Have I lost my deposit?

[Toon86]

We have booked to go to Florida in October 2008. I am going with my wife and my daughter and her family. We booked our flights last July when we heard that Thomsonfly were flying from Newcastle to Florida. Coz we live about 10 miles from Newcastle airport it makes it much easier to fly from there (but more expensive). We paid about £500 return per adult, which was expensive but ok.

Another one of my daughters decided that she would also like to go with us so I started looking for a place on the same flight as us so she wouldn't have to travel alone. I found that the price of our flight had gone up to over £800 per person! Absolutely ridiculous!

I have been watching ever since to see if it would go down but if anything it seems to go up.

I did however, spot that I could get it for £650 at the beginning of this week. Expensive but it would mean that she could travel with the rest of us on the same flight. I couldn't get in touch with her until later that night. We decided to try and get the ticket at that price. WHen I checked on the same website (flightline.co.uk) I found that the ticket had gone up to about £690 but I decided to go ahead. As I was progressing through the website the page froze. I 'backed out' to the first page and found my details were still there (i.e. Newcastle to Sanford going on the 4 Oct 2008) I then started again and found the price had gone down to £578. I progressed as quickly as I could and paid a £130 deposit by debit card. Result...... I thought.

I then looked at my confirmation email and my heart sunk...... Instead of 14 days it was only 7days! When I had returned to the first page it had reset the number of days from 14 to a default of 7. Even though all of the other data I had input had been retained.

I immediately rang the company but because it was 21.00 I was told that I would have to ring the admin dept the next day.

I rang the admin dept and found that Thomsonfly wanted an extra £450 to change from 7 days to 14 days! Can you believe it? The return flight from Newcastle to Sanford would have cost me over £1,000!!!!! I said that I would have to cancel and was told that I would lose my deposit of £130. I explained that the problem occurred becasue of their website but they said that there was nothing they could do. So one incorrect 'click' of the mouse is going to cost me £130. Even though I realised almost immediately that the ticket was wrong and contacted them within minutes.

Has anyone had a similar experience or does anyone know where I stand legally with regard to getting a refund of my deposit? I certainly cannot afford to lose £130 for nothing and I feel sick just thinking about it!

 

[KayleeUK]

I don't know where you stand on this, but what a pain. I hope you can get it sorted.

 

[Graeme]

I can't help you with your question but I can help with your flight

The Thomsonfly flight out of Newcastle is actually a Monarch flight, and is used by quite a few of the tour operators. Thomsonfly are charging £958 for 14 nights from 4th october, but Mytravel, (owned by Thomas Cook), are charging £546 for a fourteen night flydrive on the same flight. Buy the flight, but don't pick up the car at the airport.

I've used it several times and am booked on it again in May. We've paid £450 for it but that was cheaper than I could get out of manchester on the same date.

By the way, have you read the new visa restrictions about not being allowed into the US with any 'Toon' shirts? Up the Boro!!

 

[Cyrano]

Hope you can get this sorted out

 

[Toon86]

Thanksfor the kind words everyone. I also posted on the DIBB forums and got a lot of useful advice that I am going to follow up

Graeme

The Thomsonfly flight out of Newcastle is actually a Monarch flight, and is used by quite a few of the tour operators.

The Thomsonfly flight is in addition to the Monarch flight. It is a new flight that is only being introduced this year. They are using Thomsonfly aircraft so the seats are much better than the Monarch flight with 34" standard seat pitch and seat back TVs as standard. It leaves about the same time as the monarch flight but comes back to ncle slightly later. So now you have 2 flights out of ncle.

I also bucked up the courage and called Flightline.co.uk but the situation gets worse.

They were not prepared to budge on the deposit and said that although they have received the cancellation in writing they couldn't cancel the booking because we were not prepared to say that we would forfeit the £130 deposit.

Because the ticket was for my daughter she is the lead passenger (the only passenger!) and the cancellation apparently has to be done by her. I got her to sign a statement cancelling the booking and stating "This flight was booked and paid for by my dad". I put that in with a covering letter explaining what had happened and asking for a refund of my deposit of £130.

I was told that they cannot cancel the booking until my daughter says she is prepared to forfeit the £130 deposit. I explained that she cannot forfeit the deposit coz she didn't pay it to begin with - I DID. They still insisted that she must forfeit the deposit in writing before they can cancel the booking.

I asked if this was a legal requirement or just something they had introduced. I was told that this was a LEGAL REQUIREMENT.

CAN ANYONE CONFIRM WHETHER THIS IS A LEGAL REQUIREMENT?

So I cannot cancel the booking until my daughter forfeits MY deposit of £130. Presumably to leave them legally covered if I decide to persue the refund of my deposit of £130 through the courts.


I feel even sicker now!!!!

Any advice anyone?

 

[Graeme]

The Thomsonfly flight is in addition to the Monarch flight. It is a new flight that is only being introduced this year. They are using Thomsonfly aircraft so the seats are much better than the Monarch flight with 34" standard seat pitch and seat back TVs as standard.

Bugger! I didn't know that. They,ve always used the Monarch one in the past. I'll just have to curl my knees up and take a book!

 

[aaronandterri]

surley there is a cooling off period? 7 days or something where you could cancel it?

 

[Toon86]

Bugger! I didn't know that. They,ve always used the Monarch one in the past. I'll just have to curl my knees up and take a book!

Well you'll know for next time.

surley there is a cooling off period? 7 days or something where you could cancel it?
Yesterday 11:24 AM

I am as surprised as you (and totally gutted that I didn't know!)

 

[Jakey Rowling]

surley there is a cooling off period? 7 days or something where you could cancel it?

The only hope I could have given you was the distance selling regulations, but it look as though transport and accommodation are exceptions.
http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_re...nce-selling-regulations/regulation-exceptions

Personally I don't think it is relevant who actually paid for the holiday, it's the lead passenger who has the contract with the company so I think your argument about it being your money is flawed unfortunately.

It does seems wrong though that you weren't able to correct the mistake in the time-frame you state, best of luck.

 

[angel659]

what a pain. Can they not transfer the deposit for another flight? I.e My Travel or if not can you use that ticket for another holiday/desitination. I take it its not a flight only? You have a package holiday or a fly drive? If so then they can change the flight to somewhere else or change the date. You would need to pay an amendment fee.

Unfortunately you do not have any rights I would imagine regarding this. Best bet is to speak to citizens advice. They should be able to help you.

Good luck.

 

[Toon86]

Thanks for the replies

Using info I got from a forum member I contacted a Senior Customer service manager at Thomsonfly. He rang me and we talked about the problem. Unfortunately there isn't much he could do. He was very helpful and did 'bend' the rules a bit to try and sort it out. But it was still going to end up with me paying £750 for the return fare which was well beyond my daughters budget for one return flight in economy.
He said that there was no way he could cancel the booking and refund the deposit.

So I will continue by pursuing a refund of my deposit by trying whatever avenues I can think of
Including:

Thomsonfly Directors Office
Flightline.co.uk directors
ABTA
Citizens Advice Bureau
The Office of Fair Trading/Consumer Direct
Local Authority Consumer Advice/Trading Standards
Local/National Press
Local/National TV


It just seems so wrong that I should lose £130 on the click of a mouse button and that consumers have no way of cancelling even in the case of a genuine mistake.

 

[castanea1985]

Thanks for the replies

Using info I got from a forum member I contacted a Senior Customer service manager at Thomsonfly. He rang me and we talked about the problem. Unfortunately there isn't much he could do. He was very helpful and did 'bend' the rules a bit to try and sort it out. But it was still going to end up with me paying £750 for the return fare which was well beyond my daughters budget for one return flight in economy.
He said that there was no way he could cancel the booking and refund the deposit.

So I will continue by pursuing a refund of my deposit by trying whatever avenues I can think of
Including:

Thomsonfly Directors Office
Flightline.co.uk directors
ABTA
Citizens Advice Bureau
The Office of Fair Trading/Consumer Direct
Local Authority Consumer Advice/Trading Standards
Local/National Press
Local/National TV


It just seems so wrong that I should lose £130 on the click of a mouse button and that consumers have no way of cancelling even in the case of a genuine mistake.

Hi

I sympathise with you!
I was once trying to book flights on the virgin Man-MCo flight at the same time as my SIL so we could all go on the same flight. We were literally booking the flights whilst we on the phone to each other.... I'd pressed pay & had bought three tickets for one flight.. and seconds later she tried to do the same....no joy...... we had just bought the last 3 tickets.....
we ended up phoning VA, seconds later.....& I had to pay £150 to change our day, so we could all go together!!!! Leaves a bad feeling!

Tracy

 

[Merylj]

Did you pay by credit card? I would phone the cc company if you did and try to get a charge back.
I`m sure mistakes made with online bookings are are good line of income for travel companies - and this case looks like a trap!

 

[Mermaid2sea]

Fingers Crossed it all works out for you....

I would have thought they could have refunded I'm sure it would have been a problem only once the tickets had been issued.


Good Luck

 

[Toon86]

Did you pay by credit card? I would phone the cc company if you did and try to get a charge back.
I`m sure mistakes made with online bookings are are good line of income for travel companies - and this case looks like a trap!

I ALWAYS use a credit vard when making any purchases online HOWEVER for the first time I use my Debit Card to avoid the CC surcharge. Typical of my luck!

 

[orangetiggs]

I am surprised there is not a cooling off period as with virgin when i worked there ther was! Also abta is not the best to write to as thats mainly for travel agents you need to write to the airline one or atol but i doubt they will do anything either.

If you speak to your bank and say that there was an error on the webpage they can get the money back. I had the same problem with sky that an error occured and my bank got the money back from them

 

[Toon86]

I am surprised there is not a cooling off period as with virgin when i worked there ther was! Also abta is not the best to write to as thats mainly for travel agents you need to write to the airline one or atol but i doubt they will do anything either.

If you speak to your bank and say that there was an error on the webpage they can get the money back. I had the same problem with sky that an error occured and my bank got the money back from them

Thanks

Yes I was surprised that there is no cooling off period. When you worked with Virgin was it an online or was it telephone/travel agent? Maybe there is just no cooling off period for online purchases?

I also doubt that atol will do anything but I will probably try if I get nowhere with the other avenues.

Good idea about the bank. I will definitely write to them. The 'Direct Debit guarantee' and all that.........

 

[Claire L]

Good idea about the bank. I will definitely write to them. The 'Direct Debit guarantee' and all that.........

Direct debit is different to using your card for a 'debit'. Direct debit is an automatic payment system set up for regualr payments from an account to a specific company. I am not sure a 'debit' purchase on your card would be covered by any kind of guarentee.

Also I am not sure saying there was an error on the webpage will work as a person is responsible for checking all details are correct before corfirming the purchase. I was on the VA website the other week checking prices etc and when I went back from the price matrix to the dates and location page to alter the date I thought I had a good price but then realised the location had defaulted to New York and not Orlando as I wanted so the price was not for the location I wanted!!

Claire

 

[orangetiggs]

the cooling off period was for online as well as over the phone.

the direct debit guarentee is different but I got my money back when sky took it and they had an error on their website so worth a try

 

[Jakey Rowling]

the cooling off period was for online as well as over the phone.

That must have been a voluntary code of practice, see the earlier post regarding the exclusions from the distance selling regs for transport and accommodation.