ABTA Arbitration - anyone used it ?

Scruffywuffy

Hi, so wrote the required 2 letters to tour operator, got more or less standard replies, complained through ABTA, tour operator didn't get back to ABTA in the 2 weeks they are given, ABTA have said next step if I want to, is to go down their Arbitration route.

Anyone done that? Are they pretty fair or do they side with the tour operator?

Cost is £108 and if I lose I pay tour operator's fee. Out of principle I am minded to give it a go but wondered if anyone here had any experience of it.

Thx

Alan_Bowen

The arbitration is entirely independent of ABTA, although they promote it and subsidise it. The benefits are that everything is done in writing, you produce a statement of what happened, add photos if relevant and you get their Defence in writing, with an opportunity to reply. It is then sent to an arbitrator who makes a decision within a couple of weeks.

With the increase in county court fees, you pay to pay a second fee for the actual hearing as well as the issue fee and the delays in the larger courts, it can be faster and cheaper.

Arbitration finds in favour of the customer in more than 50% of the cases but the amount awarded tends to be slightly lower than in the courts. It is difficult to know the winning percentage in the court as there are no figures specifically for travel cases but for some people they want their day in court, even if the chances of winning may be lower.

The tour operator has to pay a much bigger fee than the customer for arbitration (they pay nothing to defend a county court case) and that of itself can sometimes spur them into trying to settle the case. If you have a good case then arbitration should give you a reasonable outcome, if your case is weak, then neither action will result in compensation. it is unusual for an operator to ignore ABTA as a failure to respond can lead to financial penalties for simply failing to respond

Scruffywuffy

Thx for that. I have had issued proceedings in the small claims court against this particular company! Flight delay. They sent the standard fob off letters, then ignored my LBA and I even sent draft Particulars saying I will issue - they ignored those too! They acknowledged and said they would defend the claim and then a week later settled. So I'm not particularly surprised they ignored ABTA - I spoke to ABTA and they're under no obligation to reply at all - ABTA give them two weeks then offer me the opportunity to move to Arbitration.


Re the fees, it was my understanding that if I lose, I pay both mine and their fees - which would be £108 each. I did ask ABTA about this as I think I've got a good case but I'm "involved" so no idea how an independent arbitrator would view it and wanted to know the worst case scenario fee wise before I started !


I've downloaded the form and I'll probably pull together the facts and see how it looks. At the moment I am inclined to give it a go though !

Westin

If it is a claim against the tour operator for a flight delay and you are looking at EU261, I'm not sure the ABTA scheme will be suitable. Or indeed the court courts. I would think that the claim would be against the operating airline rather than the tour operator. This might possibly be why the operator is not fearful of you taking them to arbitration.

If however it is a delay that you feel was caused and down to the tour operator and outside of the EU261 compensation structure (perhaps their transfer coach being sufficiently late arriving at the overseas airport that the flight was held up) then the ABTA arbitration scheme could be a cost effective route to take.

Now that we know your claim relates to a flight delay I am sure Alan will be able to add or comment on whether the ABTA scheme is the best, or even a suitable, approach.

Scruffywuffy

Hi, this current complaint does not relate to a flight delay !!!


Last year I claimed through the small claims against this company which was for a flight delay and given their shocking customer service at the time, which mainly consisted of not engaging with the customer at all, am not in the least surprised they ignored ABTA.


The ABTA complaints system seems strange to me as the travel company are under no obligation to reply at all. Given that, why would they? How many people actually do go to arbitration - I imagine most give up.

Alan_Bowen

They are obliged to respond, it is a breach of the code of conduct to fail to do so and arbitrators will make decisions based purely on your evidence if they are stupid enough not to engage, and as you can imagine it is very difficult to lose if they don't defend it.

Take time to prepare your case and put it succinctly, don't be emotional, state what you thought you had bought, what you expected and how the operator failed to deliver. You can produce the letters that they failed to reply to and then state how how much you expect by way of compensation. Be realistic, don't ask for a full refund unless it was a total waste of time and money, work out if you can how much it might be worth, did the problem last throughout the holiday or was it 7 nights out of 14? Was it something that was vital to your enjoyment and how much was the holiday? If you only paid £300 for 14 night holiday each night was probably around £10 a night, if you paid £1000, your expectations and claim for compensation may be higher.

Scruffywuffy

I'm not sure if we've got our wires crossed here - they are under no obligation at all to reply to ABTA once you start the complaint process - it states that online plus I called and spoke to someone at ABTA to confirm - my thought being why would they bother replying - I bet most people won't go to Arbitration but would just give up.

ABTA tell you that before you involve them, you should have 2 letters from the tour operator - and on the 2nd letter from the tour operator involved here, they basically said to me you can use this and our first letter if you want to get an independent body involved ... So I'm not sure if these are the replies you mean.

It wasn't a cheap holiday - about £2,200 in total and I feel the hotel was mis-described (as well as being awful!) One thing that might go against me is that in resort, we were given US $100 discount on trips - but this was never offered as a full and final settlement until the 2nd to last day when the rep tried to get us all to sign something to say we accepted it was in full and final settlement - which we didn't. In correspondence, tour operator kept insisting we'd been given £100 - which to my mind is slightly different than 100 dollars discount on a trip.

Alan_Bowen

Sorry but they are required to respond, I wrote the Code of Conduct (waits for incoming abuse...) at the end of the 1980's and there has always been an obligation to respond to correspondence, it is a fixed penalty offence but if they regularly fail to reply they can be fined or ultimately thrown out of ABTA. Once you ask for arbitration, ABTA sends an invitation for them to review their position, they can choose to stick where they are and not offer more (or any) compensation in which case you should complete the forms and go for it

Scruffywuffy

They did respond to my original correspondence though !!!! I sent two letters, they replied to both at the end of their 2nd one they said "Should you remain dissatisfied, there are third party organisations which may be able to offer you further assistance. Some third party organisations may require two written responses from the Tour Operator prior to offering their assistance, should this be applicable please accept our original response along with this response as our two written responses."

This from ABTA's website (with my emphasis):

"At this stage there is nothing further that you need to do. We have given the company 14 days in which to consider your claim. However, unlike correspondence, members of ABTA do not need to respond to the form, but we allow them 14 days to review the matter and they may contact you direct, to try and resolve the issue. We would urge you to read, if not already done so, the attached Key Facts about the law and frequently asked questions prior."

So the tour operator do not have to respond once you start the ABTA complaint - my point has always been why would they if they don't have to - how many regular holidaymakers will want to spend money to take it to arbitration or could be bothered?

As an aside, given your insider knowledge, how would you like to take a quick look at my issues/correspondence etc and give an opinion of my chance of success?!?!