Southhall travel/Flysharp: Offering refund minus 10%

jammerr

I've had a call from Flysharp who operate as part of Southall Travel. They were pushing for a refund on some BA flights that were cancelled in March. I'd prefer a refund over a credit note but I'm told they will take 10% as part of admin fees as there's a lot of work involved for them at the moment. 
This may be true but what's the legal side of this? Part of me thinks they're just pushing for this to get as much money back from people as possible. Wouldn't happen with goods in a shop/online! 

Life__Goes__On

jammerr said:

I've had a call from Flysharp who operate as part of Southall Travel. They were pushing for a refund on some BA flights that were cancelled in March. I'd prefer a refund over a credit note but I'm told they will take 10% as part of admin fees as there's a lot of work involved for them at the moment. 
This may be true but what's the legal side of this? Part of me thinks they're just pushing for this to get as much money back from people as possible. Wouldn't happen with goods in a shop/online! 

They just can't charge fees because they want to,  does it say anything about fees in the T&Cs

jammerr

Good question!

Some airlines have now introduced a manual process for requesting refunds instead of their usual process. This requires us to complete an application form to request your refund, which significantly adds to the time and cost of requesting a refund on your behalf. We have increased the size of our refunds team to complete these application forms, which we typically lodge with the airline within 7 days of your refund request. However, some airlines are anticipating taking 4 to 6 months to process your refund following receipt of the application form. This timeframe is not something which we control..

As we incur a cost in processing refunds on behalf of our customers, our terms and conditions allow us to charge an administration fee to cover these costs. Therefore, once we receive your refund from the airline, we will forward this on to you less our administration fee for processing the refund. This administration fee will be 10% of the per ticket value, subject to a maximum amount of £75 per ticket. We know that waiting for a refund is frustrating and we really sympathize. Therefore, in the event that the airline takes longer than 4 months to process your refund request, we will waive our administration fee as a gesture of goodwill.

Life__Goes__On

https://www.flysharp.com/terms-conditions.aspx

22.Flight Changes

Should your flight be cancelled your rights and remedies will be governed by the airline's conditions of carriage. As a result you may be entitled to: (a) Carriage on another flight with the same airline without additional costs; (b) Re-routing to your destination with another carrier without additional costs; (c) Receiving a full refund; or (d) Some other right or remedy.

If a schedule change occurs to your itinerary prior to our receipt from you of the full price, or prior to the issue of your tickets (on either the outbound or return flight) we will do our best to notify you on behalf of the carrier.

Should a schedule change occur to your itinerary after full balance/ticket issue, on either the outbound or return flights the relevant supplier's decision will be final and amendment charges may apply.

No mention of any fees in their T&Cs if the airline cancels,  so they are not allowed to charge one.

I would e-mail them back stating under your T&Cs  22  you do not state any charges, so I refuse to pay any.
Unless you refund me in full, I will have no option to either raise a Chargeback  or proceed with court action.
Both of these will cost you  extra than a straight refund. 

jammerr

Thank you for this, I appreciate it. 

Life__Goes__On

jammerr said:

Thank you for this, I appreciate it. 

NP Let us know how you get on.

jammerr

Life__Goes__On said:

jammerr said:

Thank you for this, I appreciate it. 

NP Let us know how you get on.

So depsite me not asking for a refund, they have given it to minus 10%. They have not responded to my email (yet) I didn't ask for a refund. It seems to me they want to give people refunds as they get a sweet 10% each time! What is best to do now? 

Life__Goes__On

Was refund back to the card you paid with?

jammerr

Life__Goes__On said:

Was refund back to the card you paid with

Yes. Credit card

JamoLew

on the bright side 90% is better than 0%
Letter before action (or the threat of one) should shake a few branches

Life__Goes__On

Raise a  partial Chargeback against the payment transaction.  for the missing amount (partial Chargebacks are allowed, but can't be over what you paid.) 
Use as evidence, the cancellation info,  a copy of  22. Flight Changes ( just copy and paste the info above dated  18 May at 1:47PM) and the reference of the part refund that you got from Flysharp.

This will show A] it was cancelled B] you are due a full refund C] they haven't refunded fully.
 

Normally with a Chargeback the money is returned once the Chargeback is  processed

Flysharp can dispute the Chargeback, but it must supply evidence to the card company.

If Flysharp is successful,  then the Chargeback is reversed and the money taken back from your account