xcapewithus

Head-Out-Of-Sand

Oh I didn't get any email off them BTW, just found out by logging on to check the booking. Charming.

buglawton

Head-Out-Of-Sand wrote: »

...Have got Natwest to send me out a new card so that they wouldn't be able to claim it using the old card number...

Careful, they can take if from the old cancelled card and he debt gets added to new card, unless you've confirmed with the card co that this cannot happen.

dizzyliz

pintofmilk wrote: »

A comment has just been added to the sletoh Xcapewithus blog post that I believe is from an ex-employee of the company.

Andrew Miles apparently set up Zero Hotels Ltd in November 2008 to run alongside Xcapewithus. Company has same registered office in the UK as Xcape - the office of accountancy firm A C Photi Ltd. Looks like zero hotels might be the next rip off company to come from Andrew Miles. Avoid at all costs.

If you have any information on failed travel companies and their directors, please post here / send to me via sletoh dot com contact page. I am gathering information on Xcape, Reserveahotelonline, Freedom, Winter Sunshine Travel and any others that you have info on. I believe it's essential that consumers know who is behind a company before paying money to them. The travel industry is too easy a target for crooked directors who have no intention of honouring bookings. It seems to easy for accountants / administrators to wind these businesses up and leave consumers short changed whilst the directors enjoy their ill-gotten gains.

thanks pint of milk! :beer: makes me feel less guilty for what i said earlier that someone commented on.

as for MaFT comment:mad: - i dont accuse lightly! im annoyed that LOTS of people have been brought down in this and how can they keep all their money, and as for woolworths - they wouldnt have let all these people down on purpose - no!

it all seems a bit fishy and as for loosing money& a holiday i am entitled to think so! especially when you think you paid for it months ago.

#57 MaFt
MoneySaving Newbie


Join Date: May 2009
Post Count: 5
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post



Quote:
Originally Posted by dizzyliz
!!!!!!.
they have done this on purpose! - can nothing be done about it - its wrong, ok ive lost my money, i still have my flights, but this copany should be dealt with!!

yes yes, companies make themselves bankrupt on purpose cos they love having to lay off loads of staff and annoy customers and of course the CEO's love being jobless and having the weight of an entire company collapse on their shoulders...

be realistic here. yes it's crap and i've lost money too, but these things happen. woolworths went bust, did you accuse them of doing it on purpose?!

Quote:
Originally Posted by withabix
They are also ABTA members, unlike Xcapewithus, who were just money grabbing charlatans.

again, i feel that's a but harsh. i'd not heard of xscapewithus.com before i booked out first full family holiday november last year - i did my research and found a majority of good reviews. even people in this thread have commented on what a good company they were. going on what other users of xcapewithus.com had said i decided to book it. had i got even a hint of them being 'money-grabbing charlatans' i'd not have bothered booking.

MaFt

[EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com?subject=Reporting post http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=21264323"][/EMAIL]

Special_T

Hi

We too booked with Xcape with us and had paid by debit card. Following the instructions I applied for a charge back a couple of weeks ago and notice today that I have recieved the money back in my account :j(although no letter as yet). Claimed via Lloyds TSB.

We have booked alternative accommodation (unfortunately the hotel we had booked had gone up £150 :eek: so we booked another hotel via last minute and managed to get a good deal).

Thanks to everyone for their threads - without which I wouldn't have known that xcape with us had gone into adminstration (they never bothered to email and advise :mad:) or about the charge back procedures.

Cheers!!!:T

lulupots

redtriumph955i wrote: »

Hello every one , this is my first time using this site so lets see how it goes

i wonder if anyone out there can help me with a problem i have with regard to claiming back my money from "xcapewithus" now that they have ceased trading.

I booked holiday accommodation with "xcapewithus" for £298 in Portugal, Xcapewithus sent me an e-mail to say that the booking had been confirmed. On 01st May 2009 i received another e-mail from Xcapewithus to say that they had ceased trading and that my holiday accommodation had now not been honoured.

I contacted my travel insurance company, Direct Line, to ask if i was covered under their policy to claim back a full refund, but unfortunately i was not and therefore could not make a claim through them.

I paid for the holiday accommodation with my Halifax Visa Debit card, so i contacted the Halifax Bank to ask if i could claim a full refund through them, as i always thought if by paying via a Visa Debit i would be covered if anything like this happened !!, But Halifax told me that i was not covered and therefore could not make a claim from them ??

I have also contacted Xcapewithus to ask if i could claim back my money from them but they tell me it is very unlikely.

I know £298 might not sound much to some people, and write it off as a bad mistake, but its a lot of money to me and also i don't think any company should be allowed to take your money in this way.

Is it possible for you to give me some advice on how i can try and reclaim my money back ??

Do you know of any one who i can contact to help me with my claim ?

Any help you could give me on this matter would be great.

Thanks a lot for your time

cheers Steve.

Hi Steve,

I had the same problem, we booked a holiday to Salou for our daughters 21st birthday in june, we paid with our LLoyds TSB Visa debit card. (£1038)

When I received the e-mail from xcape with us informing me that that had gone bust I phoned my bank and ask if I had any comeback, initially I was told NO, I also went into my local branch but was told that I can't get a refund on a debit card. However like yourself I was not happy with that as I felt like someone had robbed me and nobody cared or wanted to help. I kept phoning my Lloyds TSB helpline and finally got someone who told me that I CAN get a full refund under the " VISA Debit CHARGEBACK SCHEME"

I wrote a letter explaining what had happend, and had to include copy's of my bank statment with the xcape with us transactions, the original holiday booking with the costs, the e-mail informing me that they have seized trading, a copy of the e-mail informing me that the booking is not honoured.

I believe that Halifax uses the same "VISA DEBIT CHARGEBACK SCHEME" as LLoyds TSB.

I would keep phoning or better still go into your branch and speak to someone about the above mentioned scheme, and demand your money back.

The good news is that I did get a full refund from Lloyds TSB, they received my letter on the 12th May and the money was refunded in full on the 27th May:j
Iris

Swinnie

After reading various threads on this I thought I would try and get my money back through paying via switch to a foreign company, well guess what Natwest have just phoned and even though they are based in Spain they have a bank in the UK becuase on the statements it is paid in Sterling and not Euro:mad:, So Travel Insurance say no and so do Natwest, gonna try the Financial Ombudsman next see if that gets me anywhere.

blacknred

natwest are the biggest crooks, considering we had to help them out to stop them from going bust they treat customers like S**T i also paid through switch and guess what natwest say im not covered so i have sent everything to the financial ombudsman, theyve got a big backlog atm and are dealing with cases that they received at the start of may, but they promised me when i spoke to them on the phone today that they have everything i sent them and they will deal with it.I have a private and business account with natwest and im going to switch my business account to the abbey coz of free banking forever whereas natwest charge me almost £300 a year i will point out to them that as they didnt refund my holiday payment ( £375.00 ) they can kiss my AS* and loose over £300 a year from business charges theyre the loosers in the end

withabix

dizzyliz:

I consider Xcape to be 'money grabbing charlatans' as they chose, in this financial climate, NOT to take part in any travel industry customer-protection scheme OR set up their own insurance-backed scheme.

Why?

Because they wanted to cream off all of the money for themselves.

I would personally recommend www.travelrepublic.co.uk - they are full ABTA members, which protects you if Travelrepublic go bust and they provide a free insurance scheme with all bookings, which covers you if the travel provider, hotel, car hire company, etc etc goes bust.

More info here: http://www.travelrepublic.co.uk/help/totalFinancialProtection.aspx

[I have no connection with them - I just find them to be a good example and use them regularly]

As Alekzander the Meercat would say: 'Simples'

Head-Out-Of-Sand

buglawton wrote: »

Careful, they can take if from the old cancelled card and he debt gets added to new card, unless you've confirmed with the card co that this cannot happen.

Thanks Buglawton - I checked and they said that they wouldn't be able to...not 100% convinced, but not sure what else I can really do, aside from switching my bank account! The scoundrels.

Well, I've re-booked through travel republic, as I'd paid for the flights separately. It's cost us another £100 each, which is a bummer, plus the £75 we'd already lost, but I know the hotel we're going to is lovely so I'm prepared to bite the bullet on that one. Really annoying though.

Feel terrible for people who've paid the full amount and lost it, it really sucks.

rio_67

for anyone still having problems with visa chargeback i will post this again . take this to your branch . i have recevied my refund and educated the bank http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/nov/09/halifax-visa-chargeback-debit-cards