It’s the latest Aussie influencer drama that just keeps on getting spicier and spicier. In case you missed it, influencer Jadé Tuncdoruk (aka Jadé Tunchy) is copping a bit of heat for using her platform to get a refund from a small travel business. Now, in a statement made to PEDESTRIAN.TV, the business claims Jadé was “demanding and threatening”.
Alright, let’s recap everything that’s gone down so far with Miss Tunchy.
In a since-deleted post, Jadé said that she and her fiancé Lachie Brycki postponed their wedding back in August of 2021, and contacted Weekenda (the small biz they’d booked their honeymoon through) to request a refund.
She then accused the company of saying the best they could do was relist the couple’s holiday online and see if someone else booked it. She also complained the company wouldn’t hand her a refund.
“Six weeks out of the booking and we’ve again asked for a refund which they’ve denied. They’ve had months to refund us for a booking that we don’t need.
“They’re taking our money just because they can. It’s just incredibly poor form and so disappointing that businesses are taking advantage of people in the middle of a pandemic.”
One, two, skip a few, and many of Jadé’s followers applied pressure onto the business through online comments and DMs.
Keep in mind this is a small business in the middle of a pandemic, with a clear no-cancellations (without penalty) policy in their terms & conditions. The accountability queens over at Celeb Spellcheck (@celeb_spellcheck) — who have been calling out Jadé like there’s no tomorrow — have been sure to remind us all of this fact with handy screenshots.
In a statement to PEDESTRIAN.TV, Weekenda has told their side of the story in the Jadé drama via DMs from Pete Smith, Weekenda’s Founder & CEO.
“Jadé Tuncdoruk/Tunchy has definitely been a handful,” wrote Smith.
“Jadé booked a stunning home in Meerea Park in July 2021, just as the 2nd wave of COVID had taken off. The cancellation terms and conditions were 50% loss of deposit if cancelled and 100% loss if cancelled within 14 days of arrival.
“We feel that these T&C’s are fairly much industry standard, fair and legal according to Fair Trading and ACCC. The booking was for March 2022.
“In August 2021 Jadé reached out to us requesting that we cancel her booking, citing “Covid” which we thought was odd as it was 8 months out,” Smith continued.
“My staff advised that Jadé was very demanding and threatening. Her emails support this. I am advised that she decided to post on her Instagram account about this episode.”
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Smith then continued by writing that he simply represents the Property Owners, who wished to give Jadé all of her money back due to not wanting to have to deal with any “significant reputational damage”. Thus, a full refund was processed.
He also said that due to COVID, his business was closed for three months in 2020, and four months in 2021.
“The only reason we stayed open was to deal with the daily wave of people requesting cancellations due to COVID. During those times our costs remained but the business made no money.
“It has been very difficult for the property owners we represent, our staff and of course our guests.”
In screenshots taken by the Daily Mail, Jadé has made a post following the drama accusing Celeb Spellcheck of bullying (after they called her out).
“If you guys want to bully influencers because you hate them, sweet! But don’t act like you wouldn’t all sit at home trying to get the refund yourselves. I don’t think one of you commenting, DMing and harassing me would sit there and give up thousands of dollars for a service you don’t need.”
Influencers getting called out for airing their business to upwards of 480K followers and then calling it bullying? Groundbreaking.
PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to Jadé Tunchy for comment.
