un Fareshop.co.uk!!!!!

DianeHenton

Warning to users. Do not use the on line travel agent fareshop.co.uk
I paid for and was sent a confirmation e-mail with flight confirmation numbers for a United airline flight to Newark. Only to be advised 36 hours later that the price had increased by nearly 100 pounds. The staff were abusive and did not return my calls. I contacted United airlines directly with my confirmation numbers and they had nothing on their system under my name. Beware. If a deal is too good to be true it probably is.

jpsartre

DianeHenton wrote: »

I contacted United airlines directly with my confirmation numbers and they had nothing on their system under my name.

Your ticket couldn't be booked at the originally quoted price so that's to be expected. Has the money actually been charged from your card? When booking through 3rd parties, prices are never guaranteed since these companies do not have live access to all prices.The reputable ones won't charge your card until the price is confirmed, the dodgy ones don't care. Generally, you should never assume your booking is confirmed until you receive a confirmation/booking number from the airline. Of course, you can also choose to avoid the hassle and just book direct from the airline which is what I usually recommend.

DianeHenton

Hi

Fareshop charged my credit card for the full amount and sent me a booking confirmation e-mal with a United airline confirmation number. After a day and a half the monies had not come off my credit card so I phoned United and they had the booking reference but in another passenger's name. If I had not contacted fareshop it would have been days before I found out the confrmation was not worth the paper it was written on.

jpsartre

In that case, I guess I should have added 'never assume your booking is confirmed until you receive a confirmation/booking number from the airline and have verified the booking number is genuine'

I take it then that your money has since come off your card and that fareshop now wants more? And that the booking number returns an error message if you use it to look up your reservation on United's website? If so, I would ask to cancel the booking. If they refuse, you need to get in touch with your creditcard provider to dispute the original charge. It should not be an issue since it sounds as if you have not received what you paid for.

Eric_Twinge

I'm in the exact same position.

We have booked flights (and paid in full) with this company but after reading some concerned reviews regarding the poor attitude and service we contacted the airline to confirm our seats and details.

Fareshop had indeed opened the booking with the airline but had failed to provide payment and therefore the seats were not ticketed and the booking had expired.

We have attempted to contact Fareshop on several occasions through the telephone number provided on the booking confirmation; however we are greeted by a recording of a man continuously saying "hello, hello, I cannot hear you". We have also emailed them but they have failed to respond. Their website is now off-line.

This is disgusting; we have booked a hire car and hotels for our trip but have no flights. Can anyone advise on this kind of situation?

Alan_Bowen

Be very careful, a search of the CAA's website shows no business trading under the name fareshop.co.uk. This probably means the business is based overseas and the disappearance of the web site is not a good sign. Anyone claiming to be an agent currently has the capacity to create a booking reference but until it is ticketed, the airline will not honour it. Only IATA accredited agents can ticket on behalf of an airline and if they do not do so immediately, they must issue an ATOL Certificate. I suspect this may be not be an innocent error, contact your card issuer and seek a chargeback immediately

Eric_Twinge

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

Be very careful, a search of the CAA's website shows no business trading under the name fareshop.co.uk. This probably means the business is based overseas and the disappearance of the web site is not a good sign. Anyone claiming to be an agent currently has the capacity to create a booking reference but until it is ticketed, the airline will not honour it. Only IATA accredited agents can ticket on behalf of an airline and if they do not do so immediately, they must issue an ATOL Certificate. I suspect this may be not be an innocent error, contact your card issuer and seek a chargeback immediately

Thanks for your response.

We have contacted our Credit Card Company who have investigated our claim and have declined a refund. They have advised us that they are not in a position to consider a refund or investigate any further dispute until after the flight date.

This doesn't help our situation.

Alan_Bowen

You need confirmation from the airline that the reservation has not been ticketed and the booking has therefore lapsed. Most 'cheap' tickets have a 48 hour deadline to ticket after which the booking automatically cancels.

Eric_Twinge

I have spoken to the Airline and they will be sending written confirmation that we are not ticketed as per booking provided.

I have reiterated this to the C/C Company who still won't budge. Apparently the merchant banker in which they apply to for the refund will not entertain any return until after the proposed flight date has passed.

Do you think Trading Standards may be able to help?

Alan_Bowen

It is worth a try but their powers can be limited, particularly if the company is not based in the UK. Do you have an address for them anywhere as TS operate a 'home authority' system which means if you complain in London and they are based in Manchester,they get Manchester to go and investigate. The problem is TS have been starved of funds and if the problem is based on an overseas company, they will probably simply advise you to have another go at the CC company.

When you complain to your bank, they always send the request for refund to the company's CC processor, if they know the client (travel agent) has done a runner, they may try and delay payments by using the excuse of ' well they might issue the ticket before travel' but if you have no ATOL Certificate they have broken the law.

One other point of contact might be the CAA who may know of other customers in a similar position, the consumer helpline is 020 7453 6424

Eric_Twinge

Thanks again for the advice.

They do have an ATOL license. I have spoken to the CAA who are looking intothe matter, although they did advise that any action can only be takensubsequent to the flight date.

Their address of business is based in London and there are four otherbusiness names, all related to travel, operating from the same address; most ofthe websites are down and they Fareshop website has now been completely removed.

I shall attempt to contact TS but I'm not holding my breath.