Appaling and costly service from travel agent

cinders1961

Advise please!
I booked 3 long haul flights with a 'reputable' travel agent over the phone about a month ago. Gave my credit card details and received a confirmation email. It was only 10 days later when I checked my statement that I discovered they hadn't actually booked them. I had to repeatedly chase them up, only to be finally told they had had a 'technical issue' on the website that prevented them from booking the tickets, but they hadn't bothered to tell me! Naturally flights had increased substantially by then (Xmas period). They suggested I paid an extra £750 to book the same flights again, of course it was a definite no - not with you! I used another agent and submitted a complaint. They have not provided me with written details of their refusal to pay the difference (only a quick and curt phonecall, saying as I hadn't actually paid they could not do anything about it) and will not respond to any of my attempts to contact them further. My problem is this. They were the direct cause of my extra expense, yet I can find no way forward to report this as I had no money taken by them, so ATOL doesn't seem to be an option. Can they get away with this? :mad:

SW17

There will be others on here who can give you more comprehensive advice, but ATOL would not have been an option anyway as it only deals with financial failure of suppliers.


If they are ABTA members, they have to abide by ABTA´s code of conduct, and you can involve ABTA if complaints are not resolved properly (which does not always mean to your total satisfaction).


http://abta.com/about-abta/code-of-conduct


Are you seeking compensation? That´s where those more expert than me will come in, to comment on your chances in a situation where no money has changed hands, though you have lost out financially.

MasterPoo

May I suggest Naming and Shaming? Might get them to stop ignoring you? Terrible customer service, all it would've taken was a quick phone call or email to you! Did they give you a confirmation number before you got off the phone? I'd be peeved too!

Yesterday I tried to book my flights THREE times directly with the airline:

1st time I got an error message, so I called them up and they told me it was because the two agencies I had requested quotes from were still holding my flights, I had to contact both agencies and ask them to release the seats.

2nd Attempt all was going well until I got to the bank confirmation page, then nothing, not even an error message (airline claims no payment went through, I'm monitoring just in case);

3rd time, I decided to give it 24 hours and call back today, which I did, the airline decided to process my payment/booking via telephone and I made the agent hold on until I'd received confirmation emails.

I always make sure my browsers stay open and check my inbox whilst their on the phone to see confirmation email.

Alan_Bowen

A reputable travel agent wouldn't do this to you, a reputable travel agent would not be booking tickets on line either, they would use a computer reservation system. Issuing a confirmation email would from ABTA's perspective be sufficient to allege they have failed to provide you with a reasonable standard of service and sufficient to commence Code of Conduct action.

However, that of itself doesn't get you compensation, you should consider asking ABTA for details of the arbitration scheme as it seems on the face of it to be a breach of contract, you were entitled to rely on the confirmation as fixing the price of your flights and should not be £750 out of pocket. This of course is based on the assumption that the agent is an ABTA member, as suggested above, name and shame and we can see who it is.

Westin

OK, anyone fancy a flutter?

Evens - not a 'reputable' company at all. One mentioned on here with 'Scam' in the title.

2/1 - some non-uk based company that the OP selected purely on price.

3/1 - edreams, bravoflights..

5/1 - never hear from the OP again...

Alan_Bowen

Westin, looks as though I should have had £10 at 5/1, and I am not even a gambler!

cinders1961

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

A reputable travel agent wouldn't do this to you, a reputable travel agent would not be booking tickets on line either, they would use a computer reservation system. Issuing a confirmation email would from ABTA's perspective be sufficient to allege they have failed to provide you with a reasonable standard of service and sufficient to commence Code of Conduct action.

However, that of itself doesn't get you compensation, you should consider asking ABTA for details of the arbitration scheme as it seems on the face of it to be a breach of contract, you were entitled to rely on the confirmation as fixing the price of your flights and should not be £750 out of pocket. This of course is based on the assumption that the agent is an ABTA member, as suggested above, name and shame and we can see who it is.

Thanks for the response.
They are only members of ATOL not ABTA, unfortunately I was not aware of the difference at the time as I am now! The agent is CRYSTAL TRAVEL, not exactly a small, insignificant one! It seems I have to accept the financial loss, have explored so many options, even written to Watchdog, will now write to a newspaper to name and shame, sooo frustrating!

Voyager2002

cinders1961 wrote: »

Thanks for the response.
They are only members of ATOL not ABTA, unfortunately I was not aware of the difference at the time as I am now! The agent is CRYSTAL TRAVEL, not exactly a small, insignificant one! It seems I have to accept the financial loss, have explored so many options, even written to Watchdog, will now write to a newspaper to name and shame, sooo frustrating!

They have been in business for more than twenty years and have a good reputation, so this is surprising. Have you managed to speak with anyone in authority there?

Caz3121

Voyager2002 wrote: »

They have been in business for more than twenty years and have a good reputation,

Tripadvisor have a number of threads with people who have had issues, although some are more "bait and switch" type....being contacted to advise that fare not available and need to pay £ more

cinders1961

Voyager2002 wrote: »

They have been in business for more than twenty years and have a good reputation, so this is surprising. Have you managed to speak with anyone in authority there?

No, apparently Simon Paul is a manager, but refuses to take my calls or respond to emails. Have still had no response to my formal complaint, now past the statutory 28 days. Have a full log of every call I made trying to get through to him and their promises and excuses.