Can I issue a chargback for this?

JoeS88

Hi,

I purchased a flight via Expedia on a Visa Debit card in Febuary. We were going to go to Iceland to see the northern lights. We found that the weather had become very bad and there was 0% chance of us seeing anything. We called up Expedia and were told that we could re-schedule the flight for £30 a head. We told them that we wanted to do this and we were not told about any kind of deadline for re-scheduling the flights. We then called back and were told that since the flight had gone we could no longer re-schedule it and they could only give us the taxes back.

I'm begining the process of taking them to small claims court but I've just read about the possibility of issuing a chargeback request. Does this fall under the category of faulty goods/services?

Thanks,

Joe

bris

You have no rights now so no point in doing anything.

The problem you have is that you still had tickets for the original flight, tickets they could not resell because you still had valid tickets for a flight you missed, how were they to know you didn't change your mind.

You can't expect them to let you reschedule a flight without first giving them the opportunity to sell the original seats.

vuvuzela

JoeS88 wrote: »

Hi,

I purchased a flight via Expedia on a Visa Debit card in Febuary. We were going to go to Iceland to see the northern lights. We found that the weather had become very bad and there was 0% chance of us seeing anything. We called up Expedia and were told that we could re-schedule the flight for £30 a head. We told them that we wanted to do this and we were not told about any kind of deadline for re-scheduling the flights. We then called back and were told that since the flight had gone we could no longer re-schedule it and they could only give us the taxes back.

I'm begining the process of taking them to small claims court but I've just read about the possibility of issuing a chargeback request. Does this fall under the category of faulty goods/services?

Thanks,

Joe

What was the timescale between you asking about rescheduling and the original flights taking place ? Why did you not reschedule the flights before the original one was due to take place ?

To be honest, the case you mention seems to fall under no category for a chargeback.

JoeS88

I might have not explained myself correctly. We called them about 48 hours before the flight and told them that we would not be flying and would like to re-schedule. I'd imagine that they would have had sufficient time to sell the seats on.

Joe

InsideInsurance

You have to remember what a chargeback is and how it works.

In massively over simplified terms, before someone correct me, your bank sends a message to their bank saying give us back the money because of X,Y,Z (normally heavily abbreviated). Their bank passes it to them and they have 2 working days to respond. If they dont respond (which frequently happens) and assuming they have enough funds in their account then the money gets sent back to you.

The banks system however creates no form of precedence at all though. If the company feel you owe the money they can litigate against you to get a CCJ to recover their funds. The fact the banks repaid you means nothing in the court case

The question comes down to if you would rather get the money and see if they litigate against you or if you'd rather be the one in control of court action.

vuvuzela

JoeS88 wrote: »

I might have not explained myself correctly. We called them about 48 hours before the flight and told them that we would not be flying and would like to re-schedule. I'd imagine that they would have had sufficient time to sell the seats on.

Joe

So did you actually reschedule before the flights took off ? If not, they are well within their rights to assume you had decided not to reschedule and therefore were going to get the flight.

System

JoeS88 wrote: »

I might have not explained myself correctly. We called them about 48 hours before the flight and told them that we would not be flying and would like to re-schedule. I'd imagine that they would have had sufficient time to sell the seats on.

Joe

48 hours to resell flights to Iceland does not strike me as being "sufficient time". I doubt many people want want to book flights so late notice?

I suspect you'll lose in court.

bris

vuvuzela wrote: »

So did you actually reschedule before the flights took off ? If not, they are well within their rights to assume you had decided not to reschedule and therefore were going to get the flight.

Thats the whole point, they didn't reschedule leaving them with valid tickets, tickets that could have been used on the day. They won't get anywhere with this one.

JoeS88

InsideInsurance: Thanks for the reply. I'm currently weighing up the costs and time involved in taking them to small claims court. The amount is only £500 so I doubt that they would issue any kind of CCJ and if they did then I believe that I have a solid case. So do you think that my bank would accept this as a valid reason for a chargeback?

Vuvuzela: We didn't reschedule before the flight took off but we were not told that we needed to. We told them that we were not going to be flying on the day and wanted to re-schedule but needed to do some research in to the best time to see the northern lights. They said that was fine, that there would be an admin fee of £30 per person and to callback once we had decided when we wanted to go. After doing the research we called back and were told that we could no longer re-schedule the flight.

My point is that we made it explicitly clear that we would not be flying and the expedia representitive should have told us that we had to callback within a certain timeframe, if he had told us this then we would have succesfully rescheduled the flights.

Joe

vuvuzela

JoeS88 wrote: »

InsideInsurance: Thanks for the reply. I'm currently weighing up the costs and time involved in taking them to small claims court. The amount is only £500 so I doubt that they would issue any kind of CCJ and if they did then I believe that I have a solid case. So do you think that my bank would accept this as a valid reason for a chargeback?

Vuvuzela: We didn't reschedule before the flight took off but we were not told that we needed to. We told them that we were not going to be flying on the day and wanted to re-schedule but needed to do some research in to the best time to see the northern lights. They said that was fine, that there would be an admin fee of £30 per person and to callback once we had decided when we wanted to go. After doing the research we called back and were told that we could no longer re-schedule the flight. My point is that we made it explicitly clear that we would not be flying and the expedia representitive should have told us that we had to callback within a certain timeframe.

Joe

I suspect that as any reasonable person would have known that you would need to reschedule *before* the flights departed, you will fail in court and unfortunately will be simply wasting your time and (more) money.

mynameisdave

goater78 wrote: »

48 hours to resell flights to Iceland does not strike me as being "sufficient time". I doubt many people want want to book flights so late notice?

I suspect you'll lose in court.

48 hours to re-sell flights to Iceland...in bad weather!