Refunds from On The Beach

nikontog2020

eskbanker said:

nikontog2020 said:

Just to add my dealing with OTB. We had a holiday to Spain booked with them, before the FCO guidelines were introduced. In August we received a message, through their website, that the hotel we had booked has decided to close till 2021, due to Covid-19, and that they were moving us to another hotel. We contacted them to say that we weren't happy with the hotel they had moved us to, as it was in a different resort, and a breach of Sec 27 of their T&C's.  After a couple of weeks of bouncing messages back and forth, OTB claiming that they hadn't breached their T&C's and threatening legal action, we eventually got to speak to a human being. During that conversation, I made it abundantly clear that we were entitled to exercise our right for a refund of all monies paid, as they were in breach of Sec 27. The girl I spoke to, confirmed that they had indeed fell foul of their own T&C's, offered a refund on the holiday, but not the flights, unless Ryanair cancelled the flight and reimbursed them. Now I discover that of yesterday (14th September), OTB have resigned as a member of ABTA, after receiving this email....

Thank you for contacting ABTA.

We’re sorry to inform you that the company, On the Beach, is no longer a member of ABTA. 

The ABTA Code of Conduct (which our Members are expected to abide by), doesn’t apply once membership ends as it cannot be applied retrospectively, regardless of when the booking was made. This means that in this case we’re unable to assist you further. 


So I'm now looking to take further action, against OTB, and looking to claim back the money for the flights.

Fortunately you still have various options available to you, as a hotel in a different resort is a significant change triggering refund rights for the entire package, so refusal to supply this is a clear breach of OTB's own Ts & Cs and the Package Travel Regulations 2018 (not necessarily in that order!), rather than the vaguer issue of adverse FCO advice, and so there is less reliance on ABTA here.  If you paid by card then you have s75 rights and/or chargeback possibilities, or if not (or if card routes aren't fruitful) then small claims court....

Following on from you posting this. My wife followed our complaint up, with an email to On The Beach, and the contents of the same email, sent in a letter, recorded delivery to On The Beach Head Office in Manchester. In the email/letter we stated what we had already stated to them in previous conversations, also stated what you suggested in regards to the Package & Travel Regulations Act. In the letter we also stated that if they didn’t give us a full refund of all monies, then we would be taking legal action to claim all money (including flight costs, and legal costs), and gave them 14 days to reply to the letter/email.

The email and letter was sent yesterday. Today we received a message from OTB, that all monies, including the air costs, are being refunded to us.

Just wanted to update and thank you for the extra info, it certainly seems to have worked.

AlfB15

I have already received my refund for a cancelled holiday with OTB and was waiting for the flight element refund.
Well they sent me an email on the 7th Aug saying if I clicked the give link I would be able to claim this element of my refund. Low an be hold the link didn't work, tried to access through the app but still no go have tried many combinations but to no avail. Have tried to contact them by email but only answering queeries about problems with taken holidays. Is anybody else having this type of problem and how can I resolve and get my money back as there doesn't seem anyway to contact them