Mid-South travel agent accused of not refunding some customers
REPORTERS NOTE: Glenda Sprouse-Benson called the FOX13 newsroom shortly after this story aired Thursday at 6:15 p.m. She said she has paid all of her clients except Tracey Baker. FOX13’s Leah Jordan gave Sprouse-Benson her email address and cell phone number to send any information she wanted to, or set up an interview. We will update the story if we receive any documents or further information from Sprouse-Benson.
How do you determine if a travel agent is legitimate? FOX13 Investigates discovered very few states require registration or licensure if you want to become an agent, and Tennessee is not one of them.
Benson World Travel is a travel agency run by a Mid-South woman named Glenda Sprouse-Benson. She has a Tennessee business, but FOX13 Investigates tracked down more than half a dozen affected clients from Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, and Arizona.
“It’s excuse after excuse. Still to this day, we don’t have any money even though she promised,” Tracey Baker of Elgin, Texas told FOX13.
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Every client shared the same story with FOX13’s Leah Jordan: Royal Caribbean International cancelled a March 2019 cruise back in December of 2018. According to screenshots of texts from Sprouse-Benson to clients, the money was supposed to be refunded and back in their hands within 7 to 10 business days.
But nearly two months later, while some clients have been refunded, others say they’ve only received partial refunds or no money at all.
“I don’t have any hope I’ll get money today. It’s been going on two months,” Baker said. “I think she thinks she’s untouchable because we’re way in Texas.”
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Baker said the agent won’t respond to her texts or messages, but in the midst of her communication efforts, the agent posted to Facebook about a February cruise she was on.
Jordan spoke to clients across several states, but a screen shot of a text from Sprouse-Benson to a client stated there could be a total of 73 clients who need and/or needed refunds from the original cruise booking.
“It’s very frustrating,” Lisa McCann, a client from Fort Worth, Texas told FOX13. “Consider the fact that me and my friend have banking experience and backgrounds… it’s very frustrating.”
McCann wrote a less-than-complimentary Facebook post detailing her experience with Benson World Travel. She is one of a few people FOX13’s Leah Jordan spoke to who claims to be fully refunded – but McCann said Sprouse-Benson asked for her Facebook post to be removed when she paid her.
“The reason why I got paid and people still waiting? My post,” McCann said. “There are people who haven’t received a penny. Today, people still haven’t received anything. I wasn’t speaking for just myself, but others,” she said.
Each client Leah Jordan personally spoke with said Sprouse-Benson told them a lot of the money was taken by the IRS. According to text messages, the agent claimed when the cruise line originally refunded the money, her bank automatically reported it to the I-R-S – and they took a lot of it.
“Based off her excuses, now the last thing we heard was the IRS took her money, but we have no proof of that,” Baker said.
Leah Jordan reached out to Royal Caribbean International. A spokesperson said the only way to confirm that these women were ever booked from the beginning would be through their booking number – which Sprouse-Benson allegedly never provided clients.
“Every time I asked her for the booking number she’d never give it to me. She’d say, ‘oh, I didn’t see your message,’ or ignore me,” Jenetha Cannon of Arizona said.
The Royal Caribbean spokesperson got back to FOX13’s Leah Jordan the day after she first called to inform her that there was no record of Sprouse-Benson having booked a cruise for any of the clients.
The spokesperson said the guest services team couldn’t find anything based on the information given, and that they looked up all agencies with “Benson” in the name. He said the majority were on “no book” status.
Leah Jordan and a FOX13 photographer went to a Cordova address that a database suggested she may live at. When Jordan knocked on the door, a woman answered and said Sprouse-Benson no longer lived there — and hadn’t for about five years .
The woman who lived at the Cordova home said she’d recently received mail that was addressed to Sprouse-Benson from the IRS.
The FOX13 crew also visited an apartment complex in Collierville that clients said was connected to Sprouse-Benson via mail correspondence. No specific apartment number was given to the clients Jordan spoke with, though.
FOX13 made efforts to connect with Sprouse-Benson via social media as well as in person. As stated at the top of this story, she called the newsroom after the story aired and has been given Leah Jordan’s contact information for a potential follow-up story.
Along with the BBB having several complaints against Benson World Travel, FOX13 requested public records and found the state of Tennessee also received an official complaint against the business.
Jordan is still working to learn whether Benson World Travel has a legitimate business license. The business’s Facebook page was deleted or removed in the middle of Jordan’s investigation.
After the story aired, two people called the FOX13 newsroom claiming they were also clients who were owed money by Sprouse-Benson. Additionally, Jordan received a Facebook message from a third client who reached out to say they were owed money.
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