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!

If your holiday cost 4k and was ruined due to the fault of Love Holidays, then a full refund should have been given, so I would accept the 3k in recompense. They won't take you to court over such a small amount which is a drop in the ocean to them. They cannot legally reclaim it from your bank., so just ignore any letters they send you.

💯

Clearly transferred in error and there’s no way LH aren’t going to look for it back and if you’re unwilling to repay the overpayment I can see them going down the Small Claims Route.

By all means agree to a compensation settlement but it’s unlikely that a 75% refund will be offered to you.

Absolutely no way josé unless they pursued me legally.
Different if it was an individual. But a massive multimillion pound company like that? Compared to you as a single mum?
Nah.

I don’t understand why people think it’s ok to keep money that wasn’t supposed to be yours, it’s stealing.

How bad was your sons reaction?

But its not guaranteed to be safe for her to just refund it back to them. Refund scams are common. It might be a real LH employee but they might have found a way to scam people this way. She might refund it then they still persue and somehow have ANOTHER 3k taken from her account.

It might be a sophisticated scam where they somehow appear to be LH but aren't . scammers can phone you from numbers that match official numbers now, like official banking numbers, its called SPOOFING. May well be an email version.

There are too many variables where she might be out of pocket.

They need to work harder to sort this out, rather than simply asking her to do something that put her at risk for a lot of money!

I'm surprised how many people would just 'refund' 3k without being absolutely sure its all 100% legit.

I can imagine half of you sat on the couch on 'This Morning' saying 'you thought it was legit'

This is because car rental companies usually place a pre authorisation on your card so they can claim back for fuel, damages etc. The pre authorisation means they can just take the amount off without your permission as you’ve technically already agreed.

Most people have said op should let the banks sort it out between themselves, not to send the money back herself. Not that it's seems like a scam, but it's no hassle to her then.

You know Loveholidays don’t own or manage the hotels? They are an online travel agent. You blaming them for your son eating a chocolate in another country is crazy. You should refund the money. Someone in accounts will be in trouble for the mistake. £300 is fair.

This isn’t the scenario the previous poster was referring to though and you’re right to be cautious.

The previous poster was referring to the many people that blatantly suggested that the OP keeps the money regardless if LH look to claim it back. There’s a bit of a difference between the two situations.

Oh and if you are worried it is a scam just ring them. Sheesh.

I had something similar with an airline. They asked for the money back, once, nicely, once threateningly, and then dropped it.

I am glad you have managed to retrieve something nice from your terrible holiday. Enjoy your Christmas!

Ok I see, thanks

Great answer. Just completely ignore if for now (defo don't spend it). Happened to me too, but in a slightly different way, in my case (dead rats on terrace of an upmarket GF hotel terrace, think they had maybe had poison out and that is where they had gone to die) they were very sympathetic and offered to give loyalty points back, but the loyalty points given back were far larger than expected, probably amounting to 5 times the one night we spent there. Never really worked out whether they were just being generous, whether someone had made a mistake, or a member of staff just thought "that is disgraceful, I am awarding the top award, I am leaving tomorrow anyway etc...). We did not spend the points for ages, but later did. I would just sit tight.

There is some terrible legal advice on this thread.

The one matter which is right is that you should seek to verify the payment, preferably via a separate channel to your current email thread.

Where the thread is going astray is on your obligation to repay. If someone has paid you money by mistake (which might make sense if they intended a £300 goodwill payment, and typed £3,000), they can recover the overpayment in an action for money had and received. From what you have written, you would not have any defences to such an action.

Thus, even if loveholidays cannot magically get return of the money from your bank account, they can institute legal proceedings against you. A few posts have mentioned criminal liability, which strikes me as less likely; but then again, the police can be pretty random in what they choose to prosecute.

You can’t keep it. Your post clearly says they have told you they’ve overpaid you and they’ve asked for it back. If you keep it they could sue you. It’s a lot of money to hold on to knowing it’s not yours. If you spend it and they reclaim it then, you’re in a worse mess.

You prevent it by paying back what they have asked for, ie £2700. It’s not rocket science. It’s obviously a mistake - they have actually told you that. Ask the bank to handle the transfer back if you prefer but it’s not your money. Not sure what part of that people don’t understand.

They have already told her the £3000 was a mistake and they asked for the difference to be returned, ie £2700. She keeps £300.

Personally I'd be very very quiet now & not contact them at all..

That’s a very optimistic CFO 😂 or shall I say naive 😂

(I’m from legal and compliance)

Would you be saying the same if they said their CFO wife? The commenter went to someone they know with knowledge in this area, the gender of the person giving advice is not relevant. I don't get why you and another commented have such a complex about advice from men, absolutely ridiculous. You can dispute advice without getting your panties in a twist about it being from a man.

Love holidays are reputable but I would discuss with my bank before returning. I wouldn't just keep the money though.

I’m the other poster you referred to, nothing is in a twist though.

My frustration with comments like this are that there are plenty of people in the thread with knowledge of this topic. There are finance and legal professionals. In saying “my DH is …. and he says …..” I think the poster demonstrates a sense of expecting the direct advice from female experts to be overridden because a man has spoken. There are far fewer instances of “my sister / mum / female friend / daughter is ….. and she says …. “.

And in the case of the CFO here, it was a silly comment which probably made it stand out more.

I know a company who paid 10’s of thousands by mistake. It was just written off. The cost of taking legal action was too great. Ignore them until
a court summons appears. They can’t just take money out of your account.

But again, would you say the same if they were quoting their wife or female friend? They're giving the information they've been given by someone they think should know. The gender of that person is irrelevant to disputing the advice, it just makes you sound bitter and like a man hater when you feel the need the comment on it being a man's advice and trying to put it down for that. Just dispute the advice, not the gender of the advisor, unless it's a man saying he knows better because he's a man.