Opodo harassment
Options
Silly89
Posts: 2 Newbie
On 2017 we booked flights to the Canary Islands through Opodo.
The outbound flight was with Monarch Airlines and they went bust. The on ound was thomas cook but booked via opodo. Opodo refused to offer us another flight so we were stuck with a flight home but no flight to get us on holiday. We managed to claim the Monarch flight money back via our credit card company (lloyds) who also accepted a claim for the inbound flights and charged back all the money. We were advised by Lloyds at the time that Opodo would have so many weeks to dispute this claim but they did not.
Fast forward 1.5 years to now, we are suddenly being hassled by a debt collection company working on behalf of opodo to collect the debt of the inbound flight.
We have never received any letters asking for payment from opodo nor any emails or phone calls.
We have attempted on numerous occasions to contact opodo and are told by customer services they will escalate and someone will call us within 24 hours. No one ever does.
We then recieved an email from opodo stating following our request a copy of invoice. Invoice has no explanation and we do not understand it but cannot get in touch with anyone from opodo.
After a frustrating call with the debt collection company (american based??) They have said they are marking it as a refusal to pay.
We are now wondering what our next steps are to resolve this issue. Surely if Opodo did not appeal the original charge back they cannot start chasing us 1.5 years later for money? And to use debt collectors before any attempt to resolve themselves.
What can we do. This is starting to cause us a lot of stress.
The outbound flight was with Monarch Airlines and they went bust. The on ound was thomas cook but booked via opodo. Opodo refused to offer us another flight so we were stuck with a flight home but no flight to get us on holiday. We managed to claim the Monarch flight money back via our credit card company (lloyds) who also accepted a claim for the inbound flights and charged back all the money. We were advised by Lloyds at the time that Opodo would have so many weeks to dispute this claim but they did not.
Fast forward 1.5 years to now, we are suddenly being hassled by a debt collection company working on behalf of opodo to collect the debt of the inbound flight.
We have never received any letters asking for payment from opodo nor any emails or phone calls.
We have attempted on numerous occasions to contact opodo and are told by customer services they will escalate and someone will call us within 24 hours. No one ever does.
We then recieved an email from opodo stating following our request a copy of invoice. Invoice has no explanation and we do not understand it but cannot get in touch with anyone from opodo.
After a frustrating call with the debt collection company (american based??) They have said they are marking it as a refusal to pay.
We are now wondering what our next steps are to resolve this issue. Surely if Opodo did not appeal the original charge back they cannot start chasing us 1.5 years later for money? And to use debt collectors before any attempt to resolve themselves.
What can we do. This is starting to cause us a lot of stress.
0
Comments
-
Confused. Why did you claim for the inbound flight if it wasn't affected?
They supplied the service, so you owe them for the flight. The fact that your bank refunded you means nothing. That doesn't absolve you of paying for the product and service that you received.
Did you think that you no longer owed it?
At the very least you owe for the flight. How you go about paying for it is up to you.
On the other hand, you state that you have an invoice with no explanation. So what does it actually state? Is it completely blank?0 -
Yeah, so when we spoke to our bank, we asked about the inbound flight, because we couldn't get to the holiday we couldn't use the flight home either and the bank agreed that Opodo weren't providing the service they agreed on booking.
Opodo did not appeal the charge at any point in their designated timescale. They have never contacted us.
We have tried to contact them to resolve to no avail.
The first document they sent a couple of weeks ago is a sales invoice. This is what it says (removed name and ticket number). The second document is described as a credit note for -61.90. As said there is no email attached to explain these and obviously this is not what we requested from Opodo we actually were contacted them to find out if these sudden debt calls were genuine from them or a scam as they were out of the blue 1.5 years later and calling from California.
Description Amount
Mediation service of the following travel service
Low cost carrier (1) 165.08
PNR Ticket: xxxxxxx
Passenger: ×××××
Itinerary: FUE - MAN
Issued date: 19/08/2017
Low cost carrier (2) 348.20
PNR Ticket: xxxxxx
Passenger: ××××××
Itinerary: MAN - FUE
Issued date: 19/08/2017
Mediation Fee 61.90
(1), Amount collected by Opodo Ltd and passed-on to the travel supplier
(2), Amount paid directly to the travel supplier
As Opodo Ltd acts as a disclosed agent, the price of the travel service is shown only for informative purposes. For more details, please see our Help Centre.
Page
We are just really confused. As we've heard nothing from opodo and all we have are phone calls with no paper work to confirm this all
We aren't going to hand money over to a caller from California with no letters or emails to verify this.0 -
I think you need to relax...
I agree with your reasoning that Opodo have no right to the disputed money. Clearly they have simply sold off the alleged debt to a debt-collecting firm, who are not trying their luck. If the debt-collectors were ever to take you to court, they would lose.
Anyway, you will find helpful advice on dealing with debt collectors on other areas of this forum. Key points:
1. Make it clear to them that you want to communicate only by letter, not telephone. So long as you reply to their letters or email, you have a right to insist on this;
2. Ask them for proof of the debt, something that they will be unable to provide.0 -
I agree with Voyager2002 in that respect. Though Proof of Debt is not the correct term.
If they contact you again, ask them to forward all the relevant details to you via letter or post(don't volunteer any of your details) with the view of you passing the details on to the legal department of your bank.
So you'll need all of their details; address, points of contact etc Once you have it, you can send them a 'Prove it' communication.
https://debtcamel.co.uk/prove-it/0 -
Sorry to hear you are being hassled by Opodo. I recently had my own issue with Opodo. After endless promises and conversations on the phone I was getting no where. So I emailed the CEO direct. Less than 24 hours later I received a phone call from their Spanish office and my issue was resolved.
Give it a try.
dana.dunne@edreamsodigeo.com
Good luck.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 343.6K Banking & Borrowing
- 250.2K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.9K Spending & Discounts
- 235.7K Work, Benefits & Business
- 608.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173.3K Life & Family
- 248.3K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards