Annoyed with holiday company :(

**JCrakers** · 23-09-2013, 12:27 PM

I'm really, really peed off.

I've spent weeks looking for a holiday for summer 2014. Took a lot of advice off my other post and eventually found a lovely hotel on a well known holiday website. I tried to book but it online but it wouldn't work so I ended up ringing in. I was told that because I have a 15yr and 12yr old I would have to book 2 separate rooms because the 15yr old was an adult and the rooms only fit 2 adults and 2 children.
Fair enough and she gave me a quote which was a little over budget, so I left it.

After trawling through all the other hotels, I still loved the original one so I thought, if I've got to have 2 rooms maybe I could do 2 separate bookings. (1 room for dh and ds and another room for myself and dd) The quote was £400 cheaper so I thought great.

I was worried about a couple of things like the rooms not being together etc so I used the live chat to ask an agent some questions. She said it was a good idea and she would make sure our hotels rooms are next to each other. She offered to stay on live chat while I made the two bookings and then if I gave her the two reference numbers she could make sure they are together. I also asked her that If I encountered any problems such as booking the first room to find out that the hotel was full or the plane was full etc then could I cancel the first booking. She said yes, no problem and gave me a number to ring in case that happened.
I was happy so went onto book a room for 2 adults, paid a deposit and then went onto book the second. Well, as I got tot he checkout it added £490 single parent supplement on, which I didn't want to pay obviously so I went back to the live chat and explained what had happened and said sorry, but i'll have to cancel the first booking. She said fine, just ring the number I gave you and they will sort it out.

Great.....I thought. I rang the number and explained what had happened (bearing in mind this was 15mins after the booking) to be told that I would lose my £250 deposit......

I was fuming. At no point during the conversation with the live chat rep did she mention THAT , otherwise I wouldn't have booked it.
So after an hour on the phone trying to sort it out and being told that not only will I lose my £250 but I have to top up my deposit and lose that too. So a total of £900 in total.

So, I've had to make the second booking, paying £500 more than I wanted to, otherwise lose £900. I feel totally misled and really angry. I've emailed higher up and kept the transcript of the conversation.

Cant believe that companies treat their customers like this

**smurfette** · 23-09-2013, 12:33 PM

Oh that's horrendous! Hope you can get somewhere with higher up beings xx

**scottishlass** · 23-09-2013, 12:46 PM

On no that's not good service at all!! I hope they get back to you asap with a solution! Xx

**linzi133** · 23-09-2013, 02:44 PM

Surely distance selling regulations come into force! You've got 7 days to cancel.... Maybe worth checking out!! (I hope you get it sorted!)

**hectors house** · 23-09-2013, 03:21 PM

What a nightmare - threaten them with watchdog or if you paid on a credit card ask your credit card company for advice, can't you get the payment stopped? How about if you and your husband shared a room and if the room was next door, then your children shared a room or is it because each room is meant to have 4 people in (2 adults & 2 adults) - or what if you and your children shared a room and your husband had a single room - maybe single person supplement would be less (not much of a holiday though).

**Chatterbox Childcare** · 23-09-2013, 05:38 PM

Sorry to harp on about Pacey but if you are a member there is a 24/7 legal help line, manned by legal people not just representatives, and they will talk to you about anything

**charlottenash** · 23-09-2013, 06:09 PM

You have rights because anything to do with distance selling as stated above has lengthy get out clauses.

Talk to someone legal xx

**JCrakers** · 23-09-2013, 08:00 PM

Thanks all

I was really cross this morning!

I managed to get hold of a few email addresses of people higher up , one of whom phoned me back and apologised profusely. Saying that's not how our company treats people and was very apologetic and said the person in question would get spoken to.

So I got a full refund and have now found another nice hotel that is a lot cheaper and I don't feel pressured into buying something.
I knew I was in the right, I can't believe the phonecall I had with customer services...shocking.