To want to kick up a huge fuss about Teletext holidays trying to steal my money? Who do I complain to?

[JustBeingJuliet]

More of a WWYD really but traffic is better in here!

Phoned teletext holidays earlier to book a deal is seen online. All good; paid £462 deposit on my credit card and received an email with book g confirmation.

An hour later, the guy rang me back and said there had been a problem processing my payment and could he just check my card details were correct. They were, yet he said the payment had been declined and did I have another way of paying. I was in the middle of the supermarket so I said I would ring my bank when I got home and look into why it had been refused, then call back later this afternoon to sort the payment. They rang me a further twice while I was shopping!

Rang my card provider when I got home and it appears teletext have taken the original agreed amount of £462, which was approved, then a load of other payment attempts, which fortunately my card provider declined:

9:58am £462
10:57 £462
10.57 £0.01
10:58 £410
10.58 £0.01
10:58 £300
10.58 £0.01
11:10 £471.50
11:10 £0.01
11:11 £202.95
11:11 £0.01

Total over £2300 that they have attempted to take, despite the original payment being accepted ok.

Now, on calling them back to ask what the heck has gone on, they tell me it's a computer glitch and not to worry, but I find it hard to grasp that a computer would ask for random amounts of money over a period of an hour and a quarter. If it had been 5 or 6 lots of £462 within a minute or two, I'd have bought that, but none of these amounts make any sense. My card provider feel it was a potentially fraudulent activity, and I'm inclined to agree, but what do I do? I'd like to report them to somewhere - is it ABTA or ATOL or somewhere?

I've told them where to stick their holiday as I can't trust them, but it could be up to 14 days before I get my money back, and I'm concerned that this may happen to other people, who may not notice quite as quickly as I did. If it is a computer glitch then it needs some serious investigating!

[Witchend]

That does look like a glitch to me.

Four amounts out on one minute (they aren't even the same amount) would be too quick for a person to keep on typing it in.
And surely they would have not have contacted you on the basis they would be away before you noticed if they hadn't said anything.

[HellKitty]

I had my card used after I'd been on a website and was told by the fraud dept - they immediately stopped payments - that they try small amounts to see how active it is. All mine went to Wonga apparently!

Sorry, no help but it doesn't look like a glitch to me.

[londonrach]

The 1p attempts are fraud attempts to see if card works. Id be changing my card and reporting this teletext and my bank.

[whois]

Agreed. That is fraud and you need to cancel your card and get a new one.

[whois]

They try little amounts to see if the card is active.

[JustBeingJuliet]

Thanks. I've reported it to the bank, who've stopped my card, and I spoke to a supervisor at teletext who basically said I was being ridiculous and had no right to accuse them of fraud!

My dad said to phone the police, but I think that's a bit extreme. I think more of an ombudsman or something would be more appropriate as I fe it needs looking into.

[JustBeingJuliet]

Excuse typing, I'm on my iPhone and haven't got my glasses on!

[FanSpamTastic]

Your card provider should be able to stop all the payments that have gone out and deal with via a charge back. I would speak to your bank rather than Teletext. If you are going to speak to Teletext than I would get on to their head office rather than some customer service person that probably can't see the payments charged and so can't resolve the issue.

[TennesseeMountainPointOfView]

There's a whole bunch of companies trading under the Teletext Holidays banner. You really need to find out exactly which one you are dealing with.

On the advert page where you saw the deal, and on your receipt if you have already received it, there should be an ABTA number, if the actual company name is not shown.

If you only have the number, go here and enter it, and you will get the contact details for the company you've booked through. If you do not get a good response from the company, you can take your complaint to ABTA, who are the dispute resolution service for travel agents. ATOL deal with complaints about tour operators.

And, it could be fraud, some software platforms do not clear the card number if a payment is not authorised, so that the agent does not have to re-enter it. The rapidly repeated attempts could easily be an indicator of that.

[poocatcherchampion]

1982?

[JustBeingJuliet]

Thank you Tennessee that's really helpful.

The receipt says Truly Travel ltd and shows an ATOL number but not ABTA.

[TennesseeMountainPointOfView]

They claim not to be acting as a tour operator, or providing package holidays, just re-selling for other operators.

They are also part of the Travel Trust Association (their membership number is U6466), which guarantees your money and has a code of conduct, so if you are not getting any joy getting answers direct from Truly, try going to the TTA.

The ATOL receipt protects you against providers of parts of your holiday going bust and leaving you stranded. Do make sure that all parts of the holiday you've booked are shown on the ATOL receipt. If anything is not shown, it wouldn't be covered if the event of the provider ceasing to trade.

[holidays2018]

I booked a package holiday with teletext yesterday, whilst on the phone to them i agreed a price and received an email quotation stating agreed amount whilst still on the line.

I immediately made a credit card payment on the phone for the full amount, I was then put on hold for ten minutes only to be greeted by another operative who informed me the room i had booked was now not available so i would have to pay £40.00 on top of my £3398 for an upgrade to another room.

Having already agreed a quote and paid in full i refused to pay any more on principal, i was now informed that i must pay the £40.00 extra or the cost of the flights £2687.92 would be 100% non refundable.

Having checked my credit card statement online they have also made another unauthorised debit from my card.

This is something i have now found from online reviews they have been practising for many years and appear to be getting away with extortion, i always check reviews of holiday destinations in detail but i have let my guard down not checking teletext.

All the operatives from teletext holidays are based in an overseas call centre which i have no issues with but why are they all using false British names?

The whole thing stinks and is plain extortion i can't believe they haven't been brought to task by the authorities yet.

[SistersOfPercy]

oh Oliver it's always pertinent to actually read a thread before spamming it, that way you don't find yourself looking a bit stupid by bumping thread that doesn't show them in such a good light.

Still, I have to thank you, had you not bumped this I would never have known to avoid them!