Freedom Direct 'close to collapse'

apt

You can still book because, as indicated in previous posts, Hays Travel has taken over the staff and the assets. If you're looking to book with Freedom Direct it's worth comparing with sunshine.co.uk which is also run by Hays. I've found the latter to be cheeper sometimes, especially as you can get 7% cashback on accommodation on sunshine.co.uk through Topcashback, Quidco etc.

geoff_hulse

Just returned from being stranded in Mexico for 2 weeks thanks to Freedom direct. We arrived to find that all our transfers and Hotel reservation where cancelled. Lowcost beds stated that they cancelled our booking at the end of March as they had not received payment from FD. They said they didnt contact us as we were not their clients and they didnt have any contact details. We spent 5 days at hotel reception calling the UK at 3am waiting to see if we could stay. Ended up paying for everything again on the CC, then amazingly the Resort closed the very next day and they forced us to move to another resort 35 miles away in Playacar, this was due to the lack of businees as flights from the UK and elswhere had been cancelled (Swine Flu). So not only have we paid twice for everything we didnt even get to stay in the Resort we had booked ! They even started to close down the Resort they sent us too!! Cant believe we were not contact as we left on the 26th April after Hays had taken over. We had all the correct paperwork and confirmations, it wasnt even on the news before we left so how were we supposed to know !! Going for section 75 as it looks the best way.

splicecom

Im gutted! Was to be my first abroad holiday with my partner. Im 20 years old and it has took me ages to save up and pay for this holiday.
Thankfully we used my partners dad's credit card to pay for the holiday.

ABTA are saying that Holiday Brokers should honour the booking but they will not do. Just want to cry, I have really being looking forward to it!

Liz_M_3

I booked with FD and 'lost' my money. I love the way they make it sound like the money fell out of the MD's trousers down the back of the sofa!! Hays told me that if I wanted the holiday I would have to pay again. Which I did. Against my better judgement and because I was going with a group of people (who had the good sense not to book with these crooks). After 10 days of paying Hays I still had recieved no confirmation. I chased them. Again and again. Finally they told me that my accommodation had been cancelled by Med Hotels and that if I wanted the same hotel I would need to book through another company and pay an extra £90! Not only have I paid twice (over £900) but they wanted extra cash. After much arguing, they told me that hotel wasn't available at all! I have had to pay an extra £45 to stay in a two star hotel, my original hotel was three star.

I have written to watchdog and am trying to get a journalist friend to take this up. I will never book with Hays Travel, Teleticket (the biggest crooks of all) or Med Hotels again. Their customer service is appalling.

In future I will be booking all my holidays myself, cutting the travel agent out the loop altogether. Atol and Abta have been a disappointment too, I really don't understand why they exist?

I hope the travel industry suffers the same fate as the banking system. Bring them down!

ammer111

I got an e-mail from ABTA today saying as i booked on maestro debit card they are sending me a claim form! Anyone who paid on cc can claim a charge back from their bank, those like me who paid on a normal debit card Abta will "ensure refunds"

gnaril

Seen a lot of these at work.

please please please be careful in what you are doing. "MOst" of peoples flights are still ok as are usally paid to the airline upon booking, You are obliged still to travel which means you will have to rebook your accomodation and transfers again. If you paid on your credit card if you have to pay any more that what was origionally booked and its like for like you can cleaim the difference as consequential losses.

Your bank will assist with a bonded letter from the correct authority confirming contact your card issuer for reimbursment under section 75. Dont think shouting this out is going to speed things up, if there is a chargeback right then they will look to chargeback the funds to the merchants bank as 4859 rs1 services not received.

You will need to give a breakdown of your accomodation costs how you tried to resolve with merchant and a copy of your letter from ABTA/CAA.

I find a lot of people have thought they booked a "package" holiday however due to the cunning way freedom direct have conducted business they have broken it down with no ref to this so called package, meaning each element of the booking is seperate and not bonded with the relevant authority.

CAA got a huge backlog still dealing with stuff from XL airlines last year so i dont think this will be a quick resolution.

I feel for anyone caught up in this carry on its such a mess.

Good luck with anyone that has to claim

farahmclaren

Booked a holiday to Sharm el sheik leaving 5th July paying £3098.42 the full amount on 15th April 2009 - this covered flights, accomodation, transfers and insurance with Freedom Direct.

On 25th April I received aN email from Hays travel saying they had taken over and that my holiday would not be affected. - WHAT A LAUGH!!!!

On 29th April I receieved an email from Hays Travel saying my holiday was classified as a Cat C, their words Your flights and transfers are safe and we wont be out of pocket but unfortunately the amount paid for accomodation seems to be lost. But we have liased with your accomodation provider and we can rebook your accomodation for the original price that you paid. Unfortunately you will need to pay for the rebooked accomodation. I was distraught at this and I contacted Hays Travel and an advisor answered the phone by saying Good afternoon Freedom Direct How can I help you sorry I mean Hays Travel I asked her was she working for Freedom Direct she blatantly lied, sheassured me that our flights transfers etc were safe and that we could save our accomodation if we paid immediately. Silly me paid £1433.60 for the accomodation as we really wanted to go on holiday to this particular hotel on these dates.

On 9th May I received an invoice from Hays Travel requesting a payment of £1800.00 to pay for our flights as you can imagine this was the final straw for me. I rang up and spoke to some obnoxious girl who couldnt care less about how upset, angry and dissapointed we were I asked to speak to a manager who was very helpful and tried to resolve the situation by offering to transfer our accomodation money to Kiss flights and giving me 2 Weeks to find the balance for the accomodation, he even offered free transfers as a good will gesture. He assured me that he had spoken to Kiss Flights and that they had accepted payment and our flights were secure. Great I thought finally everything is ok we are getting somewhere. I think I may have been too hasty with my thankful thinking!!!

Today I contacted the same manager at Hays Travel who asked me had I spoken to any body since the 9th May I replied no as as far as we were concerned everything was as agreed, he asked me to contact Kiss Flights as they had not reserved our flights. So now I was having my 4th Major Heart Attack. I contacted Kiss flights who clearly informed me that no payment was received by either Freedom Direct or Hays Travel after speaking to Hayley at Kiss Flights I made a booking directly with them, she assured me that all would be ok and not to worry and that our tickets would arrive by Mid June.
I then spoke to a manager at Hays Travel requesting a refund of the outstanding balance as I would now have a shortfall of £311.00 they said they couldnt honour Freedom Directs accomodation price as it would eat into their profit margins, as you can imagine I wasnt happy reluctantly I have been offered £50.00 refund and free transfers, this has come from somebody higher than the manager. I asked how could I be sure that my accomodation would be paid for he assured me that it was and talked me through the Hays Travel web site to see my invoice on line - which I saw!!!

I also told him I was making a formal complaint as I felt Hays Travel had caused me even more stress than Freedom Direct as they had lied to me on 3 separate occasions

It makes me sick that Hays Travel are such money grabbing A****Holes trying to rip off innocent hard working people who have already been s*** upon by Freedom Direct may they all Reap what they sow as I am a firm believer in Karma!!!!!!

bfletty

Hi Everyone

We are in the same position as you we booked our FD holiday in January of this year and we leave for Turkey in July, we had no correspondence in regards to FD going under I was just lucky I phoned Thomas Cook that who we are flying with.
So I phoned the agent for the hotel company and they told us we would have to go through Hays Travel to rebook the accommodation which I did £1,300.00 later :mad: I got a letter from ABTA saying I have to claim my money through my bank I paid with a Visa Debit card and the bank filled out a debit card point of sale form.
Do you think I am doing the right thin here??? Or is there a easer way of getting your money back, Mickarich do you have the phone number you called for your Visa card?

Thanks

Brad

bfletty

hi everyone I got my money back :T

mmcgill

just a quick note to let everyone know, I have had a letter today from Egg confirming that they will be paying back the £429.02 that I had to pay because freedom direct went bust. So guys keep chasing those credit card companies for your section 75 cash