Can I claim back money through my credit card company for a bad experience?

angel549

Ok, this is a bit of a random one, but I'm really hoping someone can give some advice!

My mum and I recently visited a spa for an overnight break. We paid for extra's including two treatments and in total, paid £273 each up front. I paid £159 on my credit card at lastminute.com, then a further £387 direct to the spa hotel place, again, using my credit card.

Unfortunately, the break was far from relaxing and we experienced a number of problems including treatments being described incorrectly, constant loud noise directly outside the treatment room throughout, unable to use facilities from 3pm-8pm due to so many people being in there, TV not working in room, and then being kept awake until 3am by a noisy group in the next room who did not quieten down even after we notified reception.

We mentioned the problems at checkout and the receptionist did not seem to care. We left feedback forms with our contact details and heard nothing. I then sent an email complaint and again, I have had absolutely no response.

I really feel that I have been cheated out of money and a lot of what we paid for was not delivered or as described (relaxing tranquil break? yeah right!). But they clearly do not care.

So my question is - can I try to claw back some of the money from my credit card company (Santander 123)? Or can you only do that when you order items that are not delivered?

I know there is a level of protection when paying by credit card, but not sure how it works. By no means do I expect/want a full refund. The food for example was perfect. But I feel it is unfair that I have paid so much more than it was worth.

Any help/advice would be very much appreciated! Thanks x

lisyloo

Your credit card company are jointly liable, but it's clearly not an open and shut case.
You can dispute the transaction with your credit card company. They may initially tell you to pursue the retailer but they are jointly liable and that's the law.

When I've done it before you fill out a paper form giving them all the details. They will want to know what you did to resolve the issue, so you'd say you complained at the time, left feedback and complained later as well.
It could take many months, but your card company should make a decision.

It's clearly difficult in your case because the spa will say they delivered the accomodation, food, treatments etc. although clearly not in the "tranquil" way they advertised.

If you are not satisifed your option option is to go to the small claims court with either the spa or your card company. That would cost around £40 but you'd need to take time off to attend your local court.

Did you complain about the noise during the treatment? Did you ask the therapist to sort out the noise or get you another room? Did you question the treatments at the time or afterwards? Did you complain to the manager about not being able to use the failities at the time? If you did then make sure you add those things because they may say you didn't do enough.

Your going to have to be a bit assertive because your credit card company will probably want to fob you off and will probably push you towards the retailer or say you didn't do enough.

eddddy

If the spa breached the contract or misrepresented something (i.e. misled you), you claim damages. It sounds like you're saying they did.

You can claim damages from either the spa or the credit card company. (Your claim against the cc co would be under section 75 of the consumer credit act.)

Whichever route you choose, be specific about which terms of the contract were breached (i.e. quote the term etc), and/or explain who misrepresented something and on which date etc.


To be honest, if the hotel is a reputable company, I would expect them to be easier to deal with than the CC company. The hotel should want to protect its reputation and maintain good customer relations.

You can use phrases like "I had a bad experience" in your claim if you like, but that is not really a legal basis for claiming damages. Focus on "breaches of contract" and "misrepresentation".

lisyloo

unable to use facilities from 3pm-8pm due to so many people being in there

Are you really saying that the pool, pool side beds, jacuzzi, steam room, sauna etc. had every place taken at the same time for a whole 5 hours? that's extraordinary. I would have called the duty manager. Did you do that at the time?

Chino

lisyloo wrote: »

I would have called the duty manager. Did you do that at the time?

If that was the case, why would you have "called the duty manager"? What would you expect the duty manager to do? Throw people out of the hotel? Build additional facilities?

angel549

Thanks everyone! Appreciate the advice. Will have to pluck up the courage to try calling the hotel and be more direct with why they are ignoring my complaint.

Lisyloo - the jacuzzi and sauna were full but the pool wasn't so busy. However, there were absolutely no loungers, hooks or chairs free to put my towel and gown on, and the noise coming from the 20ish shrieking women in and crowded round the jacuzzi wouldn't have led to a very relaxing time even if their had been.

Unfortunately i have bad anxiety which makes it really hard for me to confront people when there's a problem. So no, during my treatment, I did not ask the therapist to tell them women to keep the noise down (she could hear what I could so I guessed it wasnt her job to do it anyway or surely she would have?), nor did I query at the time why my treatment was not as described. She was a nice girl and I didnt want to be rude or have her feel that I was criticising her (seriously, my anxiety is so annoying!). Plus, i get to see my mum twice a year so really did not want to put a negative atmosphere on our day.

My mum did call reception to complain about the 2am noisy neighbours and did mention the treatments being wrongly described at checkout though (one of our treatments was the same and both therapists did not do it as described on the website).

In fairness, I do accept that to some extent, it is my fault for not speaking up. But as mentioned, it's hard for me. And to another extent, I also do not think I should have to have spoken up in the first place.

tomtontom

When complaining you need to focus on issues that are within the control of the hotel. Volume levels of other guests is largely outside their control - unless they were being offensive or acting inappropriately. What was wrong with the treatment, did you report the faulty tv?

lisyloo

I also do not think I should have to have spoken up in the first place.

I do completely understand and I'm totally sympathetic to not wanting to ruin the experience.
I'm just saying that they may claim if they aren't notified then they can't fix it and they may argue that they would have got more loungers or told people to be quiet.

I am not saying you shouldn't complain (I definitely would).
I am saying you should be prepared for some counter arguments because neither the hotel or CC company are likely to just stump up your cash without an argument.

lisyloo

If that was the case, why would you have "called the duty manager"? What would you expect the duty manager to do?

Perhaps they have more loungers in a cupboard that they can fetch.
Perhaps there are people who are on a morning session who have overstayed and they can politely ask them to leave?
Perhaps they can politely ask the overly boistrous people to moderate their behaviour?
Perhaps they have some lovely private facilities that happen to be empty? (yes, that one's a long shot, but hopefully you get the gist)

Throw people out of the hotel?

I'd expect them to move on guests who were overstaying their spa sesssion and causing an over-crowding issue - yes.
Asking people politely is the normal method to start with before calling security.

Build additional facilities?

Of course not.
But I've given you a list of completely acheivable improvements and one long shot.

I'm really sorry as I'd love angel to get her money back but my bet is on them saying they would have sorted it out if they'd known (whether that's true or not).

angel549

You're probably right lisyloo, and hopefully I will at least learn my lesson and have the balls to speak up next time something like this happens.

Will try to chase the complaint though one last time. I actually feel like if they'd apologised immediately, I would have left it there. I think it's the being ignored part now that's making me more angry and want some form of compensation.

Thanks for your honest advice though :-)

What was wrong with the treatment

We had Aroma Hot Stones Therapy . I've had hot stones massages at three other places and all include the stones being placed on various parts of the body while you are massaged. In this spa, they also describe it as "Small stones are placed on key energy points whilst warmed oils are massaged deeply into the body for maximum relaxation". However, during the 65min massage, stones were never placed anywhere. The therapist just used stones in her hands to do the massage with (and it actually hurt!). The thing i love about hot stones massages is that feeling when the stones are placed in the palm of your hands, feet and base of back and it feels like they're melting into you. If I knew I would not get this, I would have saved £20 and had a normal massage.

did you report the faulty tv?

No, we were in our gowns waiting for our food to be delivered to our room when we realised there was a problem. We some guy in the room fiddling with it while we were eating our meal. Again, we should have said something there and then, but at this point, we were still trying to stay in high spirits and shurg it off. We were never planning to complain about any of it. It was the noise through the night that pushed us over the edge.

Oh well, live and learn I guess. Hopefully others will at least ready this and learn from my mistake!

bigadaj

Well the first thing you can do is name and shame them here, and alternatively contact them through social media.

The problem with many spas and gyms is that they struggle to operate economically, they basically have to overbook or rely on memberships not being used to generate enough cash to keep them operating, so overcrowding and rushed service isn't generally a surprise.

Keep trying and as the liability is joint and several then claim through the card as well as pursuing the spa if you don't try and persist then you don't get.