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On the Beach Holidays - False advertising/misselling
loni123
Posts: 21 Forumite
Hi
I hope I'm A) posting in the right place and
that there isn't already a thread for this I did look and couldn't find one!
So basically here's my problem, I'm sorry it's a bit of a long read but I'm hoping someone could give me some advice on what to do here:
On the 24th July 2014 myself and my friend booked a holiday to Gran Canaria for 1 week self catering through On the Beach Holidays.
The reason we chose On the Beach was because they offered a low deposit of £85pp with the balance being due 14 days before departure.
Since booking the holiday we have had numerous problems with On the Beach resulting in us no longer wishing to go on the holiday and to receive if possible a refund for the amount we have paid thus far.
Below is a list of the problems we have had with On the Beach which can be backed up with evidence in the form of print outs of correspondence.
• Hidden costs - £4.95 every time we wanted to make a payment. This put us off our original idea of paying small amounts over the upcoming weeks before the holiday in order to clear the balance in a more affordable way.
• The day after booking I was sent an email as the lead passenger advising that we would have to pay another £300 on the 25th August. I contacted On the Beach and advised that this was false advertising as this was not advised at the time of booking. They got back to me and advised that it was advised at time of booking and also on the booking confirmation. I checked the email we had received after booking and this was not stated on there, I checked with my friend and we both agreed we had checked carefully before booking and there had been no advice on this then either. I asked for the booking confirmation to be resent, On the Beach said they had resent this but I have still not received it to this date.
• I asked if we could cancel the holiday due to the problems we were having and the false advertising I was told that to cancel would cost even more than the holiday itself!
• As we were in the process of trying to sort this out with On the Beach we didn’t want to pay any further monies until the problem was resolved. I contacted them on several occasions about this; I tried to call them and was just put on hold with an expected wait time of over an hour on a premium number from a mobile. I then tried emailing but found that they took days to email back. It was in fact only the 25th August when they got back to me to advise that I needed to log into my account to view cancellation options and then on the 26th they took the money from my bank account anyway! As the full £300 wasn’t available they just kept trying to take different amounts until they managed to take £80.02 which was the only money in my account to cover my direct debits which are now going to fail and I'm going to be charged.
• I spoke to my bank who have opened a dispute on this amount and also advised me to contact trading standards and the financial ombudsman. They also advised to contact On the Beach and tell them that as I requested they remove my card details and they hadn’t done this, they had no right to take the money from my account. On the beach then called me and advised they will cancel the hotel, the transfers etc. But that in addition to what we have already paid we will still have to pay the remaining £225 for the flights. I disputed this with them on the basis that the reason we want to cancel is due to the shoddy customer service and the false advertising with regards to the balance due and the supposedly low deposit.
• The woman I spoke to advised she would send me a screenshot detailing where it told us that we would have to pay the remainder of the deposit on 25/08/14. When this arrived via email to me all it is, is a small box with some writing in it, it doesn’t have a web page around it showing where it is written and frankly could have just been typed up by her onto the email. It also stated that the deposit was ‘pay £50 today and only £28.50 each in 28 days’ again this was a completely different amount to the amount they had told us of £300.00. I emailed back and advised of this and she came back to me this time saying that this was ‘just an example of a screenshot’ and that our correct amounts would be displayed on our booking confirmation. Once again I have pointed out that advising us on our booking confirmation after we had already booked under the impression that we would have nothing to pay until October is not good enough.
I am really at a loss of what to do, I don't want to go on this holiday and now everything except the flights have been cancelled and I just can't see a way out of this, I am worrying myself sick about it because they've taken all the money I had until the end of September when I get paid from my new job and therefore I can't pay my bills. And then there is the issue of the further money they are demanding from me for these flights!
Any help or advise would be much appreciated!
I hope I'm A) posting in the right place and
that there isn't already a thread for this I did look and couldn't find one!So basically here's my problem, I'm sorry it's a bit of a long read but I'm hoping someone could give me some advice on what to do here:
On the 24th July 2014 myself and my friend booked a holiday to Gran Canaria for 1 week self catering through On the Beach Holidays.
The reason we chose On the Beach was because they offered a low deposit of £85pp with the balance being due 14 days before departure.
Since booking the holiday we have had numerous problems with On the Beach resulting in us no longer wishing to go on the holiday and to receive if possible a refund for the amount we have paid thus far.
Below is a list of the problems we have had with On the Beach which can be backed up with evidence in the form of print outs of correspondence.
• Hidden costs - £4.95 every time we wanted to make a payment. This put us off our original idea of paying small amounts over the upcoming weeks before the holiday in order to clear the balance in a more affordable way.
• The day after booking I was sent an email as the lead passenger advising that we would have to pay another £300 on the 25th August. I contacted On the Beach and advised that this was false advertising as this was not advised at the time of booking. They got back to me and advised that it was advised at time of booking and also on the booking confirmation. I checked the email we had received after booking and this was not stated on there, I checked with my friend and we both agreed we had checked carefully before booking and there had been no advice on this then either. I asked for the booking confirmation to be resent, On the Beach said they had resent this but I have still not received it to this date.
• I asked if we could cancel the holiday due to the problems we were having and the false advertising I was told that to cancel would cost even more than the holiday itself!
• As we were in the process of trying to sort this out with On the Beach we didn’t want to pay any further monies until the problem was resolved. I contacted them on several occasions about this; I tried to call them and was just put on hold with an expected wait time of over an hour on a premium number from a mobile. I then tried emailing but found that they took days to email back. It was in fact only the 25th August when they got back to me to advise that I needed to log into my account to view cancellation options and then on the 26th they took the money from my bank account anyway! As the full £300 wasn’t available they just kept trying to take different amounts until they managed to take £80.02 which was the only money in my account to cover my direct debits which are now going to fail and I'm going to be charged.
• I spoke to my bank who have opened a dispute on this amount and also advised me to contact trading standards and the financial ombudsman. They also advised to contact On the Beach and tell them that as I requested they remove my card details and they hadn’t done this, they had no right to take the money from my account. On the beach then called me and advised they will cancel the hotel, the transfers etc. But that in addition to what we have already paid we will still have to pay the remaining £225 for the flights. I disputed this with them on the basis that the reason we want to cancel is due to the shoddy customer service and the false advertising with regards to the balance due and the supposedly low deposit.
• The woman I spoke to advised she would send me a screenshot detailing where it told us that we would have to pay the remainder of the deposit on 25/08/14. When this arrived via email to me all it is, is a small box with some writing in it, it doesn’t have a web page around it showing where it is written and frankly could have just been typed up by her onto the email. It also stated that the deposit was ‘pay £50 today and only £28.50 each in 28 days’ again this was a completely different amount to the amount they had told us of £300.00. I emailed back and advised of this and she came back to me this time saying that this was ‘just an example of a screenshot’ and that our correct amounts would be displayed on our booking confirmation. Once again I have pointed out that advising us on our booking confirmation after we had already booked under the impression that we would have nothing to pay until October is not good enough.
I am really at a loss of what to do, I don't want to go on this holiday and now everything except the flights have been cancelled and I just can't see a way out of this, I am worrying myself sick about it because they've taken all the money I had until the end of September when I get paid from my new job and therefore I can't pay my bills. And then there is the issue of the further money they are demanding from me for these flights!
Any help or advise would be much appreciated!
0
Comments
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On the Checkout page it details 'Pay just £x today' followed by 'Then £y in 28 days' then 'Final balance due just 2 weeks before you fly'. The y figure is the flight balance, what was this amount?
The checkout page also states there is a £4.95 admin fee for each payment under the deposit scheme.
Did you read any of this?0 -
The first thing I found was the £4.95 charge for any payments made, the second thing was how the balance was paid, everything is there and I didn't even have to search for it.
Second thoughts about the holiday OP?0 -
Hi
thanks for the replies both of you, at the time of booking I definitely didn't see where it said we would have to pay an amount 28 days later or we wouldn't have booked. I'm pretty good with things like this I don't just book things or take things out without reading the small print, the holiday was actually more expensive that one we had seen with Thomas Cook but we booked with these as the deposit was so low and it gave us plenty of time to pay it off.
Not second thoughts in general Bris no, I was really looking forward to it as I haven't been away for 4 years and the hotel and everything looked lovely.. second thoughts about On the Beach 100%0 -
Sorry loni, given that two of us have made random bookings and found the correct information with no problems, it does appear the mistake is yours. If you still believe OTB to be at fault, can you replicate your booking and do a screen print showing the information is missing?0
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I've just done so now and I can now see where abouts it says about the payment in 28 days however I have also checked with my friend who was sat right beside me when we booked and she also says it wasn't there at the time.
Also OTB changed the cost of our booking as well the flights were actually only £144.86pp and they are still listed at that price yet we are being charged £237.50pp0 -
I've just done so now and I can now see where abouts it says about the payment in 28 days however I have also checked with my friend who was sat right beside me when we booked and she also says it wasn't there at the time.
Also OTB changed the cost of our booking as well the flights were actually only £144.86pp and they are still listed at that price yet we are being charged £237.50pp
You're going to need more than the word of your friend if you can't replicate the same lack of information.0 -
You're going to need more than the word of your friend if you can't replicate the same lack of information.
But is it not just my word against theirs? I've been complaining about this to them for a month is it not possible that they could have changed their site to now display the information where it wasn't displayed before? After all they have no proof that it said this at my time of booking anymore than I don't have proof that they did?0 -
But is it not just my word against theirs? I've been complaining about this to them for a month is it not possible that they could have changed their site to now display the information where it wasn't displayed before? After all they have no proof that it said this at my time of booking anymore than I don't have proof that they did?
Do you have a copy of the Ts&Cs from when you booked the holiday?
The problem is that the information is there now, and they could argue it has always been there and you just missed it. Especially if they can provide some proof of any changes done to their website.
Unless you can find a cached copy of the page on google backing up your version, you don't really have anywhere to go if they take that stance.0 -
But is it not just my word against theirs? I've been complaining about this to them for a month is it not possible that they could have changed their site to now display the information where it wasn't displayed before? After all they have no proof that it said this at my time of booking anymore than I don't have proof that they did?
OTB has thousands of customers. They are one of the more complained about agents, but if this was an issue there would be many many similar complaints. I have had a search and cannot find any. That is not to say they do not exist, but you would expect to find them easily if it was a common issue.0 -
OTB has thousands of customers. They are one of the more complained about agents, but if this was an issue there would be many many similar complaints. I have had a search and cannot find any. That is not to say they do not exist, but you would expect to find them easily if it was a common issue.
The thing is you can't base one customers experience on how many complaints there is about the same issue... Not everyone posts online I've had issues with other things in the past this is the first
Time I've ever posted somewhere about it. And I have found other posts about the other things I have mentioned like changing the price of the flights and their bad customer service.0
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