Haven Holidays not rebooked this year

Icy2408

Like many people I had a holiday booked for last year. I had received a Family Fund grant for my disabled son and paid almost £400 extra for the caravan we wanted as well as the exact placement. We had booked for Golden Sands in Lincolnshire. We live in Sunderland and need to stop in a hotel half way there and on the way back. In May last year I received an email from Haven asking me when I would like to rebook for. I replied that I wanted whit week for 2021. I had not heard since and have been worried. For the past 3 weeks I have been trying to contact them via messaging and telephone. I was unable to get into my account also. I spent almost an hour on hold last night before they finally answered. Now, I know they are busy it is understandable but what is not is that they informed me that they had not rebooked the holiday at all! They claim they telephoned me twice last July but I had no record of it and not been out more than 6 times since March last year as we are shielding. They then informed me that the caravan has been booked now and we cannot have the holiday just our money back. Family Fund are a charity and they have informed me that the money has been used by Haven. Haven claim that the voucher has expired and they did not get the money but I know they did. They refuse to cancel the other person's holiday and rebook mine. Eventually, they said there was a standard caravan on the Friday night at the start of the holiday. However, my son is at school that day and it is his last year so we cannot as we would need to stay somewhere half way. I can't drive straight through as I had a head injury a few years ago and need to stop. They only suggested that as a last resort as I would not stop telling them they are breaching the contract. Their website also states they will honour the previous bookings from last year. It is the first grant we have ever had and my son is autistic and absolutely devastated. The holiday is the only thing keeping him going and now it is ruined. The person on the phone even said to me "for the recording are you saying you don't want a refund at all?" I truly believe they wanted to keep my money as well as the grant. I told them that I did not want the refund right now as I had to be careful. 
Please tell me what to do? We really need this holiday and it should have been rebooked. Any ideas how I can sort this out please?

sheramber

They have no record of you amending the booking.
You cannot force them to cancel the booking and relet to you.
It is a pity you did not contact them in May when you did not receive  any confirmation of the new booking  
Have you established exactly what credit they are holding for you as you talk about getting your money back?
Can you book that week for any other site? it may not be your first choice but it will still be a holiday.
You will have more chance of getting somewhere by being reasonable and negotiating than being confrontational.

[Deleted User]

 Haven sucks. They stole our family fund voucher last year when we couldn't go for obv reasons. They claimed they were not allowed to give us the voucher back they had to return it yet family fund say they cashed it. 

 Wont be booking with them again.