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I have been charged $968.13 on the 8 June 23 from Camp Australia. This unknown charge put my bank account in serious negative amount and the bank is now charged a fee. I checked my emails, both my camp australia and mygov accounts and found no correspondence in regards to the amount charged. I contacted camp australia 9 june 23, only to be told that I need to contact centrelink as they were the ones that have asked camp australia to on charge that amount. Camp australia said it was for CCS adjustments from 2021. I contacted centrelink 9 june 23 and they said they have no records of any charges or correspondence for that amount to camp australia or myself. They said their policy if there was any debt or charges from CCS, they go directly to the person to collect not a third party. They also said that anything in the past financial years have been adjusted and paid accordingly. I have no future debt either. They said all correspondence is shown in mygov and sent in the mail, to which i have not received any. I called camp australia 14 june 23 due to long weekend and was told it was chargers from 2021, 2022 and that centrelink told them to charge me, I asked for that document and she said they can’t send it to me and that i have to speak to Centrelink. I went over the fact multiple times that the charge was from camp australia and not centrelink, therefore they can’t see or authorise it to be reversed and she said well they are only a ythird party and just do as told by centrelink. I again asked for this correspondence and was told i already got it and i said well then you can send it again and i was told No we can’t but again she couldn’t say why. All i got was all we can do is tell you to speak to complaints and hung up on me
Desired outcome: I want complete refund and if not why.
This complaint has been resolved automatically due to user's inactivity.
![Central Board of Secondary Education [CBSE]](/images/business/48-48/114582/cbse-central-board-of-secondary-education.jpeg){kind=small}
Same thing happened to me on 9th June 2023! They debited my account for $245 no warning at all. My son hasn’t been in care for the last 8 months! Was told it was from charges from Dec 21/22 as centerlink had adjusted CCS. I’m still waiting for them to send me the statement. I can’t believe they just took money without any warning.
I have had the same thing happened to me.
-I raised a query through Camp Australia online as it appeared to be related to more recent transactions (due to alleged amount equalling exactly what I had paid in fees this year). I had no response from this or indication as to whether it was reviewed until being told my account was excluded. I then called and received the same response around it being a CCS charge from 21/22.
-What is interesting about the alleged dates I was overpaid is that they were from a time when I was still working part time and in receipt of a single parent payment from Centrelink, where (as you can imagine) I counted and calculated things dollar for dollar [especially overpriced holiday care]. I had also discussed that specific pay period and dates of care with my ex husband (as he contributed to the cost) and with another friend.
-Additionally, there has been NO correspondence from Centrelink in regards to this and in previous times of CCS over/underpayment, I have always been contacted directly to rectify this. IF it was a Centrelink issue, I would expect documentation from them at least.
-Where is the documentation from Camp Australia for this? Why do none of the statements or correspondence from Camp Australia reflect this being the supposed issue.
-Further to this, I am told that a direct debit had supposedly been attempted on multiple occasions yet there is no evidence in my bank account for this (my banking app receives and retains a notice everytime a transaction fails, is reversed or overdraws the account). On the last alleged date of attempt, there was verifiably more than the supposed amount they attempted to debit in the account so no reason for failure (particularly given my last direct debit had been successful in May).
In a way, I have been lucky as I've been in the process of moving the children to a more reliable service but because of delays in the set up for that, I had booked for 2 days with Camp Australia. Funnily enough, the children attend on a needs basis rather than any joy I may get out paying for vacation care and I had no choice but to agree to a payment plan of the alleged amount I owe. Subsequently I've secured their places at the new centre and cancelled CampAus but of course, given it was less than 7 days notice, I've copped the out of pocket cost for a late cancellation on that too. Nice.
Regardless of the financial frustration, it's pretty apparent that business practices around transparency and communication are dire at best and in significant need of improvement and I will continue to escalate and investigate this issue because there is definitely something more to the story here.
Just to add to this.
One month later and the issues are still ongoing.
The day following my previous post (29/6), I spoke at length with Centrelink and clarified that there was NO outstanding amount of CCS and I was square from their side BUT it appeared a payment for the dates in question may of been made to the incorrect service (weird, as it closed down some months prior and children weren't enrolled then?).
I cancelled the payment plan (and thankfully got my children in to another service) and provided this information to CA- What ensued is only what I could describe as THE LEAST helpful phone call I have ever engaged in. 40 minutes of back and forth and ZERO help from the CA rep, or willingness to escalate the issue or understand the myriad of inconsistencies (including the fact the portal statements still reflect negative balances in to the thousands, pre-dating a time of ever using the service?
I then escalated this issue to the CCS Tip Off Line from the Department of Education who forced CA to review the account.
20/7/23 I get an email (attached) advising a credit has been applied for a portion of the raised fees as a gratuity offering from CA -It yields no specific clarification of the error (or admittance of their part in the error) . This is even more hilarious now because after talking to CL, I come to find out that the the issue only came after CA erroneously amended the session information 7 months, which resulted in a reversal of the CCS they received.
I spoke with CA & CL again today (24/07/23) (in what appears to be hours of free time I must have) and received some further information and clarification, most interestingly that the above had occured (as this was not previously advised). The CA rep also stipulated she would raise the account for review which was the first successful time of this happening in 5 x contact with CA (barring the TipOff Line forcing them).
Still, statements are in an absolute shambles, and they still have outstanding late fees and failed payment fees attached to the remaining balance on my account.
Not holding my breath on the CA re-review yielding anything further and have updated TOL accordingly but also going to escalate my complaint to WA Consumer Affairs as the absolutely dismal lack of transparency is beyond a joke.
In no decent business model could you attempt to gather money 18 months after the fact with absolutely zero supporting data or documentation producible, so why CA thinks they are any different is beyond me.
The same this happened to me!
On the 8th June 2023 Camp Australia attempted to withdraw $360 from my account. It was unsuccessful because the card linked to my account had expired in May 2023 (lucky)
My primary school aged children had stopped using Camp Australia in June 2022. So I was shocked to get the email about the failed attempt.
when I called to discuss the charge they told me it was a recalculation from December 2021 from Centrelink with my CCS. Apparently a rebalance.
I called Centrelink to confirm no rebalance that would result in a $360 bill from Camp Australia and it was a billing issue on their end.
Numerous calls and emails back and forth from Camp Australia have got me nowhere. On Sunday 25th June 2023 is was emailed by a debt recovery agency on behalf of Camp Australia. They have given me 7 days to pay. Camp Australia have also emailed me to inform me of the debt recovery agency.
I requested all my statements from Camp Australia and I have conducted my own investigation by cross referencing charges on the statements with my own bank statements. I have been unable to locate the additional charges in the statements provided to me by Camp Australia.
I have sent Camp Australia a “Final Letter” requesting an itemised bill for the now $408 overdue amount. I have given them 7 days to follow up with a resolution (itemised bill or clear charges from my account)
If not resolved I’ll report to Consumer Affairs Victoria.
I have also reported them to the ACCC so they can conduct their own investigation.
There are far too many families that have been victim to Camp Australia and enough is enough.
I strongly encourage you all to do the same.
ACCC - [protected]
Consumer Affairs Victoria - [protected]