Anyone in the travel business? - legal advice needed please help

stormCat99

Hi,

Just posted this in the Anything Else board, but realised that actually it would be useful to get input from any travel agents that may read this board.

I'll try not to bore you with all the details of this. But we are marrying in Lapland, and after calling round most places to get accommodation/flight prices for our guest, we found that most agents had increased their prices somewhat from last year - from about £500 to £900.

We got lucky though and found one - Solitair Holidays - which hadn't and 9 of our guests booked up at a price of around £570 each.

This was 2 months ago and ever since we have been asking for our invoice. The 9 people are booked in 3 separate bookings made at different times, and all 3 parties have called quite a lot of times to chase this. Each time they were told all was OK, details were confirmed and invoices would be sent.

Today, we have suddenly been told price is now £950 each!! Up from about £570. All they have said is that it was a mistake and now we have to pay the higher price. This will mean that none of our guests can afford to come - this includes several more who were going to book but have not yet done.

We have been planning our wedding for many months as you will imagine, and to suddenly find that we may not be able to have any guests is a giant blow and we're both extremely upset and angry at Solitair. We would probably have made other wedding plans if the price had originally been quoted so high.

So, my question really is do we have a leg to stand on from a legal standpoint? We have 3 separate verbal agreements, so at least it is not just one person's word against another. But nothing in writing - despite having chased and chased for written confirmation and have also had it reconfirmed verbally on each occasion.

What can we do about this - go to the CAB, the press, get a solicitor? I have no idea on this. Please if anyone has any ideas or relevant knowledge / experience we'd both be very grateful. And apologies for such a long post.

Thanks everyone.

bazza1603

Hi,

You really should have got something in writing.

Have you paid in full. If they havenot taken payment, I bet they realised at the start there was a problem, and have been holding off incase the price reduced.

I would try asking for a manager or director to deal with my complain.

But to be honest I wouldnot hold out much hope without it in writing.... Sorry

Best regards

Barry

stormCat99

Hi Barry thanks for replying. We booked over the phone and were told we'd get confirmation in writing in a few days. Ever since then we've been hounding them for written confirmation as we know how important it is. What could we do though when they kept saying it would be sent out soon? We all kept calling them as we saw getting written confirmation as a priority. Also they didn't take the deposit which is another thing we kept pestering them about. But every time we rang they assured us our booking was on the system and confirmed all details back to us, and said it was their usual practice for written confrimation to take a while.

TRAVELMAN_2

Boots Babe, If they've taken no money at all it's not been booked-simple as that-no matter what BS they give you.

After the quote the clerk will have realised the mistake & rather than lose face they've told you it's booked, etc...seen this happen many times when i worked in Call Centres.Also-as they know it's a wedding they were maybe banking on you HAVING to take the deal??

As they've taken NO money legally you're a bit stuffed-sorry (!)

Hope it sort's itself out for you.

Waht dates/duration/airports/Hotel were you going for & have you checked again to see if any price changes have occurred?

almond

hi
found this
http://www.cosmos-holidays.co.uk/lapland_holiday1.php?page=7
have you arranged your wedding? it just the guests that are looking?
I agree with travelman your holiday has'nt been booked, I have checked
solitair holidays on abta site and they are'nt members.
I know its no help to you but at least they did'nt take the money
so you have'nt lost that.
I have never seen any lates for lapland its always hard to get seats
I once booked a family of four it cost £3500 for five days and I thought
he was mad. Try the company you booked the wedding with and see
if you can get a discount for 9 pax its worth a try.
Good luck and sorry you can do without this weeks before your wedding

stormCat99

Thanks again for the replies. Yes I agree, it seems it has not been booked at all and they have completely lied to us all the way through over and over again. Managed to speak to the manager about 10 mins ago - which is odd that she was female when another of our parties apparently spoke the manager earlier and it was male??! More lies.

She couldn't have cared less. You would think that no matter what had happened, even if they weren't going to do anything to help, they would at least have a sensible conversation with you about it, give a sincere apology and explain what had happened. She did none of this, simply evaded questions and waffled. She is completely uninterested in what they have done to us.

almond thanks for looking for us :-) The problem is that Cosmos - like many places that cover Lapland - only do travel in December (to see santa etc!) and we're going in February. There are 3 other companies that specialise in Lapland so we'll be calling round them tomorrow to see if they can do anything.

They aren't ABTA no but they are ATOL members - we thankfully checked that before we booked up - or thought we'd booked up. Once we've arranged (hopefully) some kind of alternative for all our guests, next week we can turn our concentration to taking action against them as no company should be allowed to behave in this manner. Watchdog, CAB, local press here we come. Won't help us but will make us feel better and we very much hope it will prevent others from having any similar problems to us as we wouldn't wish it on anyone.

bazza1603

Hi,

Whcih airport where you going to. I have a feeling you may be able to SAS airlines and book your hotel directly...?

Best regards

Barry

https://www.theairlineguide.co.uk

TRAVELMAN_2

Boots Babe,

Glad the replies have been of help. Good luck with it all!

Chris

gobbyash

Boots Babe

Talk to your local newspaper. It's a great story (from a readers point of view) and who knows - some generous reader, and there are plenty of them out there, may come to your aid - seen it happen loads of times in the past.

Regards

gobbyash

stormCat99

bazza thanks for your suggestion. I have just looked on there but they don't fly to the airport we need - Ivalo. However, they do fly to Helsinki (albeit via Stockholm) for £126 return on our dates. So I might just find out about separate prices from Helsinki on to Ivalo.

I have to be honest I doubt this will be viable, as certain members of the family would be unable to endure an extended flight and 2 stopovers (Stockholm and Helsinki) instead of just one. BUT it is still worth investigating so we know all our options. It is nice to at least HAVE options So thanks very much for the suggestion, I will have to let you know what we end up doing...

stormCat99

Oh well bang goes that idea. The SAS flights arrive into Helsinki late at night and there are no connecting flights until the next day. Our guests certainly won't fancy an overnight stay in the airport. Good suggestion though, thanks.