our recent conversations with Liberty and the strict, complex process of moving funds out of India. This process is impossible given the current lock-down situation. We will continue to update you as this process unfolds itself to us. Please visit http://wild11.org/updates/refunds/ to view updates.  Once again, very sincere thanks to those of you who donated all or part of your registration fee to help WILD blunt the considerable financial impact we’ve incurred because of this postponement.  As a final reminder, if you require all or part of your registration fee to  be refunded please request it  by March 31, 2020 , and we will do so with full appreciation.

Summary:

All Hotels – no matter what size – are shut – aside the ones subpoenaed by Govt to support healthcare staff/ quarantine re-purposes. No one could ever forecast this most unique situation. On March 23, we spoke with all hoteliers. All have said the refunds will take longer than envisaged due current situation, and processes can be restarted only post 15th April, when all staff are back at work. 

In view of the above, we feel it will most likely be mid-May before refunds will be possible.

Refunds could not take place even with the funds in hand. The process of overseas remittance is very strict in India as the country (i.e. Govt) still tries to hold on to FOREX Reserves and avoid corruption. The process requires several hard copy signatures and verifications. As per our colleagues at Liberty International, any outbound remittance follows this process: 

  • Invoice checked / counter signed by External CPA to authenticate that the remittance is in fact genuine
  • This letter is attached to the Invoice / remittance demand certifying the same
  • No matter how many remittance – he has to issue 1 letter for EACH
  • These two print-outs along with remittance request from the remitter are “Physically” filed at the branch – duly signed & stamped – in original
  • Yes 21st Century & a highly IT enabled country like India has an 18th century banking practice – you are 100% correct in raising eye-brows & questioning this practice
  • These practices are in place to check money laundering – as you know geo-politically we’ve interesting neighbours and a lot of cash gets funnelled for black practices – this is one of the check points
  • For now none of us can leave our homes
  • If sent an Invoice / Refund Demand – I’ve to print it – sign it – stamp it – send it to my CPA’s Office – he counter signs the same – then it moves to my bank – in original

Best regards and many thanks,

Frank Palumbo
WILD11 Programme Manager

 


 

OTHER TRAVEL

If you booked your travel arrangements independently and not through Liberty International Tourism Group, you will need to contact the travel operators yourself. Delegates requesting travel refunds from airlines or other providers may use this official postponement letter from the Government of Rajasthan to aid in their efforts.

Many airlines offer cancelation/refund pages where delegates may find more information on each operator’s policy, such as Delta, United, Lufthansa, British Airways, Emirates, Air India, and IndiGo.