Tui refund delay

QueryGuy1

Hi, first ever online post so bear with me. 
Booked holiday with Tui due to travel earlier this month (Jul 20) but with Covid uncertainties we rebooked a different holiday for next year (booking amended Apr 20). The original holiday was paid in full. The rebooking/new holiday resulted in a significant overpayment. I have spent several hours on hold with TUI customer service on multiple occasions (no exaggeration - longest single time was over 2hrs before speaking to someone). When I finally speak to someone they advise that I am due the refund but cannot confirm when I should expect it.
I have emailed only to receive automated response that they will not be responding to email queries/requests.
Is there anything more I can do other than just wait for them to refund the balance owed? It is a significant amount to us and we would really benefit from having our money back.
Any help would be appreciated as I'm sure you can appreciate that this is incredibly stressful and frustrating. 
Thanks. 

bagand96

It is of course very frustrating, but all the travel companies are overwhelmed at the moment, due to the volume of cancellations and refunds to be processed.  TUI have said to you that you are due the refund, and they do seem to be one of the companies who (albeit very slowly) are paying back customers what they are owed. 

I have no other advice really other than to wait it out and maybe chase it up every so often. 

QueryGuy1

Hi Bagand96,
I understand that holiday/travel companies are very busy at the moment (as are a lot of other companies). I do not believe that after circa 5/6 months of covid 'lockdown' that it's acceptable for companies to use the volume of refund requests as justification for delaying refunds. Systems exist which make the processing of them simple and efficient. I also understand the pressure businesses feel with regards to managing cash flow but for companies to withhold monies from customers for unreasonably long periods of time (in my case 3/4 months - and longer for many more people) is unjustifiable. 
All business have had to adapt and redistribute resources to best deal with customer demand/expectations and it appears that at this time TUI are failing in this respect. 
In regard to my refund I was advised by one of their customer advisors that had I not contacted them then no action would have been taken to refund any overpayment. It is only by contacting them would they take any action to address this. I was also advised it would take 7 working days to process the refund which, when I contacted them again 3 weeks later asking about my refund, I was told that they cannot confirm a time frame for when it will be processed and that I just had to wait.
(I wonder if I can try that line with my mortgage/credit card/electric debts... Lol). Don't want to rant on forever but struggle to deal with "just wait" as the only course of action available to me. 

ResignedRobot

My situation wasn't exactly the same as yours as my holiday was cancelled by TUI and I chose to take a full refund. From the point at which I requested the refund online it took about 2.5 weeks to receive the money - slightly sooner than that for the deposit, which was returned to my credit card.