Loveholidays paid too much after my complaint, should I return it?

[marieofthesea]

I booked a last minute holiday this summer and went with loveholidays although I did worry at the time that they might be a bit dodgy!

Holiday (just me with my 2 teens) was a bit of a disaster. Got a bug or maybe food poisoning and now see there are multiple reports of sickness in this particular resort. Added to this one of my kids who has a dairy allergy was given chocolate they claimed was 'vegan' and had an allergic reaction, the resort then went out of their way to cover this up including lying to my face etc. On top of it all, the food and drink in the resort was a bit substandard. Holiday cost me 4k and I am a single mum. Anyway!

When I got back I decided to try and complain to loveholidays particularly about the allergy issue. I went through various back and forths with them and somewhat predictably they told me I had no case and that was that.
Then, suddenly, just over 3k dropped into my bank account!

I wasn't sure what was happening but then got an email from loveholidays who have said they were trying to pay me circa £300 as a goodwill gesture and somehow paid me too much. Can they have the difference back, they asked!

Now, I am pretty sure that the legal thing is that I have to give all of it back.

But what would you do? I mean loveholidays seem to be borderline dodgy by some of the stories I've read online and certainly rip people off and don't give refunds etc. I don't even understand why they were suddenly trying to give me £300 when they had already said, 'case closed'?!

I know I can go through something called HuntADR to continue my complaint about the holiday.

I've now got a big sum in my account that feels like some kind of poetic justice for the awful rip off holiday experience. And I don't know what to do.

Your thoughts? Thank you all!

Sounds scammy.

Go to your bank. It can be a scam

We’ve used love holidays a few times and had great experiences.

I wouldn’t send anything back! If they said they weren’t going to send you anything, they probably sent the £300 they meant to send by accident - they wouldn’t say they aren’t sending anything then send you something. Let them chase you for it and take you to court if needs be - your child could have maybe died!

You need to ignore it for 90 days so they don’t reclaim it. Do not pay it back, they could easily try to reclaim it.

Was this in Cape Verde by any chance?

Be careful, they may claim it back from your bank directly after you've refunded them, leaving you missing a lot of money.

It's definitely from loveholidays, they have emailed me as part of the same thread where I was complaining etc. The money has cleared in my account. How could it be a scam do you think?

No, Kos! xx

Oh my gawd, how do I prevent this?!

When you say ignore it, do you mean don't reply to them at all? I have already replied once, asking why they paid me any money when they already told me they were not going to uphold my complaint.

Well that's kind of what I thought! Seems like they definitely are lying when they say they were trying to send 300 as a 'goodwill gesture'! I'm not sure they know the meaning of the word!

Write back and say you accept the £3k as a partial refund for your disastrous holiday and your child's life being put at risk. And you are glad they changed their minds and have upheld your serious complaints.

Reply saying you accept their goodwill gesture of £3K in full and final settlement of your claim.

Yeah I think that's what I meant, rather than a scammy scam, they can do some sort of chargeback, which would be in addition to you already paying them it back. So they'd get it back twice, as pp says. Im not sure though!

I would be very cautious. Loving the suggestions of accepting the £3k via letter, would be good if that worked! I would probably try it actually. Just to see lol. But definitely don't spend the money, keep it in case it does have to go back.

thanks, I've googled a fair bit and I don't think they can just get money out of my account without my bank at least coming to me first! But I will remain alert.
And yes I think I will email them back saying I accept it as others have suggested, maybe in a few days. God I hope I get to keep it. It will restore my faith in the universe! 😄

It was clearly a mistake on their part. I don’t think they would just drop it and let you keep the £3k. I certainly wouldn’t be spending it anyway.

Was it the Blue Lagoon resort?

Either email back saying you accept their goodwill gesture and/or just put it to one side and ignore them? I don't see how a basic customer service agent or complaint handler can authorise that much goodwill amount lol
What's the job title of whoever emailed you? Surely if an issue they'd get legal on it.

if you make it difficult for them to reclaim it, they may give up.

There is a 'money laundering scam' where people overpay for something and then asked you to return it (or part of it) then the money has a legimate source i.e. you.

You should check with your bank BUT you should only return the money to the same account which sent it.

Someone called a 'Post Travel Manager'. But up until that point it had been a different name with every single email they sent and no job title. Lots of AI generated stock responses too.

No I won't be spending it...yet!

No it was Mitsis Blue Domes.

Hover your mouse over the email address they used, do not click on the email address itself. You should be able to see the origin of the email.

I would not spend any of the 3k until you contact them directly ie by phone.