Zoom Airlines is in administration: How to get your money back

Pamplemoose_2

We also foolishly bought our Zoom airline tickets with our Nationwide Debit card ( visa) and have just started the process of "Chargeback" .

We have just received a letter from Nationwide this morning informing us that our account has been re-credited with the £900 paid for our tickets, for the moment and that they are taking it up with Zoom's bank.

The letter mentions that Nationwide reserves the right to re-debit our account with that sum if they do not get paid by Zoom's bank but that the matter should be considered closed if we do not hear from then within 120 days.

So far so good, but let's hope that Nationwide is successful otherwise we will have to carry on the fight.

I have to admit that we had always been under the impression that Zoom being an ATOL bonded company we would be safe anyway and only discovered when Zoom went into receivership that ATOL means nothing if you book direct with the airline. Not something ATOL publicises widely and I have seen many TV programmes where viewers have been erroneously told that ATOL was a sign of security. Quite misleading I think.

I am also appalled that people who might not be able to afford credit cards or prefer to pay cash ( what should be viewed by us all as being a far more responsible attitude towards money) are those who will suffer and are made to pay the price . I find it really quite disgusting that our only way to be safe is to pander to our debt friendly society of irresponsible borrowing...


I do hope the government and financial ombudsman can try and reform a system which benefit only those who favout credit over "real" money.

Thank goodness we paid by Visa debit card as we still have a chance of getting our money back...

I just feel dreadfully sorry for people who paid either in cash or by other debit cards.

I am also sorry for the staff at Zoom who will find it difficult to get other aviation jobs in this dire economic climate . And the people who were stranded. We managed to book alternative flights with Air Canada and leave next week , we were lucky as we are doing a home exchange with Canadians and they too managed to find alternative flights with Air Canada, though the flights were almost full when we booked.

I don't think I will ever use my debit card for anything anymore apart from small purchases and taking cash out...

A valuable lesson , learnt the hard way. I wish all the best to all those affected by this.

jenette

thanks have phoned GE Capital still no news and once again the call transfered to India even tho its an 020 number the agent did seem to understand my problem so hopefully I should get some action to get a refund.

Emanuel_2

i bought tickets with Zoom and paid around 2000 pounds via Solo debit card(NatWest) is there a chance i can get my money back?i went to my bank and they said that they can't help me ;-( please let me know what to do next.Thanx for your help :-)

conradmum

Pamplemoose wrote: »

We also foolishly bought our Zoom airline tickets with our Nationwide Debit card ( visa) and have just started the process of "Chargeback" .

We have just received a letter from Nationwide this morning informing us that our account has been re-credited with the £900 paid for our tickets, for the moment and that they are taking it up with Zoom's bank.

The letter mentions that Nationwide reserves the right to re-debit our account with that sum if they do not get paid by Zoom's bank but that the matter should be considered closed if we do not hear from then within 120 days.

So far so good, but let's hope that Nationwide is successful otherwise we will have to carry on the fight.

I have to admit that we had always been under the impression that Zoom being an ATOL bonded company we would be safe anyway and only discovered when Zoom went into receivership that ATOL means nothing if you book direct with the airline. Not something ATOL publicises widely and I have seen many TV programmes where viewers have been erroneously told that ATOL was a sign of security. Quite misleading I think.

I am also appalled that people who might not be able to afford credit cards or prefer to pay cash ( what should be viewed by us all as being a far more responsible attitude towards money) are those who will suffer and are made to pay the price . I find it really quite disgusting that our only way to be safe is to pander to our debt friendly society of irresponsible borrowing...


I do hope the government and financial ombudsman can try and reform a system which benefit only those who favout credit over "real" money.

Thank goodness we paid by Visa debit card as we still have a chance of getting our money back...

I just feel dreadfully sorry for people who paid either in cash or by other debit cards.

I am also sorry for the staff at Zoom who will find it difficult to get other aviation jobs in this dire economic climate . And the people who were stranded. We managed to book alternative flights with Air Canada and leave next week , we were lucky as we are doing a home exchange with Canadians and they too managed to find alternative flights with Air Canada, though the flights were almost full when we booked.

I don't think I will ever use my debit card for anything anymore apart from small purchases and taking cash out...

A valuable lesson , learnt the hard way. I wish all the best to all those affected by this.

I echo your sentiments entirely.

I don't want to give you false hope, but it may be some comfort to you to know that we were in the same position when Oasis went bust, and Nationwide recredited our account. I think 120 days have elapsed.

Unfortunately we couldn't claim for the cost of replacement flights, so this time round I've booked through an ATOL-bonded agent, insured our flights against airline insolvency, and paid a token amount over £100 with a credit card, as this seems to insure the total cost.

It's just so disappointing to miss out on a holiday you were really looking forward to.

scotia82

Does anyone know when the 120 day cut off regarding chargeback debit card claims starts from? Is it the date the transaction was completed or the date Zoom went into administration? I paid for my tickets back in March by debit card and was wondering if they might throw my claim out because page 456 of the Mastercard manual states;

"Chargeback - The issuer must send the chargeback within 120 calendar
days of the central processing date for intra-European
transactions and of the switch settlement date for

interregional transactions."

Scrambler

scotia82 wrote: »

Does anyone know when the 120 day cut off regarding chargeback debit card claims starts from? Is it the date the transaction was completed or the date Zoom went into administration? I paid for my tickets back in March by debit card and was wondering if they might throw my claim out because page 456 of the Mastercard manual states;

"Chargeback - The issuer must send the chargeback within 120 calendar
days of the central processing date for intra-European
transactions and of the switch settlement date for

interregional transactions."

Page 1 of this thread has a note saying that 120 days starts from time when purchaser knows that goods/services will not be provided.(not from time of transaction)
I also booked in March and am hoping above is correct!!

creps

huertasnuevas wrote: »

What evidence did you produce as evidence that Zoom has gone into liquidation?

I sent a copy of the note published on the BBC website saying that the airline had gone into liquidation + a printout of the airlines website with the notice that they had going into liquidation + a piece of paper I received from KPMG (the liquidators) in Hong Kong detailning the suitation and advising passengers that all further flights had been cancelled.

leaulvk

I contacted Egg Visa the day after our Zoom flight was supposed to fly and opened a case with their disputes team to try to recover the cost of the tickets. Yesterday I received a letter from Egg Visa asking for various bits of documentation to support my claim. For the most part this was what I would have expected. However there were 2 things in the letter that surprised me.

1. The cover letter had a paragraph as follows : "Please note that banks only have a limited period of time from the date of a transaction in which to dispute purchases with a retailer. If I haven't received all of the information from you within 10 days of the date of this letter, I'll assume you no longer want to pursue this matter and the case will be closed."
   Is this time restriction normal? More importantly, is it legal for them to impose such a restriction? Note that the date on the top of the letter was 9-September (Wednesday) so 10 days from the Wednesday would encompass 2 weekends.
2. The letter also included a declarations form which I was asked to sign. One of the declarations that I am asked to sign for is as follows : "I confirm that I've attempted to resolve this claim directly with the retailer or with the retailer's liquidator but have had no success."
   I have emailed the liquidator but have received no reply to date. It seems unlikely that I could possibly get any kind of resolution from the liquidator in the 10 days they've given me to complete the form and send it back to Egg. I also have no idea how I'd even go about claiming against the liquidator!

Interested to know if anyone else has had a similar experience with their credit card companies and for any legal beagles out there, whether their 10 day time limit can be enforced?

Thanks to all. This forum has been very educating!

nadinehill290771

Update on our Zoom crisis. I went to our bank, Natwest yesterday armed with all the relevant pieces of paper ( the cause from the Mastercard book) the e ticket, bank statements and printouts from here), I spoke to the banking manager, who said he couldn't give any advice on the Chargeback procedure etc as they had never handled anything like that before, he went away for a bit and came back and said he would be sending our details across to head office and we would hear in 48hours as to what would happen. Fingers crossed.. just wanted to keep you all in the picture.. may or you are in the same boat as me.. Maestro card payment.. out of pocket lots of money..

nadinehill290771

Just wondered if you ahve heard anything from the bank regarding your Chargeback application?? I did ours yesterday and the BM said we would hear in 48 hours.

Prudence101 wrote: »

I seem to have a provisional success story to report. I saw a Natwest branch manager today with a copy of my e-ticket, my bank statement, and a print out of the Mastercard policy (page 477 of http://www.mastercard.com/us/wce/PDF...anual_5_08.pdf). I said that I wished to initiate the chargeback procedure and cited reason 4855.

He printed and completed a Maestro Chargeback form, taking my debit card details and the transaction details. On the form he cited Chargeback Reason Code 4855. I did not need to do anything.

He said that the form will be sent to the Chargeback team and that they will process the document in the next 2-3 day. The manager stated that he expected me to receive my refund in 3-4 weeks.

I am cautiously optimistic. Thanks to everyone on the forum for their contributions.