Teletext Holidays - Unauthorised Charges

CP9

Hi All,

I have started this thread to share a recent experience with Teletext Holidays in the hope that somebody can share some advice which can help me and others in a similar situation.

Teletext holidays recently made an unauthorised charge of £55.35 to my credit card despite my full holiday balance being paid off months ago. I have an invoice specifically showing an outstanding balance of £0.00 as confirmation of this.

I've tried repeatedly to resolve this with Teletext Holidays directly but without any joy. I have twice explained my issue to live chat operators and spoke to people in their oversees call centre. Twice I have been promised a call back from a manager, which hasn't been forthcoming. At this point in time I just feel like I've been scammed and the many other people complaining online doesn't assure me of getting this resolved any time soon. Thankfully I didn't go over my credit limit/overdraft due to this unauthorised charge, but it could have quite easily happened on another occasion. For Teletext Holidays to not even acknowledge this and offer a refund and an explaination is really frustrating. How can I even be assured it won't happen again? Barclaycard weren't able to assure me of this - basically if you pass on payment details there's nothing to stop them from charging you. I can only be thankful I paid on a credit card.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? I noticed a few similar complaints on a recent Teletext Holidays Facebook post but they were deleted soon after. Hopefully those people find this post.

I'm now considering to claim a dispute via Barclaycard but this is something I've never had to do  before and to be honest I'd much rather it be resolved by Teletext Holidays.

Thanks for reading!

Life__Goes__On

Barclaycard are talking rubbish
Just because you give a company  your card details, doesn't mean they can just take a payment anytime they want.
As you reported it as an unauthorised transaction they should have refunded you that money.
The reason they could reject it if they think you authorised the payment,  but you say you didn't and can show the balance is zero.

I would raise a complaint against  Barclaycard  

CP9

Life__Goes__On said:

Barclaycard are talking rubbish
Just because you give a company  your card details, doesn't mean they can just take a payment anytime they want.
As you reported it as an unauthorised transaction they should have refunded you that money.
The reason they could reject it if they think you authorised the payment,  but you say you didn't and can show the balance is zero.

I would raise a complaint against  Barclaycard  

At the time I spoke to Barclaycard I was hopeful of resolving this directly with Teletext and told them so. Although as time goes on I'm starting to think this is less likely and I'm going to have to raise a dispute with Barclaycard as you suggest 

Life__Goes__On

The trouble I have found in the past with an unauthorised transaction , it can be passed around in circles.
The person on the phone (if you get to talk to someone) say,  sorry we don't know what that payment is for,  we will pass it on to the team that deals with  it.  But the team that deals with it struggles to find that transaction so  just leaves it, till you chase it up. Then at some point they pass it on to the refund team,  who still can't find it, so request from the other team where does the transaction come from etc etc

Westin

Is this linked to an option you selected at time of booking to pay off the holiday costs in instalments? Or, did you after booking add anything like baggage? 

CP9

Westin said:

Is this linked to an option you selected at time of booking to pay off the holiday costs in instalments? Or, did you after booking add anything like baggage? 

Not linked as far as I am aware. Paid the full balance of the holiday up-front inclidung our baggage and transfers. It's clear on the invoice I received that there is no outstanding balance due.

Westin

Quite bizarre. Clearly the holiday cost and the credit card/payment amounts should match. Aside from what you say about the invoice showing a nil balance, is the original confirmed holiday cost and your total payment to made, over by £55.35?  If so, surprised Teletext can not provide you with an explanation for the additional amount.

Sooler

Just report it to Barclaycard as fraud.

https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal/customer/report-fraud

Teletext Holidays  gave no prior notice of the charge or any money due.

Let Barclaycard deal with it.

Nebulous2

Not fraud - but a disputed transaction. Barclaycard have a form on their website. Unfortunately it could be months before they process it.