Help with Lastminute.com please?

AdamC8

I’m hoping someone can advise on the following: We booked a flights & apartment package in Lisbon with Lastminute.com for the end of Feb. A week after booking they told us the return flights had to be changed and sent us an email with our new flights, which was inconvenient but manageable. I phoned the apartment company a couple of days before travel as instructed, to discover that they did not have our booking. I then spent two days waiting for lastminute to arrange a new apartment and only knew we had a place to stay the evening before we flew out. The replacement was OK, although the boiler kept tripping out and we had intermittent hot water, but we had little choice and didn’t’ know this before we arrived. Having an old bathtub randomly in the living room and cupboard doors propped in the hall was unusual, but apart from that it was a nice, spacious place. It was clearly a work in progress, but suited us for five adults.
I then tried to check in to our return flights a couple of days before departure, and discovered that those too had not actually been booked even though they had been confirmed by lastminute. Again, a day and a half of chasing and we only got confirmed return flights on the morning of our departure. To make matters worse, they could only fly us back to Heathrow, which was not where we flew out from and not where our car was. Lastminute promised to refund the cost of a taxi from Heathrow to our car in Luton Airparks, but despite sending an invoice copy we are still waiting for the £120.

Do I have any recourse? I can’t really afford going to court, but they seem to be ignoring my questions about refunding the taxi fare, and I haven’t even asked for any compensation yet, although the stress of it all pretty much ruined the holiday.

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I'm running out of options.

Many thanks.

brianposter

What evidence do you have that lastminute agreed to refund the taxi fare ?

Caz3121

AdamC8 said:

 but despite sending an invoice copy we are still waiting for the £120.

how long is it since you got back?

AdamC8

We got back on the 18th of Feb. When I spoke to them on the phone on the morning of our departure they told me that it would take two or three days to get reimbursed after I provided them an invoice. I did that on the 20th, after receiving an email from their customer support requesting that I do so. They had us backed into a corner really because they hadn't booked our flights home and said that Heathrow was our only option because all flights to Luton were booked.

It may be worth adding that we used an Uber because it was the cheapest option for the five of us. Train was over £200 at that short notice, and coaches were not only over £160, but weren't available at 10pm when we got out of the airport. The point I'm making is that, even after being messed about, we tried to play things straight.

Voyager2002

AdamC8 said:

We got back on the 18th of Feb. When I spoke to them on the phone on the morning of our departure they told me that it would take two or three days to get reimbursed after I provided them an invoice. I did that on the 20th, after receiving an email from their customer support requesting that I do so. They had us backed into a corner really because they hadn't booked our flights home and said that Heathrow was our only option because all flights to Luton were booked.

It may be worth adding that we used an Uber because it was the cheapest option for the five of us. Train was over £200 at that short notice, and coaches were not only over £160, but weren't available at 10pm when we got out of the airport. The point I'm making is that, even after being messed about, we tried to play things straight.

Which year was this?

AdamC8

This year. You're scaring me now! Does it really take years to get anything out of them?

Voyager2002

AdamC8 said:

This year. You're scaring me now! Does it really take years to get anything out of them?

Judging by other posts on this board, it is not a matter of years but of milennia.

AdamC8

brianposter said:

What evidence do you have that lastminute agreed to refund the taxi fare ?

Only the phone call with them whilst in Lisbon, which I didn't record, and an email saying they would consider our claim. Not much help unfortunately. 

brianposter

With that evidence, and given that the whole problem seems to be a failure by Lastminute to perform their basic obligations, it would seem more sensible to put everything into one claim for which you have adequate concrete evidence. Claim for telephone costs, time wasted at a reasonable rate and the taxi fare all together, as your evidence for the costs as a whole (emails & phone bills) is difficult to refute.

Someone else should be able to suggest a reasonable rate for time wasted.

Do not be afraid of going to court as it is quite educational, and you will probably never get there.