Perfect Holidays keeping part of refund as "cancellation fee"!

Bakingcupcake

we booked to go to Las Vegas over a year ago for  a friends Wedding. Covid hit and obviously the trip was cancelled by Perfect Holidays,  due to fly end of April 2020. Perfect Holidays told me to approach travel insurer for refund as they would only offer credit note. Travel insurance said they wouldn't pay out due to being offered credit note.  So i approached credit card provider Amex who initiated refund amid covid crisis. All fine got money back in full etc etc. Fast forward a month and I receive notification fromAmex that they have recharged my card cost of package holiday as Perfect Holidays informed them i cancelled the trip as I was pregnant?! I was pregnant but not due until late September so this did not affect my trip or ability to fly and was basically total BS from Perfect Holidays. I got on the phone to them and relayed this stating this was lies and incorrect and they immediately apologised and stated if everyone went to cc company they would go out of business!!not my problem!anyway they agreed to refund me but stated it would not be within the 14 day time frame set out by government, thst was fine i just wanted my refund and had this in writing from them via email. I sent an email about once a month to keep checking on status on refund to be told virgin were holding monies back etc etc, thry agreed to refund me part of holiday and rest as soon as they could. I recieved the rest of the money earlier this week but it was £100 short. I emailer straight away to be told this was a cancellation fee they had to pass on to us blah blah blah
 On doing some research online vua govt.co.uk this is not right and ai believe they are not allowed to do this so i promptly went back to state this,but they are refusing to give me the £100.00 back, it may not seem a lot to some people but its not the point I feel like thry are just trying it on! But i dont know where to go from here...should i go back to credit card provider or anywhere else??

Caz3121

It is perfectly usual for third parties to have administration / service fees. They have to do work on your behalf and don't work for free. Many people assume that the administration fees would/should not be charged as cancellation/covid not the passengers fault but it is also not the third parties fault and they still need to pay their staff to process the refunds with the suppliers.
You would need to refer back to the original terms and conditions you agreed to to check for reference of the fee. If there is no service fee referenced for cancellations then take it back up with Perfect Holidays and ask them to provide details of where you have agreed to this as part of the booking process. If it is referenced with the amount then you will have confirmed you have agreed to it and assuming £50 per person it would likely be deemed as reasonable.

there is a section from the main MSE article under quick questions that covers this - https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/02/coronavirus-travel-help-and-your-rights/

Browntoa

Some companies has specific mention of chargeback in their terms and conditions and fees to cover that . 

[Deleted User]

👏. Brilliant answer from Caz.  Can’t add anymore but agree. 

Bakingcupcake

Ok thats fine but according to the CMA on the govt website they should not be doing this in light of covid it is detailed on there. Other people have gone to Which and Perfect holidays have now refunded their "cancellation fees" as they are charging random fees. If i had cancelled the holiday fair enough..but I didn't, there was no mention of this before, which the advisor even apologised for in his email to me?? Surely if this were part of their T&Cs he would just refer me to them?

Westin

The trading terms and conditions are IMO poorly laid out but nevertheless mention a £50 pp administration fee.
https://www.perfectholidays.com/terms.php

As reply #1 mentions, they will have costs in processing your cancellation and refund and perhaps £100 is not unreasonable for the time and effort and their cc fees. The pandemic is also not there fault.  

I would read the booking terms and conditions you agreed to at time of booking and decided whether you feel it worth fighting for the £100 if you feel their service and administration charges are not warranted.

Thrugelmir

Bakingcupcake said:

Ok thats fine but according to the CMA on the govt website they should not be doing this in light of covid it is detailed on there. Other people have gone to Which and Perfect holidays have now refunded their "cancellation fees" as they are charging random fees. If i had cancelled the holiday fair enough..but I didn't, there was no mention of this before, which the advisor even apologised for in his email to me?? Surely if this were part of their T&Cs he would just refer me to them?

You would have been supplied with their terms and conditions during the booking process. Whether you read them or not is another matter. In my experience people rarely read the small print. 

Butts

Thrugelmir said:

Bakingcupcake said:

Ok thats fine but according to the CMA on the govt website they should not be doing this in light of covid it is detailed on there. Other people have gone to Which and Perfect holidays have now refunded their "cancellation fees" as they are charging random fees. If i had cancelled the holiday fair enough..but I didn't, there was no mention of this before, which the advisor even apologised for in his email to me?? Surely if this were part of their T&Cs he would just refer me to them?

You would have been supplied with their terms and conditions during the booking process. Whether you read them or not is another matter. In my experience people rarely read the small print. 

If it was a package holiday and they have failed to refund him within the stipulated 14 days in the PTR's as they should, then I would be quite aggrieved if they were trying to slap on any sort of fee. 

Bakingcupcake

Thanks Butts thats kind of my grievance, ive waited patiently for 5 months. Yes there is a cancellation fee mentioned in T&Cs (im not an idiot and did read these) its more the case that I didn't cancel and have been messed around that I feel i shouldn't have to pay this and on researching others have felt the same and been refunded!

mattyprice4004

Bakingcupcake said:

Thanks Butts thats kind of my grievance, ive waited patiently for 5 months. Yes there is a cancellation fee mentioned in T&Cs (im not an idiot and did read these) its more the case that I didn't cancel and have been messed around that I feel i shouldn't have to pay this and on researching others have felt the same and been refunded!

I'd just take what you have, and move on (and vow not to use them again).

Some things are worth the blood pressure, this isn't one of them