are loveholidays scamming me?

[ByAzureMoose]

I booked a holiday to Italy for 3 nights for me, DH and 3 DC. It came out to about £1600 and was paid in total. At the last second I realised the flight wasn't ideal so I changed it to a flight earlier that day and did it through the airline directly who didn't make me pay anything, then I went to love holidays to make the modification and they made me pay £90 in fees which I did.
I woke up today to check and although the hotel is not confirmed yet it is asking me to pay an outstanding amount of £2600? Where the hell did that come from?
I called them and they put me through to 5 different people which were all useless. I don't know what to do and I'm panicking, how has the holiday almost tripled in price I don't understand, especially because their Ts and Cs said you only need to pay the fare difference and amendment difference?

Oh no, this sounds awful! I've read on MN that loveholidays have terrible customer service, but maybe posting on their social media will get their attention?

Have you checked that the flight time is the only thing change and not accidentally changed the date too? Sounds like an excessive fee and profiteering from Love Holidays. I needed to change the entire dates of my holiday with Jet2 and that ended up costing me £600.

Just the time of the flight and the second room is now a three bed rather than two because that was the only option available? But even so that is not a £2k difference and I went to check and if I book the same holiday all over again with the changes there isn't even an £50 change per person so they can't say it's to make up the difference of the changes?

What is the extra £2600 for? Have you checked that dates and everything else stayed exactly the same?

I called them and they were so useless and put me through to about 5 different people who all said a bunch of nothing just rambling on about the room being pending but that does not justify doubling the total price and not even sending an email or letting me knowing about it until I saw it in the account? I also did the customer service chat and he said it def wasn't normal so he'd have a look and raise it, let me know in a few days which is a bit comforting but I'm still scared they'll fleece me for a 3 night holiday that I already paid for!

Have they sent you the cost for a whole holiday rather than just amendments by mistake? What a nightmare, and when you can't find anyone who can tell you what's going on it makes everything so stressful. I agree with putting it up on their SM and hoping they give you someone to contact who know what they're talking about.

No it's shown as a progress bar that theres still £2k left to pay. I just don't understand how a simple amendment could turn out as over the double the original price, I'm scared they'll jump through hoops to justify it

Can you clarify a couple of things.

The change you made was a flight change but still on the same day and just at an earlier time? Why did you do it yourself through the airline and then have to tell Loveholidays - was it not a package deal where they should have done all changers on your behalf ?

Why did you have to do a room change if the flights were all on the same day ? A room for 2 will be much cheaper than a room for 3 so that being booked nearer departure could be much more expensive.

The flight change was def on the same day. I clicked on managing flights on love holidays and it said to do it through the airline and then let them know. It cost nothing for me to change the flight through the airline and I did let them know it was just a small amendment fee. I didn't actually change the rooms it just came up that way that that was the only one available for that time, even so if it is slightly more expensive fair enough, but a different room for 2 of us would never be £2k?

Lesson learnt, never book through Love Holidays. I’ve heard so many bad things about them. sounds like you possibly have 2 sets of rooms??

I think possibly 2 sets of rooms is what happened for some reason. Hopefully it can be corrected. Maybe call the hotel?

Hi all! Thank you so much for the help. I tried customer service chat for the third time and she immediately said don't worry about it, don't pay for it, ignore the pending payment etc. so I feel alright now? She said they would sort everything including the hotel and the payment, but I still feel a bit... a reputable site shouldn't have an option to con people out of money like that for no reason anyway