Tourradar Asking Me to Withdraw Paypal Dispute Against Them Within 24 Hrs

soxiez

Hi there,

Looking for a bit of advice on my consumer rights for a refund. I have an active Paypal dispute case open against a Tourradar. They cancelled a trip I had booked back in March after I had travelled abroad to attend before Covid related restriction were in place. The short story is their t&cs state that if they cancel a booking, then the customer is entitled to a full refund, so I requested this rather than credits. However they refuse this and claim the government made them cancel and will only give me credit (However, they cancelled my booking before the UK or AUS government made any Covid related restrictions, so I maintain that it was their choice at that time to cancel). We couldn't reach an agreement on this (just arguing back and forth over the technicalities of their terms), so I escalated the case to Paypal around a week ago. I received phone calls and an email today from them today telling me to withdraw my dispute against them within 24 hours or they will rescind their offer of travel credits to me. So if I lose the case, I lose both the money I paid and also any travel credit originally promised. I've lost my job due to Covid so really could do with the money (over £1000), otherwise I would have just taken the credit originally, but it would be painful to lose the Paypal claim and also never have the option to be able to use the travel credit. 

Are they able to do this? It feels like a scare tactic but I have seen others writing on social media that they had the same threat and unfortunately lost their chargeback case so are without credit. If I lose the Paypal case for whatever reason where do I turn next? Can I go small claims court or some other route? Their treatment has been somewhat threatening so I'm not willing to drop it. Looking to call citizen's advice when they open in the morning but wondered if anyone had any personal insight on this.

Thanks in advance

Life__Goes__On

soxiez said:

Hi there,

Looking for a bit of advice on my consumer rights for a refund. I have an active Paypal dispute case open against a Tourradar. They cancelled a trip I had booked back in March after I had travelled abroad to attend before Covid related restriction were in place. The short story is their t&cs state that if they cancel a booking, then the customer is entitled to a full refund, so I requested this rather than credits. However they refuse this and claim the government made them cancel and will only give me credit (However, they cancelled my booking before the UK or AUS government made any Covid related restrictions, so I maintain that it was their choice at that time to cancel). We couldn't reach an agreement on this (just arguing back and forth over the technicalities of their terms), so I escalated the case to Paypal around a week ago. I received phone calls and an email today from them today telling me to withdraw my dispute against them within 24 hours or they will rescind their offer of travel credits to me. So if I lose the case, I lose both the money I paid and also any travel credit originally promised. I've lost my job due to Covid so really could do with the money (over £1000), otherwise I would have just taken the credit originally, but it would be painful to lose the Paypal claim and also never have the option to be able to use the travel credit. 

Are they able to do this? It feels like a scare tactic but I have seen others writing on social media that they had the same threat and unfortunately lost their chargeback case so are without credit. If I lose the Paypal case for whatever reason where do I turn next? Can I go small claims court or some other route? Their treatment has been somewhat threatening so I'm not willing to drop it. Looking to call citizen's advice when they open in the morning but wondered if anyone had any personal insight on this.

Thanks in advance

Do you know anyone that forward it the threat to Paypal?

soxiez

Life__Goes__On said:

soxiez said:

Hi there,

Looking for a bit of advice on my consumer rights for a refund. I have an active Paypal dispute case open against a Tourradar. They cancelled a trip I had booked back in March after I had travelled abroad to attend before Covid related restriction were in place. The short story is their t&cs state that if they cancel a booking, then the customer is entitled to a full refund, so I requested this rather than credits. However they refuse this and claim the government made them cancel and will only give me credit (However, they cancelled my booking before the UK or AUS government made any Covid related restrictions, so I maintain that it was their choice at that time to cancel). We couldn't reach an agreement on this (just arguing back and forth over the technicalities of their terms), so I escalated the case to Paypal around a week ago. I received phone calls and an email today from them today telling me to withdraw my dispute against them within 24 hours or they will rescind their offer of travel credits to me. So if I lose the case, I lose both the money I paid and also any travel credit originally promised. I've lost my job due to Covid so really could do with the money (over £1000), otherwise I would have just taken the credit originally, but it would be painful to lose the Paypal claim and also never have the option to be able to use the travel credit. 

Are they able to do this? It feels like a scare tactic but I have seen others writing on social media that they had the same threat and unfortunately lost their chargeback case so are without credit. If I lose the Paypal case for whatever reason where do I turn next? Can I go small claims court or some other route? Their treatment has been somewhat threatening so I'm not willing to drop it. Looking to call citizen's advice when they open in the morning but wondered if anyone had any personal insight on this.

Thanks in advance

Do you know anyone that forward it the threat to Paypal?

No, the people I've seen online who received the threat didn't mention if they showed Paypal / their credit card company the threat or not. I have reached out to some of them on facebook to check but not heard back yet. I have also sent the threat to Paypal, but also not heard back as of yet. I will phone Paypal in the morning if I can't get through on the live chat because I think it's important they see it.

Life__Goes__On

I totally agree.
What did you book with them?

soxiez

Life__Goes__On said:

I totally agree.
What did you book with them?

It was a 2 week long tour, so essentially travelling through Australia and sightseeing. Was meant to be a bucket list type thing - would have been fun given different circumstances

Life__Goes__On

What was included? Was it accommodation,  transport and any tour guides?

soxiez

Life__Goes__On said:

What was included? Was it accommodation,  transport and any tour guides?

Everything except flights - so transport, accomodation, some meals, tour guides, and activities.

Life__Goes__On

Was it just one payment to PP or were each item charge separately?

soxiez

Life__Goes__On said:

Was it just one payment to PP or were each item charge separately?

Two Paypal transactions - one for the deposit (£200 from memory) and one for the rest (£900). Both were paid at the start of Feb. I currently have a dispute open on both of them.

Life__Goes__On

You have a package holiday under Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements 2018


The reason they are panicking  and using threats is legally they should refund you in cash within 14 days 

soxiez

Life__Goes__On said:

You have a package holiday under Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements 2018


The reason they are panicking  and using threats is legally they should refund you in cash within 14 days 

Thank you - is this enforceable? I.e if for some reason I lose the Paypal cases, what is the next step to follow up on this? Early on into my claim I did some research into ATOL / IATA and ABTA protection etc. If you google these terms next to the company's name (Tourradar), the top result claims they are licensed with these associations. However it isn't obvious at all on their website which struck me as odd. I will make sure I mention this legislation to Paypal too, I wasn't aware it existed.