Chargeback challenged due to what I now believe to be wrong advice

MyRealNameToo

Goldwing1 said:

Bear with me.
We have used our local travel agent (Baldwins, Tenterden) for many years and fully trusted them. As we would be away on one holiday when the balance for our next holiday was due, we paid the balance early.

When we returned the travel agent was in all sorts of trouble and closed abruptly. We contacted the tour operator who confirmed the worst, they had received our deposit but not the balance. They confirmed our discussion which was as follows;

"You have advised that you paid Baldwins Travel  using a credit card. As discussed, under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, you may be eligible to submit a claim to your credit card provider in order to recover the funds paid to Baldwins Travel. Once this has been refunded to you, the expectation would be for the funds to then be passed to Ocean Holidays to settle the outstanding balance."

I then contacted the credit card companies and they were brilliant. They accepted the e-mail and just five days later the money was credited back onto my cards. I then paid the tour operator directly. All was well with the world until..................

The credit card companies got in touch advising that the travel agents representatives were claiming I should have claimed via ABTA. I've now done that. The ABTA website is a nightmare and I've just received an e-mail saying they could take six to eight weeks before they decide I've forgotten to send something!

In the meantime the credit card companies are sayig that if I don't reply and supply them with a negative response from ABTA they will take the money back withing ten days (Was fourteen) and, if that pushed me over my credit limit, interest will be charged!

I'm e-mailing everything I can to the credit card companies to demonstrate I'm doing everything I can. The tour operator, having got their money and issued our tickets, don't want to engage.

We fly out on this holiday on 28th July. Everything is probably going to go pear shaped while we are away and, at the time of writing, having an enjoyable holiday is furthest from my mind. The whole point of the holiday is that we lost our respective mothers in 2023 and this was a "last" family holiday with our two grown up daughters to remember them.

It's been processed as a chargeback not a S75 claim on the basis they refunded you immediately, thats simply not done with a S75 claim. 

S75 normally wouldnt work with a travel agent because they are an agency and not the supplier. However there is a chance a S75 could work in this instance because the agency hasn't actually fulfilled their duties and so they arent a middleman per se in relation to passing on the funds. 

Go back to your credit card and state you do not accept their comments on the chargeback, it is the right course of action for dealing with a payment to an insolvent company. You can now also add that ABTA has rejected your claim though that strictly isnt necessary you may as well cover all bases

Goldwing1

I had a good chat with the credit card companies yesterday. It appears they have accepted the rejection from ABTA on the basis the company challenging the chargeback supplied the wrong information and that I can't raise a complaint to ABTA. It has to go to a back office for more consideration. I've found an ABTA webpage that, essentially seems to say they don't cover travel agents. The link is https://www.abta.com/tips-and-advice/is-my-money-protected 

The extract is: "If you booked your travel service with an ABTA travel agent member and they subsequently go out of business (due to their financial failure), you cannot claim from the financial protection scheme administered by ABTA (except where you have booked a linked travel arrangement with the ABTA travel agent member and they have arranged their financial protection under the scheme administered by ABTA). For help understanding when you are booking through a travel agent see our FAQ What is the difference between a tour operator and a travel agent?"

I've had a reply from the tour operator. It's an interesting one. They insist it's still down to the credit card company to resolve, but the tour operator says, and I quote; "will ensure your party does not suffer any financial loss as a result of this situation."

Goldwing1

I received a couple of texts (One from each card company) to say they've got enough information from me to continue with my claim. It seems the travel agent has 30 days to respond. If they do, it goes to Visa for arbitration.

Anyway, I'm off on holiday on Monday.