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

chanz4

"lastminute.com" chain is broken

bigadaj

chanz4 wrote: »

"lastminute.com" chain is broken

Maybe, maybe not. Second payment was made direct to the provider so dependent on the way the contract is formed then could still be a. Section 75 claim. In fact last minute.com could be another party to complain to and have a go at!

peaceandfreedom

angel549 wrote: »

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.

You have had some excellent advice on this and if I were you I would definitely pursue this complaint and ask for a partial refund.

You don't need to telephone the hotel, particularly if it's going to make you anxious - you perhaps might be fobbed off more easily on the phone.

Write them a letter, outlining all the areas where the experience did not meet its contractual obligations and what you did about it at the time. Include the noise from other guests - the hotel offered a tranquil break and if its guests are rowdy, this is obviously not going to be a tranquil break. An isolated instance of noise can't be helped but ongoing noise during the night should have been stopped somehow.

A letter generally gets more attention than an email,in my experience. Find out the name of the manager of the hotel and write directly to them. There is a similar-ish type of complaint outlined in this letter from Which:
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/action/letter-to-claim-for-unsatisfactory-hotel-accommodation

Stand your ground and good luck .

angel549

Hi all, thanks so much for everyone's comments and advice! Unfortunately it's all still going on.

Let's start with the name and shame!!! The spa was Greenwoods Hotel & Spa in Stock, Essex (also know as Greenwoods Estate).

So here's the update: after leaving a bad review on their Facebook, they finally responded to my complaint after 8 days. They offered an overnight stay. This is worth around £110 on lastminute.com. We spent £546! And that's NOT including dinner, drinks, so probably around £650 in total.

I responded explaining that the whole point for us is the treatments. Driving for an hour just to stay in a hotel is pointless to me. So I kindly asked if they would be willing to give us a treatment each aswell. Then we would book the extra spa time (£45 each), our own second treatments (£80-£100 each), and pay for our own lunch, dinner and drinks. So they still get more money out of us, and give us a chance to get a better experience and update our reviews and recommend them again etc. I really felt this was very fair.

Here's their response:
"I have discussed your comments with our Principal and as we felt that our original offer of a return stay was compensation in itself.

As you have mentioned in your email and on TripAdvisor and various other social media reviews that you have written, that you would not be recommending Greenwoods , we feel that further compensation by way of treatments or monetary reimbursements would not benefit either of our interests."

Since when is treating customers fairly and providing good customer service about the company's interests? Surely it's about the customer?

Im so upset and angry now that I have told them I will be taking it forward with Trading Standards. I've also left reviews on TripAdvisor, Lastminute.com and on their Facebook page. Not that they seem to care, but hopefully I can save a few others from having the same experience!

-taff

You could always say you'll remove those reviews if they did offer you more, but in their position, I don't think they're being unfair.

peaceandfreedom

-taff wrote: »

You could always say you'll remove those reviews if they did offer you more, but in their position, I don't think they're being unfair.

I agree. If you're already complained about them on social media, they've got nothing to salvage from their relationship with you.

I'm not saying you don't deserve compensation - I think you do - it's just that you've lost any goodwill by posting poor reviews online. I think that would have been my last resort rather than my first.

bengal-stripe

-taff wrote: »

You could always say you'll remove those reviews if they did offer you more......

Simple minds like me would call that an attempt at blackmail! :beer: