Express Bookers

karenkearly

Expressbookers went into liquidation on Friday 10th August as it states ontheir website, i reported this back in May, how come they were still trading untilyesterday? Is this not fraudulent?

They also claim to be ABTA and ATOL members and are not! The public shouldbe protected against these companies ruining peoples holidays and taking moneyfrom them knowing they were bust, what can be done about this, someone needs to take direct action for this behaviour especially in these hard financial times?

Karen

karenkearly

Hi Mad Midget,

I have done some googling around and that sister company you mentioned"Click lettings" are based in the same street in the Isle of Man!their telephone number is +44(0)1624 829665 you can google their website bysearching for "click lettings iom"

I would call them direct and ask questions...

Or visit the Financial Crime Unit on their website (i am not allowed to postlinks but just google this "Cheque & Card Crime - Isle of ManConstabulary Financial Crime Unit" it comes up at the top of the page, andthey will help you out with any credit card wrong doings on the Isle of Man

Karen

AdrianA_2

Some useful replies here,hope everyone gets their holidays sorted or money back.

I booked with express bookers last year for orlando supposed to going sep 7th this year,heard the news they ceased trading yesterday so i contacted the hotel direct in orlando and was just informed today that our accomadation has been cancelled by express bookers.

Thomas cook are absoloutely useless! tried to phone them several times with our flight ref to see if it had been paid in full before express bookers went bump and all TC can tell me is there is a booking for me and my partner but can't tell me if it has been paid or not,Express bookers told me last week that it had been paid in full last week yet TC are not very helpfull at all,due to fly in 3 1/2 weeks,you would think that TC would delve deeper for stranded customers are supposed to be flying with them! !!!!!! off isn't the word.

dunnser

booked accomodation paid in full £913 for october in torremolinos. i paid by visa debit. am i covered?

contacted abta today they told me to ask my bank to get my money back, though they would deal with think, appears not so

mad_midget

Hi Karen thanks for the reply,i've been in contact with both the bank and abta,abta have advised that until the holiday reguarding the 1st payment has lapsed they are unable to act,as for the second payment being an unaurthorised payment i did have to get the aftersales dept at express bookers to acctually state the last four didgets of the account "Click Lettings" were due to refund.Fortunately they did email 8th confirming this,now in reciept i will be contacting the bank tomorrow,then hopefully one payment will be refunded,leaving us with 1 issue with abta and another hotel to find and pay for

karenkearly

Some serious questions need addressing with the owners of the company expressbookers ltd and travel experts ltd and abta, atol

1.Why did they use the abta logo when expressbookers or travel experts were not members of abta?

2.Why did they use the atol logo when expressbookers were not members of atol?

The use ofthese logos was to fool the public into thinking there holidays would be safe as they appeared to be members of abta & atol this was fraudulent, Surely atol and abta must do something here otherwise why should we trust abta and atol to protect our holidays ever again?

Ecom_2

Thank you all for the useful info as I have not been able to get through to them at all.
I also was advised that I would have received a refund followed by a second charge from a different company.

No refund so far. But the second charge came through.

My bank has advised that the refund is not coming and that I can chargeback the second charge as this was not authorised.

tamiami

They are not covered by ATOL so unfortunatey there will be no money coming back, only option is to chargeback on your credit card.

Alan_Bowen

They did have an ATOL licence until 30 March this year and if you booked before then, you may possibily have a claim if it was for a holiday including flights. However, there is something very strange here, the company that ABTA had in membership at that address was Travel Experts Ltd trading as Express Bookers (and that is the name that appears in small print at the bottom of their webpage) was only incorporated in the Isle of Man on 16th September last year and bookings before that date must have been with a different company. This may explain the story of unpaid overseas debts, the company could ignore them because they were now trading through a different legal entity which has no responsibility for the other company's debts.

ABTA did admit Travel Experts into membership, they must be one of the fastest failing companies in the history of ABTA, they didn't make it to the end of the first year, there are no accounts and the IoM Companies House records show the company as 'live' this morning, not in liquidation or anything else. There was a change to the directors in June this year which probably means the culprits wanted to be out of the records when the failure occurred.

I do not understand about ABTA claiming you have to wait to the date of the holiday before claiming your money back, if the only documents you have are from this company, and no confirmations received from anyone else, who do they think will be providing the holiday? ABTA has a bond for accommodation only bookings, not for anything involving flights and if your credit card company does not want to offer a cashback, push ABTA.

Click Letting operates from the premises next door to the travel agency, its registed office is however different but again there are no accounts to see what state the company is in. I very much doubt that one company is going to pay off the debts of another and if the money doesn't appear, I think contacting the IoM police is indeed the best advice.

karenkearly

There is a public notice in the Isle of Man Examinernewspaper this week (August 20th 2012) stating at an Extraordinary generalmeeting was held at Quay House, South Quay, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 5AR andthe following resolution was duly passed that Travel Experts LTD Reg No:126318C would be wound up voluntary by way of creditor’s voluntary liquidation andthat David Parker of Quay House, South Quay, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 5AR beand is hereby appointed liquidator for the purpose of such winding up.

In pursuance of the above notice is hereby given that thecreditors of Travel Experts LTD which is been voluntary wound up are required,on or before the 29th September 2012 to send their names and addresseswith particulars of their debts and claims, to the aforementioned liquidator ofthe said company, and if so required by notice in writing by the said liquidator,either personally or by their legal representatives to come in and prove their debts and claims atsuch a time and place as shall be specified in such notice, and in defaultthereof they will be excluded from the benefit of any distribution made beforesuch debts are proved

Dated 14th August 2012

David Parker ACMA, CGMA, Liquidator