Lowcostholidays collapses – your rights as 140,000 hit by travel chaos

Hester2006

PayPal have told me that there is no specific time frame for these claims at present. They say they do know that these claims are covered by buyer protection. They are working with the administrators to reinburse any valid claims as soon as possible

N4t4lie

Hester2006 wrote: »

PayPal have told me that there is no specific time frame for these claims at present. They say they do know that these claims are covered by buyer protection. They are working with the administrators to reinburse any valid claims as soon as possible

At least they are getting their story straight, got told the same at the weekend. I have interpreted this as meaning they are checking each case to see if the holiday has been taken or not. They specifically exclude in their T&Cs paying a deposit and balance for instance, but two payments to LCH might be for two holidays paid in full. I think that's what they mean by checking with the administrators, PayPal have no idea what you paid for in their 180 day limit, just that you made a payment to LCH. You may have even successfully taken your holiday and be trying to claim. They probably have till 19 August when the LCH Booking database goes offline to sort them all out then...

twbegley

Hi,
I booked my holiday through lastminute.com back in November 2015. The total package price was £3,259.53 of which I paid an initial booking reservation amount of £2,045.67 using my VISA Debit card to lastminute.com and the remaining £1,212.06 using direct bank transfer to lowcostholidays. I have payment confirmation invoices supplied by lastminute.com which also clearly state that my holiday package is provided by their holiday supplier, Lowcostholidays Spain, S.L.U.
I arrived my hotel in Gran Canaries on 15th July to be informed by the hotel that lowcostholidays had ceased trading and that the hotel had not been booked for me and my family. I had to pay £2,061.45 on personal credit card to secure the hotel booking. I spent 2 hours on the phone to lastminute.com that evening, however they kept referring to the point that lowcostholidays were the providers of the holiday. I even emailed them the confirmation invoice I received from lastminute.com but they did not help one bit.
My question is whether I should proceed with a charge back request on the VISA debit due to lowcostholidays failure to book the service I paid for or whether lastminute.com should be liable for any of this?
Thanks

kumearn

twbegley wrote: »

Hi,
I booked my holiday through lastminute.com back in November 2015. The total package price was £3,259.53 of which I paid an initial booking reservation amount of £2,045.67 using my VISA Debit card to lastminute.com and the remaining £1,212.06 using direct bank transfer to lowcostholidays. I have payment confirmation invoices supplied by lastminute.com which also clearly state that my holiday package is provided by their holiday supplier, Lowcostholidays Spain, S.L.U.
I arrived my hotel in Gran Canaries on 15th July to be informed by the hotel that lowcostholidays had ceased trading and that the hotel had not been booked for me and my family. I had to pay £2,061.45 on personal credit card to secure the hotel booking. I spent 2 hours on the phone to lastminute.com that evening, however they kept referring to the point that lowcostholidays were the providers of the holiday. I even emailed them the confirmation invoice I received from lastminute.com but they did not help one bit.
My question is whether I should proceed with a charge back request on the VISA debit due to lowcostholidays failure to book the service I paid for or whether lastminute.com should be liable for any of this?
Thanks

I can't answer your question unfortunately but I don't expect when you were booking with last minute that you knew who they were booking through. Did you? In that case I would like to think Lastminute would be responsible but this whole thing is such a mess that I wouldn't bet on it. Since our holiday nightmare with Lowcost I have bookedthevsame hotel with Travelrepublic. Booking came through and says they used Tourico and are only agents. That is who Lowcost used according to my booking info but you don't know that until it us booked! I paid in full and emailed the hotel to confirm the booking yesterday. They replied saying they did not have any booking for us. Also sent Travelrepublic an email but have not heard from them. Surely they can't take your money, book with any Tom, !!!! and Harry and then wash their hands of the whole thing?

moneysavvy35

Hey Guys - just to let you know I put in a dispute with barclaycard, as my hotel had not been paid for. They have given me the money back.:j

Good Luck to you all still trying to get your money back.

gardner1

Still nothing new from Lloyds bank Asia call centre re my visa charge back for hotel only........was told I will get money back but didn't know when

Alan_Bowen

twbegley-- in most cases Last Minute claim they were nothing more than an adverting conduit for Low Cost Holidays and I have certainly seen documents that make this clear. If that is the case, then there is no claim against Last Minute but you do have a claim against your card issuer for a chargeback. That will get you back the amount you paid, assuming it was debited by Low Cost and not Last Minute.

If that works you will almost be back to square one with only a small loss, but in future, never ever pay by bank transfer as that provides no protection at all and if you had paid it all that way, you would be looking at a total loss

makemerich12

moneysavvy35 wrote: »

Hey Guys - just to let you know I put in a dispute with barclaycard, as my hotel had not been paid for. They have given me the money back.:j

Good Luck to you all still trying to get your money back.

Hi Could i ask when you paid/Planned to travel and via what method?
We have been told to wait a futher 14 days:mad:

moneysavvy35

makemerich12 wrote: »

Hi Could i ask when you paid/Planned to travel and via what method?
We have been told to wait a futher 14 days:mad:

Hi

Paid an initial deposit in January, then cleared the balance in May. The balance left was £531.00 but as I paid more than this for the hotel I asked for some of the deposit to be taken into account also.

I provided proof of my hotel charge.

Sent all the docs & evidence on 23/07 & they credited my the account yesterday.

I am travelling at the end of this month. Paid with Barclaycard.

Good thing is that I can book hotel for cheaper than the original price..:T

makemerich12

moneysavvy35 wrote: »

Hi

Paid an initial deposit in January, then cleared the balance in May. The balance left was £531.00 but as I paid more than this for the hotel I asked for some of the deposit to be taken into account also.

I provided proof of my hotel charge.

Sent all the docs & evidence on 23/07 & they credited my the account yesterday.

I am travelling at the end of this month. Paid with Barclaycard.

Good thing is that I can book hotel for cheaper than the original price..:T

If you mean visa fantastic news we are still awaiting and go next week