Too good to be true?

Errapolis

I was ready to book with dealofthedayholidays today after finding a great deal on icelolly. I read this thread earlier but after a pretty shabby experience, I thought i'd share how they tried to con us.

I called the company and asked what surcharges would be applied and the gentleman said there was added luggage charges, transfers and insurance, all optional of course. He detailed the prices of each, and we thought we'd arrange the latter two ourselves.

Happy with this he gave his name and number to call back, so I put money into my bank to pay for the holiday.

I called again an hour later and he took me through the booking process. We wanted one added baggage allowance and decided to arrange transfers ourselves (far cheaper on another website) as well as insurance.

He then explained there would be a debit/credit card surcharge which I thought was fairly commonplace, until he said it was £6 for my partner and I, both on outgoing and return flights - an additional £24 all in. Four charges for one transaction?

He then said there was a "late booking charge" of £20 per person due to the airline's T&C's - because we were booking 2 weeks before departure. He explicitly said the charge was viewable on the T&C's

So far, another £64 on top. Then another card charge (another £6 x2) for the hotel! £76 on top.

I asked which airline it was and explained it was Ryanair, and that the charges fell with them. Ryanair do have a £20 charge for ordering via a call centre but not for "late bookings" according to their chart on their site.

Then I clicked onto the fact he was conning us... Ryanair don't fly from Glasgow - only Glasgow Prestwick, and certainly not to the destination of our choice, Enfidha in Tunisia.

Thomas Cook have chartered flights each week on the day we wanted to depart.

My fiance called another company and booked it. The guy gave us the holiday for the same price, WITH insurance and transfers, and no "Ryanair" charges.

In fact, the transfer charges were £5 extra with a Thomas Cook holiday according to the company we booked with, while dealofthedayholidays wanted £27 each. Privately, it would have been £25 for us both.

Insurance was £10 each and we were happy with that price and to have it all arranged at once.

I certainly won't trust dealofthedayholidays again after today. Same holiday, hidden charges which turned out not even applicable to the airline/company we were travelling with, and attempting to add £44 to the cost of transfers had we agreed!

The way I see it, they tried to hit me with extra charges, told me it was in their T&C's (it wasn't, nor their parent company's), then lied about the airline to get more charges, and bumped up the transfer prices.

No, won't ever consider dealing with them again.

Errapolis

Just to add, the company we booked with (same holiday) was bookableholidays, also advertised on icelolly. Guy couldn't have been nicer and told us exactly what was being charged before going through the booking process.