Beware Ebookers.com Flights Website

PANWENHUA

Dear All

On Saturday evening 24th Feb my husband booked flights for 2 adults + 1 infant; Manchester to London Gatwick through a website https://www.ebookers.com. He went through the ususal procedure to book the flights and came to the page where he had to confirm the flights and costs. The total cost of the flights was GBP179. However, on that same page was three categories of travel insurance:

1. basic @ GBP15
2. normal @ GBP25
3. GOLD @ GBP38

My husband didn't want any insurance and didn't tick either of the three boxes. He next clicked on the button to make the payment and after about a minute the screen changed and confirmed his payment by visa had been approved. But...........the total was not for GBP179 but GBP179 + GBP38 for the GOLD insurance giving a grand total of GBP217!!. He immediately called the helpline telephone number (0800 telno call-centre in India) and the lady stated that the website software was at error and that they would refund the GBP38 within 2-3 days.

The next day (Sunday) my husband called the helpline and was told that it wasn't a website error but that on the section of the webpage indicating the three choices of insurance, there is a small box and it the customer doesn't tick the box, then the website automatically bills the customer for the most expensive insurance premium. In our case the GOLD premium of GBP38. He was also told that it will take 4-5 days to get the insurance premium refunded.

Today (Monday) my husband rang a different helpline number (0870) that was advertised as being located in the UK (when in fact India again!) and was told that it was his fault for not observing the small box that should have been ticked so as not to request the insurance. After a row with the call-centre operator, he was told that the repayment will now take 10 days. This is a scam and a method of increasing the money from a customer by (in my case) 21%. I suggest that people booking through this website should be aware of the scam being used and ideally should give this company a miss. I am not sure if and when I will get my GBP38 refunded. It took about a minute to take the money and now the latest timeframe for the refund is 10 days. This is a method of selling a product without the buyer being aware of the scam being prepetrated. We have bought lots of flight tickets before on the internet and have never been scammed like this before.

In the first call on Saturday evening the EBOOKERS operator did not want to make any refund of the insurance premium,

By the way, the insurance was labelled "European" and I was only travelling from Manchester to London within England! And was for the 11 day duration of my return flights.


Regards

photome

I have just looked at the booking form and got to the page you are talking about and it is quite clear that you have to select...no insurance option... a lot of other internet booking sites have the same type of system.

Having said that after they offered to refund you why did you them call on a daily basis, why not just wait for the refund that was promised.

To suggest Ebookers are trying to scam you is somewhat over the top

stratford_2

In addition to the above, you have to tick the box at the bottom saying that you agree to buy the insurance for the flight booking in order to continue. This does not appear if you select the no insurance option...

For example

---

Annual Multi Trip Gold365 daysWorldwide£ 79.00
No thanks, I don't want travel insurance.
Click here for more policies!Frequently Asked QuestionsCover Comparison

Please check the box to continue. I agree to buy the insurance cover that comes with this flight booking. I can confirm that all travellers to be insured are aged over 18 and under 65, have resided in the UK at a permanent address for the last 6 months, and have read and understood the terms and conditions of the travel insurance policy. (policy wording).

jaykay1_2

get your card company involved imo

I also think you have 7 days to cancel an insurance policy by law.

Sam_Bee

Ha ha ha!

I love ebookers threads in here. It's the ultimate Money Saving Expert Conundrum -

Saving a few pence here & there VS No customer service ever, please don't complain if anything goes wrong!

Most people go for the 1st option. If you weren't aware of ebookers reputation, I feel for you. It looks like it's not actually their fault here (although they obviously rely on money gained from insurance sold like this).

But I have no sympathy for those who are aware of their reputation.

And that's coming from an ex-ebookers employee!

budgetflyer

Sometimes Sam, the saving is more than a few pence. If you are a family of 4 or 5 ,a £50 per flight saving is £250 off the cost of a holiday.

All these companies cut costs to the bone, making extra profit on the add ons, especially insurance and car hire so they set many of these things as default.
I certainly dont think its a "scam".
Too many people are trigger happy. People need to be more careful booking online, check, check, and check again. Read the T&cs instead of just ticking the box in a hurry. Read how much you are CONFIRMING to pay.

Honestly, I get sick of Ryanair conned me, ebookers conned me, easyjet conned me etc etc. 99 times out of 100 no ones been conned, but its easier to blame the company than take responsibility for ones own carelessness

DampProof

Avoid 'ebookers' at all costs....

Successfully sued last year for miss-sold holiday.

PANWENHUA

Sam_Bee wrote:

Ha ha ha!

I love ebookers threads in here. It's the ultimate Money Saving Expert Conundrum -

Saving a few pence here & there VS No customer service ever, please don't complain if anything goes wrong!

Most people go for the 1st option. If you weren't aware of ebookers reputation, I feel for you. It looks like it's not actually their fault here (although they obviously rely on money gained from insurance sold like this).

But I have no sympathy for those who are aware of their reputation.

And that's coming from an ex-ebookers employee!

Thanks for your comments. I've never used Ebookers before and I didn't go to Ebookers to save a few bob. I had tried the BA website to book the flight and on 5 attempts it wouldn't accept my payment. I spoke with BA who would process my request and charge be GBP15 per passenger for the privelege. By that time it was 1am in the morning. I have never come across a website for flights before where I've had to tick a box to say I didn't want the extras. I had previously booked a flight on Oasis from Gatwick to HK and because I am traveling with a 7 week old and I needed to ensure that I could get the correct timing from Manchester to Gatwick. I had looked at other well-known websites but two others didn't have the flight times that I needed. Only BA and Ebookers had the required flight times listed on their websites. In any case. The window only showed my flight costs prior to clicking on the proceed button. The website did not show any cost for an automatically selected insurance until the payment had gone through and in my opinion that is rubbish - a scam. The reason why I don't give a hoot for the promise of repayment because three different call operators have given three different times for the repayment to appear on my visa card. Also, their fax number on their website is out of service.

Yes I made an error but from what I can see of some of the responses, ebookers is one to avoid and I will in future.