Warning "On The Beach"

Lord_Scrooge

A group of us booked a holiday on line with On The Beach, we paid our deposits on the 1st Of March and were told we had 30 days before the next payment was due. On the 2nd of March a test amount of £1.01 was taken from my credit card before an attempt to take £11,828.31 was made, thankfully this was declined by the bank but it did not stop a further attempt of over £8,000 being made which was successful. Another member of our group had the test amount of £1.01 taken from her account before an attempt was made for £1,446.11 which was unsuccessful before another attempt was made for £1,084.58 which was successful leaving insufficient funds to pay standing orders. After finding out that money had been taken from our cards and accounts we checked the web for On the Beach and it would appear that we are not the only ones to have fallen foul of this company. The explanation given from them was that it was a computer glitch that was being investigated and we should see our money refunded in 3 working days. No one at On the Beach was willing to provide their surname or offer extension numbers, strangely the supervisor was busy. When one of our group phoned them she was told that the previous named supervisor no longer worked there and had not for weeks. If you are thinking of booking a holiday please make sure that you check out the company first and check their terms and conditions thoroughly. On the Beach have some mind blowing fees for small changes you really need to know exactly what you want and be 100% sure that you have not missed anything off, because it will cost you.

PeacefulWaters

Never used them. But read what feels like a disproportionately high number of bad reviews.

If the card transactions that went through are unauthorised (being taken early is unauthorised) contact the card issuer and tell them that you want immediate reimbursement.

Pollycat

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Never used them. But read what feels like a disproportionately high number of bad reviews.

If the card transactions that went through are unauthorised (being taken early is unauthorised) contact the card issuer and tell them that you want immediate reimbursement.

I've never used them either and have also read bad reviews on a number of different fora.

I don't recollect reading about them trying to take a large sum of money way before the due date though.
Main complaint appears to be telling the customer flights prices have increased (sometimes several times) during the booking process.

jpsartre

Lord_Scrooge wrote: »

After finding out that money had been taken from our cards and accounts we checked the web for On the Beach and it would appear that we are not the only ones to have fallen foul of this company.

Next time check before you book, not after.

leylandsunaddict

On The Beach do get their fair share of complaints, like most OTAs, but credit card fraud? It would be all over Trip Advisor for a start if they carried out practices like that, not to mention the travel press and media in general.

As for their admin fees, yes some are pretty stiff, but you know what they are before you book. Everyone has the choice whether to book with any OTA or choose to book direct. I know which I choose.

Pollycat

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

As for their admin fees, yes some are pretty stiff, but you know what they are before you book. Everyone has the choice whether to book with any OTA or choose to book direct. I know which I choose.

Or 'should find out what they are'.

Interesting thread on 'flights & currency' board from somebody who thinks he's got a bargain & wants to know his rights if it all goes wrong.:eek:

leylandsunaddict

Pollycat wrote: »

Or 'should find out what they are'.

True. I forget that I seem to be in the minority when it comes to research and reading terms and conditions :eek:

Ames

Oh dear, I've just booked a holiday with them. So far it's been OK. I managed to click twice for payment and was worried they'd say I'd made two bookings but it was fine, they only took one lot of payments.

I'll not be adding any more extras, and I have independent insurance, so hopefully I'll avoid the problems people complain most about.

leylandsunaddict

Ames wrote: »

Oh dear, I've just booked a holiday with them. So far it's been OK. I managed to click twice for payment and was worried they'd say I'd made two bookings but it was fine, they only took one lot of payments.

I'll not be adding any more extras, and I have independent insurance, so hopefully I'll avoid the problems people complain most about.

You'd better just hope they can confirm all the separate elements at the price shown.

Lord_Scrooge

Although it has been a nightmare dealing with On The Beach concerning the over payment they took from me and members of our party, the money was paid back on to my credit card on Monday and cleared yesterday as advised. It is a shame that one of our party is still waiting for a previous deposit to be repaid from a different booking, but regarding our booking over-payment OTB did as they said - so fair play to them. The main problem was lack of information from OTB, no direct numbers, no surnames given out, minutes wasted on hold (about 50mins in total), no call backs from the supervisor "Phil", a real tangle of explanations and pathetic excuses - all they needed to do was be honest say it was a mistake and provide a point of contact (who calls back Phil) and all the unnecessary angry phone calls could have been avoided. I am worried that it will happen again when we pay the next installment and when the final balance is due, but until then I have to hope that I will not need to post again. Thank you to all that read my thread and I hope that it helped.