Last minute ripoff

Old_timer1944

I thought you might like to be aware of the practises Lastminute.com are using to totally rip off clients.

The week before Christmas I decided to book a long weekend break to Paris with Lastminute.com for my wife’s Christmas Present. 
Having chosen a Hotel and upgraded to de luxe double room with view and chosen convenient Eurostar trains I confirmed booked and paid required deposit by credit card for £198.20.
During this process I confirmed I had read the Terms & Conditions. I’m afraid I did not read all 22 pages. I have now discovered to my cost this error.

Checking through my confirmation details and following the link to obtain Eurostar tickets, to my horror I found that it was for 1 person only, me!

Going back to my online booking I attempted to add my wife as a second passenger, this proved impossible so I attempted to contact Lastminute by phone, only being referred back to their website. In frustration I decided that as I was logged into my online account I would cancel booking and rebook again paying particular attention to 2 people. I did expect my deposit to remain in my online account. No it had vanished, and I was advised by email that the cancellation team would advise in 3 days the outcome.

I then contacted the “online help”to try and get advice on how this could be rectified. I was told that unless I could provide a “screen shot” of the error nothing could be done. I explained that I had no idea how to do that ( being 80 years old and not full computer literate), the correspondent informed me that she would notify the cancellation team. I requested an email giving details of this online chat, this was denied.

Next morning I was checking my credit card on line to see if deposit had been refunded so I could proceed with new booking. To my absolute horror I found  that they had deducted a further £334.23 cancellation charge. A total of £532.63 for nothing. Bearing in mind the the total cost of the booking was £611.09, this represented almost 90%  of the total cost and the balance would not have been due until 26/02/2025


Contacting my credit card company (John Lewis Money) I sought help to see if these payments could be withheld. I was advised that although they were unjust, as I had confirmed that I had read the T & C’s the payments were not fraudulent so nothing could be done.

I would add that the booking was not until the 28th - 31st  March 2025so not imminent and the cancellation was made within 30 mins of the original booking. So none of the parties involved could claim financial expenditures 

Any advice on how to proceed or recover my losses would be appreciated, I have tried their customer services but to no avail.

Emmia

Book direct, Eurostar and hotel separately. 

Or, book both through Eurostar. We've had a couple of great deals for train and hotel through them.

Hotel Okko (a nice chain) near Gare De L'Est and Eurostar plus (where you get food and bigger seats) is £663 (for two) for your dates with the 09:31 train, getting you into Paris at 12.58.

You can cut that price by doing standard Eurostar and a cheaper hotel.

heatherw_01

Moving to travel board as this is the forum to report holiday bargains and deals.

Nebulous2

Last minute was one of the worst companies during the pandemic. They pretty much shut off their phones and refused to deal with anyone for months. Eventually the government threatened to take action against them before they made some attempt to settle outstanding claims. 

Like most of the low-cost agents you may get a slightly better deal if everything goes well, but if things go wrong, then it is going to cost you.