Is this usual? Travel company taken over by another company.

JeremyHilary

eskbanker said:

JeremyHilary said:

I agree I don't think I have grounds for chargeback as I got the holiday I paid for. I'm annoyed that they're trying to get me to do this legwork, I feel like they had us over a barrel as nobody wanted their holiday cancelled as it was part of a bigger event.

It appears from leger that it was effectively a quid pro quo, i.e. that Leger agreed to provide you with the holiday you'd paid Arena for, but that this was conditional on you seeking recovery of costs from card providers (and ultimately CAA/FFI if unsuccessful) and forwarding this to Leger - how was this presented at the time?

It was presented over a quick phone call and then a follow up letter which was quite confusing. I don't think many people fully understood what they were agreeing to. 

My concern is that I paid for the holiday, had the holiday and I am not out of pocket. I feel like they've played a blinder on us here, as nobody wanted the event cancelled. 

eskbanker

JeremyHilary said:

eskbanker said:

JeremyHilary said:

I agree I don't think I have grounds for chargeback as I got the holiday I paid for. I'm annoyed that they're trying to get me to do this legwork, I feel like they had us over a barrel as nobody wanted their holiday cancelled as it was part of a bigger event.

It appears from leger that it was effectively a quid pro quo, i.e. that Leger agreed to provide you with the holiday you'd paid Arena for, but that this was conditional on you seeking recovery of costs from card providers (and ultimately CAA/FFI if unsuccessful) and forwarding this to Leger - how was this presented at the time?

It was presented over a quick phone call and then a follow up letter which was quite confusing. I don't think many people fully understood what they were agreeing to. 

My concern is that I paid for the holiday, had the holiday and I am not out of pocket. I feel like they've played a blinder on us here, as nobody wanted the event cancelled. 

Well yes, but if the company stepping in to provide the holiday (that you'd paid another company for) were doing so on the basis that you'd source some funds for them at no incremental cost to yourself, that's not a particularly unreasonable proposition, as long as it doesn't oblige you to participate in any misrepresentation, etc.  Does the letter spell out their expectations?

Voyager2002

JeremyHilary said:

Also apparently even though the holiday was covered by Company 1's insurance, the insurance company require that all customers attempt a chargeback before they will consider a claim.

I think this is the key detail. The company that provided your holiday need you to request a chargeback as a condition of claiming on their insurance. 

There are good reasons why the chargeback would fail, but if a letter from your bank saying that they cannot/will not implement a chargeback enables the company to make a successful insurance claim, it seems reasonable for you to attempt this. 

bagand96

DullGreyGuy said:

bagand96 said:

So Leger took over Arena and agreed to honour existing bookings.  

They didn't take over Arena... Arena is still in administration as the statement of affairs was only published on the 9th. They bought assets not the company.

Company, after the sale of assets had £10,001 to its name and owes over £240,000 to HMRC alone and just under £4m all in... how much would you pay to buy a £4m liability when you can buy the assets without the debts?

Fair enough, I assumed based on the OP's statements but can see the further information from other posters gives some more information.

A strange situation for sure. 

Alan_Bowen

Leger has made a mess of this by not taking advice before agreeing to accept the bookings. They should have dealt with the issue before the tours took place, as others have said, it is hard to see why any bank would agree to a chargeback when the holiday purchased was delivered as originally promised and yet, they haven't been paid and I suspect may now find their insurer refusing to pay out. 

I think I would make a phone call to the bank and explain the situation and almost suggest they issue a refusal letter just to satisfy the operator. I wouldn't spend too long writing letters and getting embroiled in negotiations to try for a chargeback as I don't think it is valid

onashoestring

If ledger require this it would make sense for them to provide a template letter for their customers to use when requesting a chargeback / refusal letter from bank .