Received holiday tickets but no payments made!

poodledoodledoo

donny_osmonds_mad_fan wrote: »

I work for an online travel agents and what happens when the tickets come in, is they are given to dispatch who then go through the computer, enter it on the booking tickets sent, which marks the tickets as sent on the system so if someone rings to ask where they are we can see exactly when they were dispatched....now if this happened with us we would see the booking hadnt been paid for, there would be an outstanding balance on the top and it would flag questions etc...

so surely a human must have gone onto their system to send them and it didnt look like there was a problem...somehow..

does the website you booked on have a tab where u can log on and see your booking? there may well be some clues on there, you would at least see if your booking had outstanding balance or a history attached to it etc.

I am not sure what to think about the moral aspects of this to be honest....I mean people are saying how can you accept something you havent paid for...but if they shopped online from sainsburys etc and got something extra in their shopping would they ring up and say I didnt pay for this etc...I know we are talking about way more money but the principles etc...also how many times do we see on here, tv's listed for silly money etc and everyone saying quick its a pricing error but see if you can get a bargain...we all know it isnt correct but try to take the company over etc...is this really any different?

I agree with you. To be honest, If I thought I could get a free (or cheap) holiday due to a company error I think I would take it. I know it's not the most ethical thing to do but I don't think I'd be in the minority

pink30

Just to let you all know, I went with my own gut instinct on this one rather than taking almost everyone's cynical advice, and decided to take a chance and go on the holiday! We experienced no problems what so ever and had a fantasic time. We still have not received any correspondence regarding payment, so looks as if travel operators DO make mistakes and I've been lucky enough to slip through the net!

Saint_Chris

wow can i just say well done to you, you made a decission and it worked for you.

IvanOpinion

I wouldn't count your chickens just yet. An auditor may still pick up on this and check if you went on the holiday (which is easy to find out). They may then take the money you owe them from a credit card or take you to court for the amount (and they would probably win which may also involve 'costs'). So you may have to sweat this one out for another few months .. on the plus side if they do contact you then you would be in a strong negotiating position to minimise the amount of the debt.

Ivan

rbulph

IvanOpinion wrote: »

I wouldn't count your chickens just yet. An auditor may still pick up on this and check if you went on the holiday (which is easy to find out). They may then take the money you owe them from a credit card or take you to court for the amount (and they would probably win which may also involve 'costs'). So you may have to sweat this one out for another few months .. on the plus side if they do contact you then you would be in a strong negotiating position to minimise the amount of the debt.

Ivan

I don't think that the OP would be in a strong negotiating position if the holiday company went to the police about this. By presenting your tickets at the airport you're representing that you are entitled to them. If you're not entitled to them, and you go on the holiday, you're obtaining services by deception, an offence under the Theft Act. Could entail sweating it out for more than a few months...

IvanOpinion

rbulph wrote: »

I don't think that the OP would be in a strong negotiating position if the holiday company went to the police about this. By presenting your tickets at the airport you're representing that you are entitled to them. If you're not entitled to them, and you go on the holiday, you're obtaining services by deception, an offence under the Theft Act. Could entail sweating it out for more than a few months...

my point is that I think you could come up with a defence for having gone on the holiday (to avoid any 'fraud'/'thedt' issue) but by doing so you would probably have to negate any defence for not paying for the holiday.

While I do not agree with this situation (probably an honest mistake on the companies part), from the OPs point of view, keeping a very low profile is probably their best strategy in the hope that nobody will notice ... but then companies pay auditors a lot of money to find these things months or years afterwards. I would just make sure I had the money put to one side .. just in case .. I wonder would this fall under something like a 3 or 6 year ruling (i.e. they could raise a claim anything up to 3 or 6 years later .. which I believe is plus interest).

Ivan

Pooky23

I reckon someone should let Direct Holidays know that there is someone boasting on a public forum about getting a "free" holiday. Whilst the OP may be feeling smug now, I think sooner or later the holiday company will catch up with him/her....

mystic_trev

Pooky23 wrote: »

I reckon someone should let Direct Holidays know that there is someone boasting on a public forum about getting a "free" holiday. Whilst the OP may be feeling smug now, I think sooner or later the holiday company will catch up with him/her....

I agree! Whatever the rights and wrongs of doing this the OP has let this forum know the Company they booked through (Direct Holidays) the destination (Jamaica) and the approx date of travel (July) - Direct Holidays won't have far to look to trace the 'booking' and OP will then find their cc has been debited :rotfl: They are either naive or very stupid!

boombap

Pooky23 and Mystic-trev: No one likes a snitch and it's also very bad karma!

saveapenny

I had a free holiday about 5 years back the tour op never took the money off my CC I was told they had 3 years to take it which came and went and still no money came off my CC I certainly wasnt going to tell tehm so we ended up with a almost free AI cruise round the Greek Islands all it cost was £50 whcih I paid to choose the cabin number the other £1100 never got charged
If anyone sniches I hope they never find a bargain holiday