Holiday gems

p.larsen

I have booked a family holiday with the company Holiday Gems through their website. The price for our family, 2 adults and 2 kids came to £950 I have given through all the options and ensured all was covered and paid the extra for the transfers and the extra luggage, I received a call 4 days later to tell me they are charging an extra £70 per person total £280 to cover for the holiday, I argued the case and told them that was not what they have quoted me on their website, I asked to them to cancel the booking they said they will charge me a fee for that, I called my bank to stop the payment, my bank said that Holiday Gems took the full funds plus £280 two days before they actually called me first to advise about the unfair and unjustified price increase by almost £300, I asked to speak to a manager, no one called me back, they refunded me however charged me cancellation fee of £46 as they said they have already booked the room for me but when I asked the agent I was told no reservation was made yet, absolute crooks, I will never book with them and again and definitely don't advise anyone to, its illegal to quote a price online and then with no authorisation help themselves to take extra money before they actually admitted to, worst experience ever.

p.larsen

I have booked a family holiday with the company Holiday Gems through their website. The price for our family, 2 adults and 2 kids came to £950 I have given through all the options and ensured all was covered and paid the extra for the transfers and the extra luggage, I received a call 4 days later to tell me they are charging an extra £70 per person total £280 to cover for the holiday, I argued the case and told them that was not what they have quoted me on their website, I asked to them to cancel the booking they said they will charge me a fee for that, I called my bank to stop the payment, my bank said that Holiday Gems took the full funds plus £280 two days before they actually called me first to advise about the unfair and unjustified price increase by almost £300, I asked to speak to a manager, no one called me back, they refunded me however charged me cancellation fee of £46 as they said they have already booked the room for me but when I asked the agent I was told no reservation was made yet, absolute lies:mad:, I will never book with them and again and definitely don't advise anyone to, its illegal to quote a price online and then with no authorisation help themselves to take extra money before they actually admitted to, worst experience ever.

DCFC79

p.larsen wrote: »

I have booked a family holiday with the company Holiday Gems through their website. The price for our family, 2 adults and 2 kids came to £950 I have given through all the options and ensured all was covered and paid the extra for the transfers and the extra luggage, I received a call 4 days later to tell me they are charging an extra £70 per person total £280 to cover for the holiday, I argued the case and told them that was not what they have quoted me on their website, I asked to them to cancel the booking they said they will charge me a fee for that, I called my bank to stop the payment, my bank said that Holiday Gems took the full funds plus £280 two days before they actually called me first to advise about the unfair and unjustified price increase by almost £300, I asked to speak to a manager, no one called me back, they refunded me however charged me cancellation fee of £46 as they said they have already booked the room for me but when I asked the agent I was told no reservation was made yet, absolute lies:mad:, I will never book with them and again and definitely don't advise anyone to, its illegal to quote a price online and then with no authorisation help themselves to take extra money before they actually admitted to, worst experience ever.

You do realise you posted the same back in April ?

Did you not see the last post was yourself ?

Smudgerbug

Gob Smacked!

I have been unable to afford to take my family on holiday for a few years now but this year, I decided that we will manage and make it work financially.

My Daughter's Birthday is in October so I thought it would be nice if I could take my family (Wife and 2 children) on an all inclusive holiday. I stopped by Holiday Gems' website and found a holiday for the four of us for a certain price which was very competitive. I went though all the options online and added some extras. No where did it mention luggage costs nor did the website give me an option for adding any luggage therefore, I assumed that luggage was included. That said, I did try phoning the number on the website to verify this, however, they were closed. I wanted to secure this holiday therefore proceeded to order it, taking advantage of a £60 discount by ordering online.

I came to the final part of the process online and ordered it, giving my Credit Card details, opting to pay the full amount.

The following day, I received an email from their company stating the following,

"Hi

Thank you for your recent online order for a holiday.

I have been unable to contact you on the telephone numbers provided.

Please can you contact me asap to discuss the booking on the number below, or email me with a better time to call?

Kind regards"

Basically, I replied via email stating that I had no missed calls on either my landline or my mobile, nor did I have any voicemails, therefore, if they should try again.

About 20 minutes later, 'Toky' phoned me, informing me that they had not tried calling but they sent an automated email saying that they had! Straight away, this made me think that this company were a bit unprofessional. This telephone call went downhill pretty dang quick.

Toky started off by explaining that the prices had gone up for the flights by £25 pp, each way. Effectively, the price was going up £200.

He then stated that I would also have to pay a ridiculous amount for luggage, despite this not being mentioned at all on their website.

Toky continued talking over me which agitated the hell out of me. He just would not listen but spoke AT me. The more he spoke, the more irate I got. I pointed out how he was speaking over me but he continued to do so, trying to explain himself and defend the company. There was no empathy or understanding as to why I was disgruntled.

As far as I am concerned, I was given a price for a holiday, I paid for it (although no money had been transferred) and now he was upping the price.

It appears as if they are a company which gives you a price for a holiday which is very competitive but this is just to lure you in so that they can then up the price and expect you to fall for it and pay up. No, not this call sign!

The ironic thing is that Toky also told me that I shouldn't have booked online and that I should have called them to make the booking. This would have negated any complications. I mean, why not book online? After all, they were not answering the phone and they were offering a £60 discount for online bookings.

The conversation got quite heated and even then, Toky would not listen but just continued to speak over me and quote various parts of their policies, which in my opinion are a contradiction in itself.

I asked to speak to his manager because quite clearly, he was unable to listen but he denied me this right.

There was no way on God's earth was I going to purchase a holiday from this idiot! I would rather go to a more professional company and pay several hundreds more than to give this clown my money.

That was exactly what I did. I told Toky to cancel everything and to remove all of my details from his database as I would not be proceeding any further.

I then went and booked a holiday with a different company.