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Meridian company agrees to pay refunds after Alaskan fishing trip lawsuit

The company will shell out more than $100,000 in refunds after officials say they sold customers spots on Alaskan fishing trips that never materialized.
Credit: KTVB file
Idaho Attorney General's Office

MERIDIAN, Idaho — A Meridian company will shell out more than $100,000 in refunds after officials say they sold customers spots on Alaskan fishing trips that never materialized. 

Craig and Crystal Fletcher, owners of Access Life's Adventures, LLC, agreed to the payout as part of a settlement with the Idaho Attorney General's Office. 

"While stopping a business from further harming consumers is a primary enforcement goal for my office, recovering consumer restitution also is important," AG Lawrence Wasden said in a statement. "I'm therefore pleased the business has closed and that the owners have agreed to repay their customers."

The investigation started in early 2019, after multiple consumers reported that they had paid the Fletchers thousands of dollars to book fishing trips in Alaska that never happened. Some of the customers learned just days before they were supposed to leave that their trip had been canceled. 

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One man even flew to Anchorage, Alaska with his son for the fishing trip, but no one showed up to take them to their hotel. After finding their own transportation and hotel, the pair learned that the fishing trip was off. 

Access Life's Adventures offered refunds to multiple people, but never actually gave them their money back, according to investigators. The Attorney General filed a consumer protection lawsuit against the company in July.

In addition to the $100,954 in payouts to 25 customers, the settlement will permanently shut down Access Life's Adventures. In addition, the Fletchers have been banned from advertising or selling any vacation or travel packages in Idaho for the next ten years. 

If the refunds are not made, that ban will extend indefinitely, according to the AG's office.

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