Possible flight scam?

Muttonchops_1943

DullGreyGuy said:

Love the fact their website home page still has "dummy text" where clearly they have bought a template and not finished populating, similarly half the logos are out of proportion. 

Reading the terms they are saying that the contract is only bound when they confirm the booking, they haven't confirmed the booking and so the contract isn't bound and you are perfectly entitled to withdraw your offer to contract and obtain a full refund. 

 Having legitimately asked for a refund you would then almost certainly have the right to a chargeback if they fail to give the refund in a reasonable timeframe. Chargeback scheme is a bit picky and technically they have done nothing wrong until they fail to refund. 


You are somewhat lucky you picked this one, there was another non-UK based agent on here a lot a while back where effectively they speculate that prices on flights will drop in the future so sell you them today below todays price and then a week or so before your flight either comeback with your tickets or advise they've been unable to fulfil it and either you have to pay more or can get a refund. Naturally being a notable time later prices can have materially increased. 

And from what I understand, I cannot initiate chargeback as the funds have not yet been released, still sat in pending.

i am assuming that they do not apply for the funds until the point that the airline confirms the ticket booking and then we have a contract. And if this does not happen, i.e they don’t have them at the price advertised and supply me with them, then they have no grounds to take the money? It seems like at this moment is is merely holding them?

DullGreyGuy

Muttonchops_1943 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Love the fact their website home page still has "dummy text" where clearly they have bought a template and not finished populating, similarly half the logos are out of proportion. 

Reading the terms they are saying that the contract is only bound when they confirm the booking, they haven't confirmed the booking and so the contract isn't bound and you are perfectly entitled to withdraw your offer to contract and obtain a full refund. 

 Having legitimately asked for a refund you would then almost certainly have the right to a chargeback if they fail to give the refund in a reasonable timeframe. Chargeback scheme is a bit picky and technically they have done nothing wrong until they fail to refund. 


You are somewhat lucky you picked this one, there was another non-UK based agent on here a lot a while back where effectively they speculate that prices on flights will drop in the future so sell you them today below todays price and then a week or so before your flight either comeback with your tickets or advise they've been unable to fulfil it and either you have to pay more or can get a refund. Naturally being a notable time later prices can have materially increased. 

And from what I understand, I cannot initiate chargeback as the funds have not yet been released, still sat in pending.

i am assuming that they do not apply for the funds until the point that the airline confirms the ticket booking and then we have a contract. And if this does not happen, i.e they don’t have them at the price advertised and supply me with them, then they have no grounds to take the money? It seems like at this moment is is merely holding them?

At present there is nothing to chargeback as no funds have been taken, so far they have only asked for authorisation. Disputing an authorisation would be pointless as, at least last time I checked, there is no technical requirement to have authorisation before requisition collection.  

Many companies simply do collection straight away and deal with processing refunds if it turns out an item is out of stock or no longer available from their supplier etc etc. A minority will hold off collection until everything is ready for the contract to bind. Authorisation isn't a guarantee of funds so if a company buys something unrefundable from their supplier then go to take payment and its refused the company are then stuck holding airline tickets or a lime green Chesterfield with purple stripes or whatever. 

Muttonchops_1943

Makes sense, I just need to hope now that actually those flights don’t come to fruition and the authorisation for funds lapses as we won’t agree to any amends to the flights we wanted. It’s been 24 hours now and think they said I needed to wait 24-48 hours for the ‘tickets’ to arrive if they were available. So just got to play the painful waiting game.

Alan_Bowen

This is a non UK based company for all intents and purposes, formed at the end of August last year, the address is a well known accommodation address, has one director based in India and a share capital of £1. They cannot issue tickets themselves, are not a member of any trade association, and have no ATOL licence, so all I can say is the best of luck¬

Muttonchops_1943

Well I’m certainly hoping for Section 75 Chargeback support with this one if the tickets aren’t forthcoming. As it still stands, there is an authorisation on my card but no actual deduction of funds.

eskbanker

Muttonchops_1943 said:

Well I’m certainly hoping for Section 75 Chargeback support with this one if the tickets aren’t forthcoming. As it still stands, there is an authorisation on my card but no actual deduction of funds.

Prior to making any claim, it would perhaps be worth reading up on the fact that those are two different processes:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases/
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/visa-mastercard-chargeback/

Muttonchops_1943

Thanks - yes, very good point. I actually thoughI understood what they both were but actually reading this I’m not sure which one I’d need to use. 🥱

eskbanker

Muttonchops_1943 said:

Thanks - yes, very good point. I actually thoughI understood what they both were but actually reading this I’m not sure which one I’d need to use. 🥱

Your card provider would typically elect to try chargeback first anyway (which recovers the money from the merchant's bank), but s75 would be a second bite of the cherry if that didn't work out....

Muttonchops_1943

Update this morning:

So no ticket has been forthcoming. I received the call last night asking to now include the luggage and seats and therefore would now be a higher price. But I’d also get my ticket immediately! So I declined this option and this is when I was told, again, that the original price was a promotional offer and I could go on a waiting list for it. I declined this offer. The call centre got incredibly pissy when declining the higher price. When I said I didn’t book with intention of going on a waiting list, she kept trying to tell me that she didn’t mean I would be on a waiting list and that she could put comments on so if someone else cancels then I’d get it? It was quite hard to understand her to be honest but again, I declined it. She said no refund was due so I asked where the tickets were then if they had been booked. I also said the website and booking process made zero mention of it being a promotional offer or any mention that you could be placed on a waiting list. She tried to tell me it was in ten T&Cs but I rebuffed this as it isn’t. The other confusing thing was the flights themselves. The reason I now needed to buy baggage and have guaranteed seats and include for any future changes if I needed it was because it was a BA flight to Doha and then a Qatar flight from Doha to Perth. Both being operated by Qatar but apparently the first leg of the journey was only hand luggage. One of the reasons for wanting Qatar is that you get hold luggage on all their flights. So that didn’t sound quite right to me. 

Again, conversation went on and on and back round in circles about going onto a waiting list. Eventually I said it was the end of the conversation, they couldn’t provide me the tickets for the booking I made and therefore we wasn’t proceeding. So overnight, no email or confirmation this morning of anything and credit card payment still sat in pending. 

So not sure if this is the end of the matter now or whether I’ll get another call tonight trying to upsell again.

Voyager2002

I am quite sure you will get more upselling calls...

Make sure that you have screenshots of EXACTLY what you agreed to buy, and at what price.