1 hour ago
1
Linus Rowland-Bell, from Liverpool found out about GVI through a university careers fair.
He planned to complete a programme in Peru, billed as an internship in the Amazon rainforest.
The 23-year-old thought it would help his career prospects after finishing his degree in biology and bio-technology.
He paid the full £2,258 up-front after GVI advised him there would be a discount for doing so.
"To save up that money I worked two days a week alongside my studies," he says.
Linus planned to make the trip this summer but says a series of "concerning" events, documented in a series of emails shared with Newsbeat, raised his suspicions.
By May this year, he still had not completed an online training course due to be done in April.
He was told Canvas, the software used to administer the module, was down - something he found "a bit dodgy" because he uses the same platform at university "with no problems whatsoever".
On 28 June, Linus received an email from the centre in Peru advising it could not take on any new participants because GVI had not paid them for six months.
The next day he received an email from GVI saying it was working on a resolution, with an offer to reschedule the planned trip or obtain a credit certificate "for future travel".
Two days later Linus received the liquidation email sent to all customers.
"The thought of all that money, all that time that I've saved up, that excitement completely vanishing into the ether, it was terrifying," he says.
Linus was able to get a full refund via his bank, and says he's exploring last-minute options for this summer.
But the episode has "created a big paranoia in trusting any companies that are in charge of travel bookings," he says.
