Cancelled hotel... No chargeback, no section 75, no refund?

sarahking87

I paid for a hotel booking via loveholidays, who have recently appeared in the news because of refusals to pay refunds due to cancellations

they wrote to me saying my booking was cancelled, I said I wanted a refund, they refused. They said they were not issuing any refunds, only a voucher, which if I hadn’t used by Summer 2021 I’d get a refund then.

i am now pregnant, in the vulnerable category and can’t travel. I told them I don’t want a voucher, I want a refund. They’ve refused.

i raised a chargeback with Amex sending a copy of the t&cs , who have now also declined and said loveholidays have changed their terms and conditions to say I’ve got to accept a voucher. I complained and said under section 75 they’re jointly liable, they’ve agreed to raise a section 75 but said I’ll get the same reply and with no agreed timescale. I have since read “agency bookings” are exempt.

so if I can’t get a refund from loveholidays, and amex are refusing to help, what do I do? For info this was a purchase between £1000 and £2000.

thanks in advance 

sarahking87

Should note - of course loveholidays changed the t&cs AFTER they cancelled the service.

 Amex told me it’s loveholidays right to change t&cs, and Amex reserve the right to do the same... to which I said as the consumer I should surely be formally notified of changes and given a period of time to cancel the purchase contract if I don’t accept? Amex said it’s not for them to be getting involved in legal matters and I could raise a section 75 claim but this wouldn’t be fruitful. I asked for a copy of the call transcript with Amex.

DoaM

Amex are wrong ... a company cannot unilaterally change T&Cs of a contract.

Who was your contract with? Who did you pay? If you bought from LH, what exactly did you buy? (i.e. did you buy a holiday - as in they were the travel agent [in which case are they ABTA/ATOL registered?] - or did you buy a voucher to redeem for a holiday [i.e. the way Groupon often works])?

wesleyad

The worrying thing is, assuming you spoke to a specialist at AMEX,  that they are giving out this sort of advice! How on earth they think you can change a contract from one side and not even notify the other is beyond me. I worry how many other people they are giving this advice to.

Regardless of how your case finishes (I hope you receive your money back either from atol or S75), I would hope you put in a complaint with AMEX and the ombudsman so they can rectify this and stop other people getting poor service.

shaun_from_Africa

sarahking87 said:

 Amex told me it’s loveholidays right to change t&cs, and Amex reserve the right to do the same...

Contact Amex again and inform them that according to the Unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations, the following is regarded as an unfair (and therefore unenforceable) term in a consumer contract:

(d)permitting the seller or supplier to retain sums paid by the consumer where the latter decides not to conclude or perform the contract, without providing for the consumer to receive compensation of an equivalent amount from the seller or supplier where the latter is the party cancelling the contract;

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/2083/schedule/2/made

unholyangel

sarahking87 said:

Should note - of course loveholidays changed the t&cs AFTER they cancelled the service.

 Amex told me it’s loveholidays right to change t&cs, and Amex reserve the right to do the same... to which I said as the consumer I should surely be formally notified of changes and given a period of time to cancel the purchase contract if I don’t accept? Amex said it’s not for them to be getting involved in legal matters and I could raise a section 75 claim but this wouldn’t be fruitful. I asked for a copy of the call transcript with Amex.

You can't retrospectively alter terms. You can only be bound by the terms you agreed to accept at the time of entering the contract. They can change the terms for future bookings, but not ones that were already made.

Part of me would say (to highlight the above to amex) ask amex what happens when they change their interest rate to customers, can they do it even if the customer disagrees? Or do they need to give the customer the option of accepting the increase and being able to continue to borrow or rejecting the increase and being able to repay existing debt at the previously agreed rate but not being able to borrow in future? But it's besides the point, really. 

If amex reject the s75, refer it to the financial ombudsman. 

shaun_from_Africa

With the amount of claims and potential claims that credit providers are probably getting at the moment, I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of the companies have informed their agents to initially deny all claims and refer the customers back to the businesses concerned in an attempt to try to limit their potential losses.

sarahking87

DoaM said:

Amex are wrong ... a company cannot unilaterally change T&Cs of a contract.

Who was your contract with? Who did you pay? If you bought from LH, what exactly did you buy? (i.e. did you buy a holiday - as in they were the travel agent [in which case are they ABTA/ATOL registered?] - or did you buy a voucher to redeem for a holiday [i.e. the way Groupon often works])?

thank you @DoaM - I made a hotel reservation with Loveholidays and paid them directly in instalments (over £100 per month). My T&Cs are with Loveholidays, on which it states LH are acting as an agent. I gather because it is a hotel booking, not a package holiday, there is no travel industry protection?

wesleyad said:

The worrying thing is, assuming you spoke to a specialist at AMEX,  that they are giving out this sort of advice! How on earth they think you can change a contract from one side and not even notify the other is beyond me. I worry how many other people they are giving this advice to.

Regardless of how your case finishes (I hope you receive your money back either from atol or S75), I would hope you put in a complaint with AMEX and the ombudsman so they can rectify this and stop other people getting poor service.

thank you @wesleyad - I have made a complaint to the FCA ombudsman as Amex have been terrible... The escalation team contacted me, told me it's Loveholidays right to change the terms, Amex can't argue with the changes, and a section 75 wouldn't get any different a response. I think this warrants a complaint in itself, as everyone seems to agree that's completely wrong. The chat transcript still hasn't materialised. 

born_again

S75 is not applicable as you used a 3rd party (love holidays) so no debtor creditor link.
You could have a chargeback right, but expect Love Holidays to contest it on the basis they have offered a remedy.
The other option is report to CMA who are looking into retailer not refunding.

sarahking87

born_again said:

S75 is not applicable as you used a 3rd party (love holidays) so no debtor creditor link.
You could have a chargeback right, but expect Love Holidays to contest it on the basis they have offered a remedy.
The other option is report to CMA who are looking into retailer not refunding.

yes, so we revert back to the start of the post where loveholidays wont honour their own terms, amex won't support, and i'm left out of pocket with no service having been provided. Just can't win.

We are not in a financial position to accept a voucher nor will I be able to travel later this year anyway, so as far as we are concerned this isn't a suitable offer and we need the refund as per the original terms.

I am clutching at straws but have reported to the FCA as above, escalated within Amex again to their "executive complaints team" - whatever that is - and I suppose I will have to speak to loveholidays for the 10th time if Amex don't want to support the chargeback. What a nightmare. Feels like we have been robbed. 

sarahking87

Update - had a call from the Amex escalation team saying they have credited and closed 7 of the cases, but have declined 2 of them.
 

Very strange, considering all 9 transactions make up the same booking. Amex do not know why this has happened.

They have pushed it back to their escalation team again under section75 to look into it further. Hopefully this results in the other 2 transactions being credit, not the other 7 being declined!