PLEASE HELP Sunsave scam

Daniel321_2

Hi there, I recently booked a holiday with sunsave.com It has been nothing but a nightmare so far.
In brief, this is the main problem; With my girlfriend, we looked at a holiday for her to cyprus. The web advertised the package as £684. We entered my Dads Credit card details, and then got a message saying that we would recieve a confirmation call within 24 hours. My Dad was fine about putting £684 on his card.
The Problem began the next day, I got a call from one of their sales twam, she said she had spoken to my girlfriend, the passenger, and needed authorisation to use the card.
Assuming it was for £684 or there abouts, I ok'd it on my Dads behalf. When I got home I found out that the price had jumped to £1208.73. Obviously I rang to see why the price had been hiked up so much. They very rudley said that they had confirmed the price with the lead passenger, and did not need the cardholders permission to take more than the £684.
My next complaint was in writing asking for a refund, they wrote me back saying that their contract was with the lead passenger not the cardholder, and that if I wanted a refund, the passenger would have to pay them again, first.
There are multiple other discrepancies, such as three seperate totals, one to my girlfriend, another when I rang to complain, and yet another in the response email. They deny this, yet I wrote it down the second time, and its in writing the third time. Also they said that they were charging me £10 for ATOL protection, when I challenged this they said that £7.50 was for flight cancelation insurence, but Iv seen no proof of this either.
If you type in sunsave scam into google (i should have done this first) there are loads of threads where they have ripped people off before.
Putting all this to one side, my question is this; Is the agreement with the lead passenger or the cardholder, and am I entitled to a refund from Barclaycard, since they are just spiteful and nasty on the phone and I have no chance of getting anything back from them.
Sorry the message was so long, please help so I can book woth a different company before its too late.
Thankyou in advance.

Tixy

she said she had spoken to my girlfriend, the passenger, and needed authorisation to use the card.

Had they spoken to her?

I ok'd it on my Dads behalf

Was that with you 'impersonating' your Dad? or were they aware you were not the cardholder?

Were the complaints you wrote also in your father's name?

If they had not spoken to your girlfriend and had not sent her an email confirming the new amount of the booking before you authorised the payment has father spoken to his bank to inform them that the level of payment taken by the company was not authorised?

Is your girlfriend happy with the price paid, but just that your father is not happy with this going on his credit card?

eskbanker

You're going to have to sort it out with Sunsave as Barclaycard won't be interested - Section 75 protection won't apply here because the cardholder wasn't on the booking, see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases#exceptions for further details.

Aquamania

Daniel321 wrote: »

Hi there, I recently booked a holiday with sunsave.com It has been nothing but a nightmare so far.
In brief, this is the main problem; With my girlfriend, we looked at a holiday for her to cyprus. The web advertised the package as £684. We entered my Dads Credit card details, and then got a message saying that we would recieve a confirmation call within 24 hours. My Dad was fine about putting £684 on his card.
The Problem began the next day, I got a call from one of their sales twam, she said she had spoken to my girlfriend, the passenger, and needed authorisation to use the card.
Assuming it was for £684 or there abouts, I ok'd it on my Dads behalf. When I got home I found out that the price had jumped to £1208.73. Obviously I rang to see why the price had been hiked up so much. They very rudley said that they had confirmed the price with the lead passenger, and did not need the cardholders permission to take more than the £684.
My next complaint was in writing asking for a refund, they wrote me back saying that their contract was with the lead passenger not the cardholder, and that if I wanted a refund, the passenger would have to pay them again, first.
There are multiple other discrepancies, such as three seperate totals, one to my girlfriend, another when I rang to complain, and yet another in the response email. They deny this, yet I wrote it down the second time, and its in writing the third time. Also they said that they were charging me £10 for ATOL protection, when I challenged this they said that £7.50 was for flight cancelation insurence, but Iv seen no proof of this either.
If you type in sunsave scam into google (i should have done this first) there are loads of threads where they have ripped people off before.
Putting all this to one side, my question is this; Is the agreement with the lead passenger or the cardholder, and am I entitled to a refund from Barclaycard, since they are just spiteful and nasty on the phone and I have no chance of getting anything back from them.
Sorry the message was so long, please help so I can book woth a different company before its too late.
Thankyou in advance.

OMG, what a nightmare.

So you gave your girlfriend permission to use your dad's credit card to book a holiday for £684 and she went and booked a holiday for over a £1200? :eek:

I think you need to have a word with that girlfriend of yours. I bet your dad is livid.

(On what authority did you give authorisation to the supplier to debit your dad's credit card??? :huh:)

Daniel321_2

Hi, thanks for the quick response. My girlfriend was contacted and told the price was now over 1200. However i think there may have been a communication break down as she is from sweden and when i got home she didnt know why it had gone up so much. They have never sent us an email or confirmation with any final amount or breakdown. Just a flight confirmation from thomson.
On the phone, she rang and asked if i was mr (last name). As we both share the last name, i just said yes. there were no security questions or anything she just said do you authorise the transacion?
I assumed (stupidly) that it would be £684, like the website said, mayby with a bit on for baggage etc. That cannot come to £500 . Its all very misleading. So yes i suppose my dad never did verify it.
Im obviously hitting the forums and have registered a complaint with cit advice, who have passed it on to trading standards.
I really want to get the money back off these scammers though. Its the way they are so spiteful on the phone, its like their laughing about it. Thanks in advance for any help.

eskbanker

If you don't mind me saying so, you really need to focus on what the core of your complaint is and concentrate on that, rather than how they speak on the phone and (relative) trivia like whether extras are £10 or £7.50.

Are you essentially complaining that they increased the cost of the holiday but didn't give you the option of not going ahead? If you're saying that the call to authorise payment didn't include any reference to the transaction value then in your complaint to the company it would be worth clearly stating this (if you haven't already) and asking them to listen to the call recording (it says in their terms that they record all calls). However, it's also worth familiarising yourself with other aspects of their trading terms, such as

Why is the price on the web site cheaper than what I paid?
The web site is not live, therefore you will be given an up to the minute price and availability check when you speak to a consultant, if you do not agree with the price you are under no obligation to continue with the purchase

Although in my earlier post I said that Section 75 protection doesn't apply, you may be able to go through Barclaycard's chargeback process if you can establish that there was no mention of the higher price to the cardholder as this would effectively make it an unauthorised transaction, although the fact that you were masquerading as the cardholder is unlikely to stand you in good stead if any of the parties (Sunsave or Barclaycard) are aware of this.

Daniel321_2

thanks again, you really seem to know your stuff. I shall be using some of these points asap. With regards to the recorded conversation, their t&c's state that there is a £50 charge for each recording. So that could get quite expensive. But yes I will be a lot more focused on the big issue (bait and switch) and hopefully get some results soon.

Thanks again for your time. Ill update the thread when its resolved.

And stay away from sunsave!!!!!

lol