Holiday genie cancelled my flights but no refund!!!

sgtivypie

CAN ANYONE HELP??

I booked flights to India through Holiday Genie in March and paid in full by my direct debit card.
In April I rang them to ask how much extra it would be if I changed my flight home so that we flew home from a different Indian airport. They told me and I said that if I wanted to make the changes then I would contact them back.
I never contacted them back as I didn't want the changes and have waited for my tickets since.
I have just rang them to enquire about my tickets and was told that my flights have been completely cancelled as I never told them I didn't want the changes. They sent me an email telling me they had cancelled them on 10th May but it went straight to my junk mail so I didn't see it.
When I asked why they hadn't warned me that they would cancel my flights if I didn't tell them about not wanting the changes the customer service guy said "that's what I meant". When I asked why they had not given me a refund when they had cancelled my flights he said "I didn't know you wanted a refund".
He then tells me that the flights I had origonally booked are now all full but I can book on new flights for a good few hundred pounds more!!
We were supposed to be flying on the 1st July and obviously now when I do flight searches there are only the more expensive flights still available

Caz3121

was it a visa debit card?

sgtivypie

yeah a visa debit card through a natwest bank account

sgtivypie

Actually, I've never received any email telling me they have cancelled. They have never informed me that they have cancelled and never issued a refund

sgtivypie

It's not just about getting a refund though. I now can't get flights within my budget so we have lost our holiday and lost money on the other things that we have paid for e.g. stop over hotel, india hotel, visas etc...

Bob_the_Saver

sgtivypie wrote: »

Actually, I've never received any email telling me they have cancelled. They have never informed me that they have cancelled and never issued a refund

Didn't you just say it was in your Junk email folder?

" They sent me an email telling me they had cancelled them on 10th May but it went straight to my junk mail so I didn't see it."

sgtivypie

Bob_the_Saver wrote: »

Didn't you just say it was in your Junk email folder?

" They sent me an email telling me they had cancelled them on 10th May but it went straight to my junk mail so I didn't see it."

I spotted an email from them in my junk folder and assumed that was it but when I've read it properly it was just an email trying to sell me other things like hotels and similar in India. Doesn't mention anything about cancelling my booking. That's why I posted the correction!

sgtivypie

Their customer service guy whom I spoke to earlier today has just rang me at 23:30 (which I find very bizarre!!) and said that he has been given authorisation to issue me a refund.
I said, it's not about that. I now can't get flights for that amount and can't afford the extra £500+ for new flights so I can't go and we have lost our holiday and all the money that we have spent on visas etc
I said I want to speak to a senior manager tomorrow and said that on these forums there are people reporting that when they have had a problem the manager never seems to be available. His reply was that the manager is very busy. I said that he had told me earlier that I could speak to the manager at 09:30. He said that he had never said that and the manager wouldn't be available until later in the day. I informed him that I had recorded our previuos conversation and could prove that he said 09:30 so he then put the phone down on me!!!

opinions4u

I informed him that I had recorded our previuos conversation and could prove that he said 09:30

I hope that all parties were aware of the call recording, otherwise you've committed a criminal offence.

sgtivypie

I haven't recorded any calls. I just said that to him to see what he said as he was lying and kept changing his story

Heliflyguy

opinions4u wrote: »

I hope that all parties were aware of the call reporting, otherwise you've committed a criminal offence.

Really!

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/oftel/consumer/advice/faqs/prvfaq3.htm

Even I know this from being here, with so many posts I would have thought you might too.