Package Holiday Ended Early - Refund Assistance Desperately Sought!

Ladyshopper

Apologies if this is long, there is a lot to it but will try and keep it as brief as possible:

Booked a package cruise holiday with Cruise Nation. Package consisted of flight to Santiago, 2 nights in hotel, 15 night cruise, 6 nights hotel accommodation in Orlando, direct flight home. Total length of holiday (including 2 overnight flights) is 25 nights. ATOL certificate states that it is Hays Tour Operating Ltd who are responsible, but my package was booked and paid for through Cruise Nation (in tiny writing at the bottom of Cruise Nation's website it states they act as agents for Hays).

Flew to Santiago on 11th March (overnight flight), arrived on 12th March. On the 13th March we received notification that our cruise that we were due to board on the 14th March was cancelled.

Cruise Nation repatriated us home on the 16th March (was a nightmare, but trying to keep this factual).

Since then I have been attempting to secure a refund of our holiday. I have contacted Cruise Nation numerous times, and have also emailed them at least weekly. Separately to calling and emailing them about what is happening with our refund, I also submitted an official complaint to them regarding how everything was dealt with, this also mentioned refund, as we hadn't had contact from them since getting home. I received an auto acknowledgement to the complaint the day I sent it (27th March) and on 30th March received a reply saying that a refund for the cruise had been sought (no mention of anything else) and that ABTA had doubled the time limit for complaints to be dealt with, and that they had 56 days to look into it, but that I should be kept updated. I have had no further response to this (despite me sending emails asking for any update), and the 56 days have now passed.

Of the many emails sent to Cruise Nation, I did get a random reply to one, saying that a cruise refund has been applied for, but for everything else we will have to go through travel insurance. I replied to this stating that this is not what The Package Travel Regulations seem to say, but they just repeated I needed to go through travel insurance. I have contacted my travel insurance, we have an annual policy through Cedar Tree and paid extra for travel disruption. They state that legally it is down to the travel agent/tour operator to refund us as it was a package holiday we bought, and package holidays are listed as being excluded from their policy (clearly I didn't read the 40 odd page policy booklet well enough to notice this). They also sent a link to ABTA stating this, and again, it seems to match what The Package Travel Regulations say.

On 1st April I disputed the transaction through Barclaycard and sent all the paperwork off. Barclaycard have been a nightmare to get hold of and I'm getting nowhere fast with them. They've told me the transaction is suspended until 5th June while they investigate it. I tried calling the disputes department last week and was hold for an hour and a half before a lady answered and told me that unfortunately, there was a problem with the phonelines and she was getting calls for the disputes team even though she shouldn't be, so she wasn't able to assist me.

If you've got through all that well done!! I've left a lot out about totally rubbish Cruise Nation have been as it isn't relevant to the refund issue really, but I'm desperate for any advice. It's now 11 weeks since we left for our holiday that we basically got 2 nights of before it all went pear shaped, and we're no further forward. If anyone can offer any constructive advice I'd be really grateful. We spent a lot of money on a holiday we didn't get, and feel like we're being fobbed off everywhere we turn.

manetti

I sympathise with what you are going through but I think you have done everything you can at this stage - if your credit card provider have advised you to wait until 5th of June I would presume this is perhaps the deadline for the merchant to dispute the claim, though I cannot say that with any certainty.

Life__Goes__On

Don't understand what Barclaycard have done,  if they had processed a Chargeback on April 1st it should have been done and dusted by now.
If you are unsure what Barclaycard have done  and can't find out,  make a complaint against them, as this might get their attention, as shouldn't take 10 weeks to raise one..

manetti

Life__Goes__On said:

Don't understand what Barclaycard have done,  if they had processed a Chargeback on April 1st it should have been done and dusted by now.
If you are unsure what Barclaycard have done  and can't find out,  make a complaint against them, as this might get their attention, as shouldn't take 10 weeks to raise one..

My thinking was that if documentation was submitted on 1st April, is there a possibility that it wasn't processed until some time after? How do they register the 'start date' from which the vendor has an opportunity to dispute?

I thought it felt like a similar enough timeframe to be a possibility.

Life__Goes__On

Once they process the claim, then the 45 days start.
But normally with a CB you know when it's been processed as the money is returned to the account (and removed again if the retailer successfully challenges it) I don't know if BC are different.
 

Ladyshopper

Thanks all.

I don't know what Barclaycard are doing either. Every time I send a message through their secure messaging system (only way I can speak to them) they assure me it is being dealt with, but can't give me any time frame. When I ask if it will be done by 5th June they say they can't be sure. When I ask why the money hasn't been credited back to my account whilst it's being investigated like other cards do, they ignore the question.

Unfortunately Cruise Nation don't take Amex, I always try and pay with that when I can, and they've been brilliant with another couple of claims I've had. I've also had to do a claim on my Halifax card, and they also credited the money back straight away but warned me that the retailer had 45 days to dispute. In one case with them I've been credited by Halifax and the retailer has also eventually refunded me. I've told Halifax so they can recall one of them, but it's still sitting in my account! However, would rather have that than not have the money back at all as in the case of Barclaycard.

Life__Goes__On

I don't understand why they don't answer your question
"When I ask why the money hasn't been credited back to my account whilst it's being investigated like other cards do"

I don't think it's acceptable to ignore a customers question regarding their policy on an issue they are facing.
Hopefully a complaint will finally get them to answer it and tell you how your Chargeback is progressing.

Nebulous2

I can’t get any sense out of Barclaycard either, other than it is in progress. First secure message sent 23rd March and documents posted 10th April. 

The whole system has completely bogged down. Travel agents, banks, airlines and insurers are all playing a game of chicken, waiting for the others to blink first. 

Life__Goes__On

Seems BC is the worse with dealing with a Chargeback
My CCC processed it in a few days in mid April,  the 45 days is nearly up.

Thrugelmir

Nebulous2 said:

The whole system has completely bogged down.

No one is geared up for an event of this magnitude. There are only so many hours in a working day. 

Ladyshopper

Thrugelmir said:

Nebulous2 said:

The whole system has completely bogged down.

No one is geared up for an event of this magnitude. There are only so many hours in a working day. 

That is true, and I agree to a point.

However, it does seem as if a lot of these companies (definitely Cruise Nation!) are hoping that if they just ignore you for long enough, you'll give up and go away.

I honestly don't know how they can get away with breaching The Package Travel legislation, but I'm also a bit stuck as to what to do to force their hand.

I'll do a complaint to Barclays, as it has been just over 8 weeks now since I did the dispute online.