Abta or small claims court?

kassidy777

Hi all

Apologies for the long post. I am in the process of a complaint ith Abta about a holiday i have yet to take but i believe there has been a breach of contract and i want a full refund or flights changed. When you read the complaint it may seem like a small issue but the deceptive behaviour and outright lies are what make me want to cancel with this company.

I booked a holiday to go to Turkey on 25th May. I paid the deposit online but received an email a few days later stating that the rooms are not available but they have a different room for £313.07 extra of which Loveholidays would pay half. I said that would be fine but the next day (Sunday) i received another email stating that even those rooms are not available.

• So i spent the day looking with other companies and found the holiday available with another company for a cheaper price on different dates which were preferential (during half term). My family discussed it and arranged the dates with their work. When i called Loveholidays, i explained that i am phoning to cancel as i have found the holiday cheaper elsewhere with different dates. She agreed as they were unable to find availability and said it would take 3-5 days to get our money back. As i knew it would take at least 3 working days to get the deposit back, i told the manager (Hannah) i had found the holiday cheaper elsewhere with better dates and asked if she could match the new price and dates rather than waiting for a refund. She said she will find out and call me back.
  She calls me back in the afternoon stating that she has once again found the rooms (the 2nd option) for the original date and that i will still have to pay the extra money. I explained that i did not want and would like to cancel it as the other company was still cheaper and the dates more suitable. She said i would have to pay £400 admin fees for the flights if i wanted to change them but i could not get a full refund as the flights are non-refundable. She had booked the hotel without my consent as i asked if she could match the new price and dates i had found.
  
  NONE of this was mentioned in the call earlier that day. I told her to make me an offer so i can choose whether to stay or cancel. At no point did she tell me that if she found room availability i would have to take it. Basically, the choice was taken away from me. If she had stated that in the morning i would definitely have cancelled and she should have mentioned this. Within a few hours i lost the ability to cancel this booking. I never asked her to book the rooms for me. I asked for her to give me options if she could match it but she has not.
  
  It is strange how they finally found room availability when i explained i had found the holiday cheaper elsewhere and i am extremely angry that she has done this. It is very conniving. I do not want to be held over a barrel and i did not ask her to book the rooms. I asked her what would be available for me if i decided to stay.
  
  While she has agreed to write off the extra money to be paid for the rooms, she has also given me no choice but to stay with Loveholidays.
• So my question is, should i bother pursuing it through the small claims court as i already know they have replied to Abta and disagree with me so we will be at deadlock. It may seem like a high price to pay for a principle but the lying incompetent manager should not be allowed to do this to people as a sneaky tactic of holding onto customers.
• Any help appreciated and sorry again for the long post.

lea2012

Forgive me if I am wrong and have got mixed up but I believe that you booked a holiday for a specific date, at a certain hotel / room type. You confirmed the booking, then they said the room was gone but it appears it wasn't, so you now have your original booking (hotel and dates) at no extra cost to yourself?

I'm sorry but I don't see what the issue is or what exactly you would be able to claim for.

I appreciate that there was some confusion, but she hasn't booked you a room that you didn't consent too. You consented to that room at the time of booking and now you have it. You mentioned asking for a refund, but didn't confirm that you wanted one so they continued to proceed and get you the holiday that you booked. I strongly believe that had you confirmed a refund / cancellation then you would have only received a refund for the accommodation side of things anyway and not the flights as it would have said in the terms and conditions that the flights were non-refundable.

The fact that you found it cheaper and with more suitable dates is not their fault. If the dates weren't suitable then you shouldn't have booked them in the first place. I really don't see what you could possibly claim for here sorry.

kassidy777

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

They changed or failed to find accomodation twice and it was at this point that i called and asked if i could cancel. While they did agree that i could cancel and get a refund, they did not actually state how much they would be refunding but as she apologised for not being able to secure accomodation, and said she understood why i wanted to cancel i assumed it would be the whole deposit they would refund (especially as the deposit does not cover the full cost of the flights anyway so she must have been talking about the full deposit otherwise there would be nothing to refund.)

Also, their TandCs state that there liablity is only in booking following our instruction and i did not ask her to rebook. I asked her if she would be able to match the new holiday i had found (price and dates) upon which she said she will let me know. That is not a request to book it if she finds it especially as she had just agreed to refund.

But it is good to hear how the case sounds from an objective party. Thanks

Alan_Bowen

I think a county court judge would find it difficult to award compensation in a case like this, it will be a "he said she said", so I would be wary at starting proceedings. ABTA arbitration is entirely on paper so it may be easier to explain but if you do not win, you lose £108 which is the minimum fee

lea2012

I think, as Alan has stated above, that you would really struggle to claim for anything as it's all a case of what you said and heard, compared to what they said and meant. I presume you have communicated entirely by phone and therefore have no written evidence of any of the conversations?

I know you are saying that you did not consent to her re-booking it, but technically speaking she is not re-booking it. She is getting you what you originally booked and paid for. Despite them saying that they did not have the room available, they have gone on to get it for you exactly as you booked so it's really the original booking that you are getting and I think a small claims court would see it that way.

I can see that this has been inconvenient and quite stressful for you, but I think your issue really lies now with the fact that you are annoyed that you have found it cheaper elsewhere for a more suitable time and that you are unable to cancel and re-book. I would try and take some consolation from the fact that the price you see isn't always the price you pay when using some online travel agents. They don't have a 'live' link with the airlines, and in some cases with the hotel providers so whilst you might see a price at £xxx, once you book it they can call to change it as LoveHolidays did. The price you see for half term is unlikely to be the correct price and probably wouldn't be cheaper and would involve all this faff again anyway.

mgdavid

let's get back to the root of the problem; why on earth were you dealing with an outfit like loveholidays, did you do no research or checking beforehand? The review sites are full of examples of disasters with this company.

You are not booking a package with this company, you get separate standalone flights and accomodation, trnasfers etc so if one part fails through change or cancellation you are still stuck liable for the other parts.
See this thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4921658

As it is, you still have the original holiday so I would thank heaven for small mercies, hope it all goes well once you are there.