Sykes Cottages

Life__Goes__On

Kevthegas said:

With reference to  Life goes on comment.
I was supposed to pay the balance for my holiday on the 2nd April. I stopped the payment to Sykes on the basis that to the best of my knowledge, I was not going. It turned out to be totally true.
I was offered 2021 booking at no loss of money. But as I pointed out to sykes on several occasions, " I dont want to go there next year" I want to go somewhere else. They said its not transferable to another property. I did also point out to them that I did not wish to cancel the holiday, but circumstances were stopping me from going . The property owner has not lost money due to me not turning up, as they would not have been able to let it to anyone else. There standard letter to me now is that "they will actively persue payment from me within 7 days for cancelling the holiday. Via legal means if required, which could result in me incurring extra costs.    The big give away there is "ME CANCELLING THE HOLIDAY" there not listening still

I would have done the same as you, Kev.
What do you plan to do if they continue to chase the money?

Kevthegas

Hoseasons and Cottages.com have just had their knuckles rapped from the authorities after rather a lot of complaints about their refund policy on cancelled holidays. It appears that they are going to refund peoples money after cancellations.
Possibly Sykes are waiting for that outcome. I personally welcome it, as it strengthens my case and lots of other peoples. I am sure no one would complain if Sykes had asked for a small admin charge  to cover the cost of the cancellation. Instead they are being greedy. 
Their argument I think would be that I broke the terms of the contract. In which case they would have to prove that they lost money. however the property could not be rented out to anyone else, so NO money lost. My counter argument is that they broke the contract by not advising me to cancel due to Health and Safety issues, and not advising me as per government guidelines, not to travel.
 We will see, its been over a week since I heard from them. Will keep you all posted.

Kevthegas

Latest update to my fight with Sykes.
It has been 5 weeks now since I was threatened by Sykes finance manager/director. Over my refusal to pay, based on my argument with them. Although they stated a 7 day limit before action was taken, I have heard nothing. I know its still early days yet but it hopefully gives hope to others in the same situation.
For those just joining the forum , there is an ongoing thread about the story so far, please enjoy
Kev 

Selkpyromaniac

I can't find anything after 2/7/2020, but it is now April,2021. My daughter is thinking of booking a cottage and can only get it through Sykes. Looking over the Sykes terms and conditions, they deny all liability fo the actual rental charges, saying the contract is between the owner and the guest.  Does this mean that, if the government forbids travel, money paid to Sykes will have to be reclaimed from the owner?

stulaunch

Sykes Cottages Unhappy Customers Page on Facebook is your place to head for anything Sykes related. Over 5.5k members, which tells you just how bad Sykes have been during Covid.

[Deleted User]

I vowed never to book through 3rd parties again but know it is difficult when so many are only available through booking agents.   I notice the hike in prices which isn’t really a surprise but some are ridiculous (one I was looking at pre Covid is now in excess of THREE times the price!). 

Can’t tell your daughter what to do but am holding off booking to see how things pan out.  If she does book tell her to look for fully refundable rates if poss.  

MandyKiwi

Appalling Customer Service - We booked a cottage with Skyes / Dream Cottages on the belief that it was in a particular location, only to find out that it wasn't where it was advertised. We raised this and asked to cancel it, plus get a refund. We have had our money taken by deception, we appreciated that they have finally cancelled our booking after 3 weeks of chasing, but we are flabbergasted that they still refuse to refund us directly, even after we have clearly illustrated that the property's location is misleading. We have been misled, so this sale is not valid. We have gathered evidence, provided it to them. It clearly illustrates how we were misled & we have argued that there has been a misrepresentation. The wording on their site with regards to the cottage was inaccurate and we were deceived into signing up to it, so the contract is not valid. They still refuse to give us our money back and wish us to use the money to book another holiday with them. We are furious, they will not let us talk to anyone senior, just keep getting customer services to relay messages. We have to chase them. The battle continues...

Is anybody able to offer any advice?

eskbanker

Not really a Covid-related issue so perhaps ought to be posted elsewhere (UK holidays board?) but if you're not getting any joy from Dream then your other options are likely to include chargeback or section 75 if you paid by card, or ultimately small claims.  It may not be straightforward though, as companies like this usually incorporate contractual caveats about data supplied by others (they presumably don't actually own the property?), but if you have a strong enough case that the information published was materially inaccurate then it should be feasible to get a refund via one of the above routes....

sheramber

have you used their complaints procedure?

What is our complaints resolution process?

A.We want all of our customers to receive exceptional service. If you feel that we have not delivered this please let us know so that we can put it right. You can contact us by logging in to your account and sending us a web message providing details of your complaint. Alternatively you can call our customer relations team.

Where further escalation is required, a member of our dedicated customer service team will aim to contact you within 48 working hours with an update on your complaint or with a resolution. Once we’ve fully investigated your complaint, we’ll be in touch to let you know the outcome and provide a resolution. If we don’t hear from you within 7 days of us getting in touch, we’ll close the case for you.

If we are unable to resolve a complaint to your satisfaction, we can also offer you CEDR’s scheme for the resolution of disputes, which is an impartial and independent arbitration service.