On The Beach - Compensation Help

JReacher1

jackieblack wrote: »

Corrected that for you

You haven't really corrected it though

One review website of 165,000 reviews is a better indication than lots of review sites with less than 200 reviews each.

Anyway as always if on the beach were genuinely a company which provided substandard holidays to the majority of their customers then they would go bust.
The reality is that they're a perfectly decent company.

jackieblack

JReacher1 wrote: »

You haven't really corrected it though

One review website of 165,000 reviews is a better indication than lots of review sites with less than 200 reviews each.

Anyway as always if on the beach were genuinely a company which provided substandard holidays to the majority of their customers then they would go bust.
The reality is that they're a perfectly decent company.

Ok, if you say so.
Makes no odds to me, I'm never going to book with them, package deals and beach holidays really aren't my thing anyway.

Ganga

JReacher1 wrote: »

Based on the reviews it seems for 90% of 165,000 people they have got it right.....

But for the other 16,500 they have not, i have not used them myself but the number of complaints on this forum would indicate that they are not great.:undecided

JReacher1

Ganga wrote: »

But for the other 16,500 they have not, i have not used them myself but the number of complaints on this forum would indicate that they are not great.:undecided

I find people on this forum love to have a moan more than the average holiday goer

AndyBSG

JReacher1 wrote: »

Anyway as always if on the beach were genuinely a company which provided substandard holidays to the majority of their customers then they would go bust.
The reality is that they're a perfectly decent company.

Guess that all depends on how you define decent.

For me the fact they have such a prominent ABTA stamp on their web site yet know that 99% of their holidays aren't covered under ABTA rules and bury that in small print is not 'Decent'

The fact they show you a price for your holidays and let you book thinking that's what you'll pay but will frequently bump the price up 48 hours later saying that the prices they show are not live prices but just indicative prices and not final until 48 hours later is not 'Decent'

A company that has featured on Watchdog and other consumer shows and has as much bad press in comparison to others is not really 'Decent'.

Regarding Feefo, the reviews on there are paid for by On The Beach themselves so I find it hard to trust that site where you have to be specifically invited to leave a review over one where the review process is unprompted or sponsored by the company getting reviewed.

As stated I don't know how Feefo source or select their review invitations but I know I have not been asked to leave a review for On the Beach and without being invited to do so there is no way I can leave my very negative feedback so wonder how many other people who had unsatisfactory experiences with them weren't invited to write reviews.

Bottom line is that all company's make mistakes but it's how they deal with mistakes that matters. I've booked my last 4 holidays through OTB and first three went well.

Even when this one went so badly I would still have used OTB in future but they way they have handled my complaint has been disgraceful with them avoiding all responsibility due to the 'booking agent only' get out clause.

When I use skyscanner, go compare, etc it's very apparent they are just a booking agent/comparison service but when you book through OTB it is quite specifically made to look like you're using a genuine ABTA protected tour operator with the 'booking agent only' info hidden away as much as they can.

Also worth noting that if we're just going by Feefo reviews then On the Beach actually have one of the worst ratings of the big holiday providers in comparison to Expedia, Thomas Cook, etc

leylandsunaddict

I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole, but then I can't see the point of using an agent when they're not doing anything you can't do for yourself. It puts too many middlemen in between me and my bookings for my liking. Ryanair started court proceedings a couple of years back because they caused the airline so many complaints (not that they were even permitted to sell RYR because they screenscrape). They weren't passing on info from the airline to the customer, and back then the way OTB booked Ryanair the customer had no access to their own booking. They have had to change that.

To be fair to them though, their T&Cs make it very clear they are only an OTA, that they are not a tour operator and do not sell package holidays. It's clear that you're not booking anything on their website, just making an offer to buy and that nothing is confirmed until you receive a confirmation email for it. They are members of Abta, they are governed by the Abta Code of Conduct, and they hold an Atol. If you book a flight it is Atol protected. If you book a flight and a accommodation as a flight plus they are Atol protected. Obviously if you book accommodation only it isn't.

Like all OTAs that sell cheap, costs have to be reduced and that comes from reduced customer service. If everything goes well, that's great. If you don't want to make any changes or cancellations, that's great. If you use OTB and want to do any of those things they will charge you very high admin fees of their own, on top of their suppliers fees. To counter that they make the fees very clear in the T&Cs, but the problem is that most people just down read T&Cs. They just blindly accept them, and then think they've been ripped of or that they're pretending to be something they're not.

budgetflyer

As I said, T R and Sunshine do exactly the same, only better.

AndyBSG

Just an update on this.

After almost a dozen E-mails with OTB continually hiding behind the "we're just a booking agent" get out they finally caved in and refunded me 25% of the total holiday price which is made up of a 15% refund from the hotel themselves and the other 10% from On The Beach

Usual caveats of it being a goodwill gesture and no acceptance of liability on their part but that doesn't bother me.

The final E-mail I sent them which I think triggered it was when I attached the E-mails that I had sent to BBC's Watchdog, Rogue Trader, Rip Off Britain and my local paper as well as hyperlinks to reviews I posted on Tripadvisor and Trustpilot and the formal submission of a section 75 chargeback through VISA

So, anyone else having issues with them and being fobbed off will hopefully see if you make enough of a nuisance they will refund you.