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

conradmum

Woodyrocks wrote: »

Really sorry to hear the situation you are all in and I hope you get the desired results from the chargeback process and section 75 too.

Apologies for taking the thread on a tangent but quite worried about all the developments lately and how it is likely to effect me. If XL are also going down do you think Easyjet are also going to be closing shop in the next 3months? Bough plane tickets on a Maestro card yesterday but not due to fly out unti December and I know we shall not be covered if they go into administration

You can buy travel insurance from either swiftcover or the post office which will cover you for scheduled airline failure.

eddidaz

Seiken wrote: »

I got my money back from Bank of Scotland, I paid via a visa electron card. I phoned on the 28th of August and had the charges refunded on the 1st of September. One day after I sent them a snotty letter complaining which I feel really embarassed for. Hopefully they won't take the refund back!

Wow, that's impressive. I haven't heard anything from Halifax yet, after starting the Visa chargeback process on Monday.

Actually, after a fairly poor experience with RBS when I was one of their customers (years ago) I've been hearing increasingly good things about them recently.

tessa.vaz

Hi, the administrators have not yet been disclosed to the public but you can get notified with the below update. I tried the CAA.com they have a referral letter which can be used when submitting claims.

good luck

Any futher info, changes or successes about FlyZoom money back will go in the free weekly MoneySaving e-mail.

scotia82

Daisymabel wrote: »

The Mastercard/Maestro manual makes mention of this. I can't copy and paste the exact quote into here but you can find it at http://www.mastercard.com/us/wce/PDF/TB_CB_Manual_5_08.pdf

Annexe B, Page 465 Section B.2.11 is the relevant part as it's a really long document.

I'm no expert but some of you out there are. This makes specific reference to overseas e-commerce transactions where the goods or services are not delivered. If Zoom is a Canadian registered company, even though they have a sister company in the UK, does this constitute an overseas e-commerce transaction? If yes, from how I read it, those with Maestro cards can make a valid chargeback claim. It's also worth checking out the Chargeback section on the Wrapit website forums. The Financial Ombudsman is quoted there with regard to their position on Chargeback.

FYI, the claim has to be in within 120 days. Why not just put it in writing to your bank now and make sure they receive it ( by hand or signed for delivery). Along with the customers affected by Wrapit who have done a great job researching Chargeback, Zoom customers should not miss out on the 120 day cut off by waiting for the banks to make a decision.

I contacted my Maestro supplier (One Account) and they said that the Mastercard rule regarding chargeback is not valid from the UK, only North America. It seems the link provided contains excerts from the American Mastercard manual and these do not apply to the UK and therefore they will not process a form for me as they reckon I have no chance of success. Has anyone actually went down this avenue and been successful? I'm just wondering whether to pursue this or if it's not worth it.

JoseChungsDoomsday

You wont have any chance with a Maestro card.. it's probably a good thing a couple of UK banks are going away with it

PCollins_2

Dear Friends,

As mentioned in previous posts my family were stranded in Canada due to Zoom’s collapse and paid for the flights by Smile VISA debit card. Although my initial request for a refund was turned down, thanks to the advice in the forum I have today received a refund for the return Zoom flight (thank you to all who have mentioned the Chargeback scheme). However, I am still £1200 out of pocket since I had to fly back with Air Canada (even with their ‘kind’ offer of reduced flight prices).

I was shocked when I called my travel insurance company (Direct Travel Insurance – linked with AIG) to find they did not cover liquidation of an airline. I contacted them again today to explain our situation and I asked them to refer me directly where this is stated in my policy. I the section they directed me to it states both eventualities are covered and what is not covered. I then asked if they could quote the exact paragraph in the ‘not covered section’ which covers liquidation of an airline. They could not do so and simply kept standing (an obvious company statement) “if it is not written in the policy, it is not included”.

Could anyone with a little more legal knowledge than me give an idea of whether I have a case which I could take up with the FSA, or is this yet another way insurance companies can wriggle out of a claim.

Kind regards,

PCollins

conradmum

PCollins wrote: »

Dear Friends,

As mentioned in previous posts my family were stranded in Canada due to Zoom’s collapse and paid for the flights by Smile VISA debit card. Although my initial request for a refund was turned down, thanks to the advice in the forum I have today received a refund for the return Zoom flight (thank you to all who have mentioned the Chargeback scheme). However, I am still £1200 out of pocket since I had to fly back with Air Canada (even with their ‘kind’ offer of reduced flight prices).

I was shocked when I called my travel insurance company (Direct Travel Insurance – linked with AIG) to find they did not cover liquidation of an airline. I contacted them again today to explain our situation and I asked them to refer me directly where this is stated in my policy. I the section they directed me to it states both eventualities are covered and what is not covered. I then asked if they could quote the exact paragraph in the ‘not covered section’ which covers liquidation of an airline. They could not do so and simply kept standing (an obvious company statement) “if it is not written in the policy, it is not included”.

Could anyone with a little more legal knowledge than me give an idea of whether I have a case which I could take up with the FSA, or is this yet another way insurance companies can wriggle out of a claim.

Kind regards,

PCollins

I doubt you have a case, sorry. The vast majority of insurance companies do not include airline insolvency in their policies. I've just been trying to find a company that does this and I could only find two - swiftcover and the post office.

NFH

scotia82 wrote: »

I contacted my Maestro supplier (One Account) and they said that the Mastercard rule regarding chargeback is not valid from the UK, only North America. It seems the link provided contains excerts from the American Mastercard manual and these do not apply to the UK and therefore they will not process a form for me as they reckon I have no chance of success.

I disagree. The Chargeback Guide is clearly a globally-applicable document. See on page 477 "B.3.12 Intra-European Message Reason Code 4855—Goods or Services Not Delivered". "Intra-European" means the issuing bank and card acceptor are both in Europe. If this document applied only to North American cards, then it would not mention intra-European transactions.

Scrambler

NFH wrote: »

I disagree. The Chargeback Guide is clearly a globally-applicable document. See on page 477 "B.3.12 Intra-European Message Reason Code 4855—Goods or Services Not Delivered". "Intra-European" means the issuing bank and card acceptor are both in Europe. If this document applied only to North American cards, then it would not mention intra-European transactions.

I agree it is set out as a Global Document.
Page5 of the Guide states that Appendix B applies to "Europe region members" only and it is Appendix B that covers Chargeback procedures.
Another possibilty is that Zoom could be registered as an "Overseas" (Canadian) company. Their invoices are issued from Ottawa.
If so Chargebacks seem to be covered by Section B 2.11 (Page 465) Intra-Regional transactions.
Initially RBS were insistent that Maestro Chargebacks were not applicable.
Subsequently and as suggested elsewhere on the thread I delivered a letter requesting them to raise a Chargeback claim. I attached copies of the above relevant sections of the Guide together with a copy of the BBC Working Lunch website page that quoted Maestro as saying that "UK cardholders ordering goods online from an overseas website have a right to a refund if the goods do not arrive"
I asked that they sign for receipt of the letter and after internal discussion
they said that they would now inititiate a Chargeback claim and I await their further response.
Perhaps a small step forward!!

creps

Hi there,
I recently faced the same predicament as I was left stranded in China when my flight back to the UK with Oasis Hong Kong was cancelled after the airline went into liquidation...
I was forced to by return tickets with another airline at an extra cost of £750 without receiving any compensation from Oasis.
When i got back home, I turned to the MSE forums in search of help and while all the posts and information were extreemley valuable, I was kinda hoping to find a template i could use to claim money back from my credit card. Unfortunately i was unable to find any so I wrote the following brief letter to my credit card instead. While this might not be the most elegantly written letter, it received no pushback and it got me a positive reponse within 3 days and full refund of incurred additional expenses within a couple of weeks. Hopefully it'll be of use to anyone else wishing to claim...

Acct: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Attn: Dispute Department
To whom it may concern,

On 09/02/08 I purchased two return flights from London to Hong Kong with the flight operator Oasis Hong Kong. The flights were paid with my xxx credit card, with transaction number xxxxxxxxxxx and reference xxxxxx. My partner and I made the first leg of the journey from London to Hong Kong on the 8th of April 2008. Our return flights to London were booked for the 24th of April 2008, however upon arrival to Hong Kong we were informed that on that same day (the 9th of April 2008) the airline had gone into liquidation and as a result all future flights had been cancelled. (see appendices A, B and C for proof that the Airline went into liquidation. See also appendix F for the original time schedule for the return flights) - :exclamati Note that I included copies of these documents as evidence to support my claim.

As a result of this I had to purchase alternative one-way flights to return to London incurring in additional expenses. These flights were purchased from XXXX Airlines on the x of April 2008 at a price of £xxx each for a total of £xxx (See appendices D and E for proof of purchase of these tickets.)

Under the Consumer Credit Act of 1974, I would like to claim compensation from (insert bank or credit card issuer) on the basis of unfulfilled contract, for the amount of £xxx(insert total), previously described. I would appreciate a prompt resolution to this matter and credit of the outstanding monies to my credit card account.
If you require further information, don’t hesitate to contact me.


So that's it, note that i used a mastercard to pay for my flights however Visa and other credit card issuers operate under the consumer credit act.
Good luck with your claim!