Ticket deposit refund!

Kaybenson

Hello guys,

What right do i have in the following scenario?

I rang up a travel agency i saw online. The man reserved ticket for us. he asked me for deposit which i pay by bank transfer. He asked me to pay the balance by flying date for him to issue eticket. Just after 4 days, i rang him to pay up then he started playing some games. He then send an email to me informing me that the ticket had expired and my deposit gone. I was devastated. He then told me to add 200 pounds to the original agreed price else i will lose the deposit. Since i am going for a funeral, i have no option but to buy from another agency and go. I just came back NOW. How can i get my deposit from this agent?

I have rang ABTA and TTA but the agent do not register with them. I have gone to the address but it was a service address.

What can i do?

Thanks.

shaun_from_Africa

It sounds like you are going to have a very hard, if not impossible task to get your money refunded.

The first thing you must do is to go to your local police station and report it. They may try to fob you off but you should insist that the person you sent the money to committed fraud and that you want it recorded.

Give the police the bank details of where the money went and hopefully if this has happened to more people they may start to investigate it.
I think that they will have to obtain a court order to find out the address that the bank account is registered to, and if they do this they may take it further.
If not, and you can get the name and address then private legal action will be your only option bearing in mind that this could take a long time and even if you win, doesn't guarantee that you get you money back.

What was the name of the travel agency?

arcon5

This reminds me of quite a popular scam...

- somebody rings you 'your loan has been approved, we just need to an admin fee to process the application'.
- you pay the fee
- sir, the underwriter have come back to us and said they need a further £150 to guarantee the transfer within 24hours. They can't transfer it otherwise.
- you reluctantly pay, and worse via western union.
- cycle follows with different waffle untile eventually you get wise and by which point the money is gone.

Kaybenson

the name is La flight finders ltd.

shaun_from_Africa

Is this the address that you have?

LA FLIGHT FINDERS LIMITED
221-225 TEMPLE HOUSE
STATION ROAD
HARROW
UNITED KINGDOM
HA1 2TH
Company No. 07717114


If you go to the Companies house website, you can buy a copy of the company incorporation records for £1.
I don't know exactly what they contain, but I would have thought that it would have the directors and shareholders names which would at least give you something to start with if you were considering legal action.

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/00e1509e5107dac0ef29d16ae0eb0578/basket

Kaybenson

The address is a service address. They are NOT physically there but their telephone numbers are working.


cheers

Kaybenson

A friend of mine advised me to check who is? In that i got to know their real name which is [FONT=&quot]Madre Travel Ltd.

I put that into google and came out with a shock. They are perennial fraudster

http://fraudwatchers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=49846

I cant believe such companies operate in UK.

Pls advise.
[/FONT]

pinkshoes

Did you report it to the police as advised?

soolin

Bank transfer? OP, you are probably not thinking straight due to a family bereavement but did you not think it odd that a legitimate travel agent would expect you to pay for something using a completely unsafe payment method?

Scum bags scammers like these operate everywhere, they need to as virtually no one will fall for these scams any more so they have to spread themselves out thinly just to find the few people who will still fall for it. Even if police do get involved they will probably be long gone, the bank account closed and a new one and a new operating name opened.

Kaybenson

i have not report to police.

I will in the next few days.

wealdroam

Kaybenson wrote: »

i have not report to police.

I will in the next few days.

But it is now over three weeks ago, on 18 September, that you were advised to report the issue to the police.