Thomas Cook - what you need to know - MSE News

N4t4lie

If you have a booking and Thomas Cook acted as the agent only you may still have a holiday.

See this from ABTA: https://www.abta.com/news/thomas-cook-group

But to add to this if you can find out if Gold Medal or Netflights Retail supplied your holiday (should be on the ATOL certificate) even though it was sold as a Thomas Cook package, you may still have a holiday. https://www.goldmedal.co.uk/media/374959/GM-guide-for-agents-and-passengers-UPDATE-26-SEP.pdf. Gold Medal had an exclusive agreement with TC to supply long haul packages working with their owner Dnata.

They also acted as agents selling Thomas Cook Siganture Packages.

If you think this applies to you, give them a call.

TAD63

N4t4lie wrote: »

Sorry to join this a bit late, but I think you do have protection in this case. See the main article on Chargeback on the main MSE web page, this is the bit you can use to reclaim your money:

"Non-delivery – the goods you've paid for were not received as promised and the company refuses to refund you."

In this case it doesn't matter who the contract is with they cannot fulfil your order, therefore you are entitled to a refund. The intermediary link is only on claims made under Section 75 and as this is a debit card you paid on you don't get S75 cover anyway.

So the steps to take are to get Gotogate to confirm in writing they are not giving you a refund, then make a chargeback claim with you card provider. If they give you the same line, ask them to investigate it as a complaint about the advice you have been given, make sure it is registered as a complaint as they have to then use the specific complaints process to investigate and provide you with a formal reply. If they still insist you are not entitled to a chargeback then get the reply in writing and then take your case to The Financial Ombudsman. Make sure you mention that you need this formal complaint to take them to The Ombudsmen to contest it, it normally wakes them up an makes sure it goes to a level that knows chargeback well.

I find when you ask for anything these days the first person you speak to seems to fob you off to get you to go away, read up on Chargeback and know your rights and don't take no for an answer. Best of luck, let us know if it works.

Many thanks for this. It gives me some hope , I will contact the bank tomorrow as I have 3 emails from gotogate clearly saying they are refusing to pay or take anything further. i have been in touch with bank twice already but the last time I had a very inexperienced person who kept having to put me on hold as he couldn't answer my questions, which were all fairly straightforward.

Can I ask please, you mentioned that intermediary parties are only an issue on s75 cover, is this correct , ie , that they are not relevant to chargeback? I am just asking as I cannot find anything suggesting they are a problem on chargeback either .

I will of course keep the thread updated.

jackie_w

marshybeans wrote: »

I’m getting a little bit confused now as i’m told two different bits of info.

Package holiday booked to New York through TC but flights through Virgin. Was in the city so popped in to store for Virgin to seem surprised that I was even querying it and that flights are more than likely to be fine but can’t check at the moment as too early.

However, I had messaged them on Facebook and I saw them telling a few people to do and their response was that our flight tickets hadn’t even been issued and therefore not valid.
Seemed annoyed that the sales advisor had told me differently and that I needed to contact the CAA immediately (i’m Guessing contact details are available as of the 30th)

At this point I figure this holiday is dunzo and it will be easier/cheaper to rebook elsewhere but I don’t want to get stuck paying for two lots of flights which is exactly what the sales advisor said.

Any suggestions??

I booked a holiday to New York with TC and flights were with virgin. I contacted virgin via phone and was advised no tickets were issued. I’ve just rebooked another holiday and am claiming back under section 75 via our credit cards.

bobblebob

Anyone had any luck with chargeback on debit card (particularly from Halifax)? Halifax website says if you arent ATOL protected you can raise a chargeback claim through them. i am ATOL protected, but was thinking going via the bank would be easier and quicker

N4t4lie

TAD63 wrote: »

Many thanks for this. It gives me some hope , I will contact the bank tomorrow as I have 3 emails from gotogate clearly saying they are refusing to pay or take anything further. i have been in touch with bank twice already but the last time I had a very inexperienced person who kept having to put me on hold as he couldn't answer my questions, which were all fairly straightforward.

Can I ask please, you mentioned that intermediary parties are only an issue on s75 cover, is this correct , ie , that they are not relevant to chargeback? I am just asking as I cannot find anything suggesting they are a problem on chargeback either .

I will of course keep the thread updated.

The contract you have in this case is with Gotogate. They are unable to supply you with the goods as described (your flights) so you should be able to use chargeback to reclaim your money. The chargeback will be done against Gotogate (not Thomas Cook, in those cases the chargeback means you are higher up the list than other creditors and the card company reclaims from the Thomas Cook administrator). Now I assume the reason Gotogate won't refund you is that they are a creditor of Thomas Cook and are unlikely to get any money from the insolvency process so your chargeback will have to come out of their own funds. Be prepared for Gotogate to contest the chargeback, but I can't see how they can not agree that they can't supply the goods to you. They must know as a flight intermediary that airlines can fail, I am sure this would not be the first time they have experienced this either.

Here's the link to the article on the main website: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/visa-mastercard-chargeback/
Having paid an intermediary does make things more complicated so be patient. There are also details of what to do if the bank does not decide in your favour. After Monarch went under I am sure there were many cases of people using chargeback against intermediaries to get a refund so this can't be a new thing.

And for reference here's the Section 75 article: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases/
I am aware it doesn't apply, but if you know when the person on the phone is out of their depth or quoting the wrong thing it can help get what you are asking for if you are clued up.

Do be aware that chargeback is not a legal cover unlike Section 75. Don't give up, be patient and don't take no for an answer.

N4t4lie

bobblebob wrote: »

Anyone had any luck with chargeback on debit card (particularly from Halifax)? Halifax website says if you arent ATOL protected you can raise a chargeback claim through them. i am ATOL protected, but was thinking going via the bank would be easier and quicker

Chargeback may be quicker, but if Halfax have a policy that if you are ATOL covered to go to ATOL then I am afraid that is what you must do first. It is likely they have decided this (a) because it saves them a lot of work, (b) not all Thomas Cook customers effected booked direct with Thomas Cook, (c) some people who booked with Thomas Cook still have valid holidays as Thomas Cook was the intermediary in this case and the banks have no way of telling them apart.

Thomas Cook was a very complicated company being both a holiday provider, and airline and a travel agent.

Westin

Hope this might help some.

[edit: just noticed that N4t4lie posted a link previously to this Gold Medal announcement]

bobblebob

“We are now also turning our attention to the challenge of refunding 360,000 ATOL protected future Thomas Cook holidays that have been cancelled. This will be three times larger than any refund programme we have managed before, and we are implementing new systems to enable us to process these refunds as quickly as possible. For around 100,000 bookings made by direct debit we hope to refund these within the next 14 days. Refunds of bookings made by other payment methods will take longer as we do not yet have all of the information we need from Thomas Cook. For these claims we will launch a new, simplified online system next Monday, 7 October, where consumers will be able to access an electronic refund form. We hope to pay refunds within 60 days of receiving a valid refund form. More information will be available on our website from 7 October.”




https://www.caa.co.uk/News/Week-one-complete-as-Operation-Matterhorn-returns-106,000-in-seven-days/?catid=159

bradders1983

Cue people moaning that its been delayed by a week, despite an online process likely to be quicker than a paper one.

hufc2002

Hi all


So we booked our Thomas Cook holiday to Florida via a local agent (Hays Travel).


My question is who pursues the claim? Me or the agent?


Thanks