Charter market: Public prosecutor's office investigates Zizoo managing director
In November the YACHT reported in detailthat the Austrian online agency had already started not forwarding customer funds to the charter fleets in accordance with the contract in the middle of this year. As a result, YACHT readers are still regularly reporting the same pattern to the editorial team: The agency had not forwarded down payments made on time. Shortly before the start of the cruise or even on site at the charter base, customers sometimes only learnt from the fleet operators that the payments had not been received. Many of those affected then paid a second time in order to be able to go on a cruise after all. Zizoo then always promised to refund the money as soon as possible, but in many cases this did not happen. Dozens of negative entries with the same allegations were also found on relevant web review portals such as Trustpilot or Tripadvisor.
The German subsidiary Zizooboats is registered in Germany at the Charlottenburg/Berlin district court, which is why the editorial team had repeatedly enquired whether insolvency proceedings had been opened. This has not yet been the case. Several readers had reported that they had called in lawyers, some of whom, according to them, had already obtained enforcement orders. Some had also reportedly filed criminal charges against the managing director. YACHT had already enquired with the responsible public prosecutor's office in Berlin in November as to whether the managing director was under investigation, but this was denied at the time. A renewed enquiry this week has now revealed that an investigation is being conducted into allegations of fraud and delay in filing for insolvency. The investigation is ongoing.
In a statement to YACHT, Zizoo had said of "a small proportion of customers who have experienced disruptions in our service quality" and promised regulation soon.
In view of the charter booking season, which has just got off to a strong start with the boat in Düsseldorf usually reaches its peak, caution is therefore advised.
