Holiday Hell Help

[MargoLivebetter]

Does anyone have any experience of complaining about a package holiday that was NOT an ABTA registered travel company?

I have been badly let down on a package holiday I took recently. I complained while I was away and have made written formal complaints since my return including requesting compensation. I've adapted letter templates given by Which, to make sure I've included all the right terminology etc.

However, the company are resisting giving compensation. So where do I go next? The internet says ABTA, but this company is not with ABTA, so that is not possible.

Has anyone complained to Trading Standards or gone via Small Claims Court for holiday issues and had success? Thank you.

This is completely incorrect.

I'm not sure how useful credit card protections are on holiday.
When I was defrauded by a cab driver (they falsified the amount by £200) Mastercard finally agreed it was fraud but still asked me if I wanted to tip the driver as the company (USA) had said that was standard practice - even after they defrauded me.

Which bit do you feel is incorrect and why? If your statement was intended to help the OP you should explain why she should not follow my suggestions.

Thank you @Gabitule, that's good to know about the debit card and thank you for the CAB link. I will look into that. Thank you for the court claim info too.

@Fends the holiday was advertised as having a rep dedicated to our holiday who would be available at all times and have meals with us. It was my main reason for booking. The tours were guided but not by the rep, but the rep was supposed to get us to the tours and generally organise us. They were supposed to lead the group. There was no rep! That part of the holiday was completely missing, as were some of the tours, the meals out etc. It was shambolic. Have you had any success using small claims court or trading standards?

@letmebetheone yes the tours were included in the holiday itself and were part of what was paid for when you booked the holiday. The holiday was called "Tours of XXXX" and there were detailed listings of what would be included. Have you had any success using small claims court or trading standards?

Op you could just join the Which legal service who help with holiday claims.

https://legalservice.which.co.uk/

Didn't know about that - thank you @Onceuponatimethen

Can you find out the cost of the included tours that didn't happen? They could be quantifiable losses. Contact a local (to the area) tour agent and get a quote. As others have said you got the flights, you got a hotel room (and they changed the room you didn't like), I assume no one got food poisoning. You got some (most?) of the guided tours. It wasn't as organised as you expected and you didn't enjoy it as much as you hoped not sure that amounts to any financial losses. You can give them lousy reviews to warn other people. Did it look like a really cheap deal?

@catipuss I was moved rooms because of an insect infestation - not because I didn't like the room! If only!!!! Definitely wasn't a cheap deal. I purchased the holiday 5 months in advance, didn't get any early bird booking discounts or last minute deals. I paid the full price.

Do you not think that there is any contractual obligation for a holiday company to actually deliver what was advertised? If I bought a car and bits of it were missing, I wouldn't think to myself, oh well the motor is there and the steering wheel is there and it has wheels, so the car itself runs, shame there are no seats or windscreen wipers, but the car runs, so I got a working car and just need to suck up all the missing bits.

There is an obligation to deliver what is advertised but as was said earlier there may be a disclaimer in the small print regarding the trips but you dont seem to want to confirm if there is such a disclaimer.

@letmebetheoneive checked the Ts&Cs and there are broad exclusions in the event of wars, extreme weather events or other disasters or emergencies. There were none of those. Have you had any experience of claiming via trading standards or small claims court that would be helpful? Have you used the Which legal service or claimed on a debit card or anything else that could be relevant? I’m looking for any useful tips. Thank you.

I don’t think TS would get involved.

I’d be peed off too, at that level of disorganisation and departure from the advertised package.

I don’t know what the answer to your question is but I hope you get some decent compensation.

You can still do a charge back with a debit card payment.

Did the fact they didn’t take credit cards not ring alarm bells? No way would I spend a large amount if I wasn’t able to pay by credit card and be covered by section 75.

Thank you @BooneyBeautiful, I’ve started looking into that. Appreciate your comment @DogAnxiety.

What has been the companies response to your claim?

@somanychristmaslightsin summary: v sorry to hear of all the issues, some acknowledgment of errors made and an offer of a voucher against my next holiday. The voucher is for £30. Obviously that is not ‘real’ money and it doesn’t even cover the meal that we didn’t get.

That's an extremely miserable offer! Hope you can negotiate a better deal!

Thank you @BooneyBeautiful - me too!

I don't have direct experience of using small claims court myself, but I know you can write a Letter Before Action and that others have found this jolted a company into action https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/small-claims/making-a-small-claim/

Before doing anything, I'd research the company thoroughly online (Trustpilot & Companies House as a start). This will give you an idea on whether you are dealing with a scam operation or a company that does value it's reputation, but is maybe short staffed / has made a few mistakes & can be pushed by notice of a claim to do the right thing. Not being ABTA registered is unusual though, unless they are very small.

One problem is that claims to reputable companies have escalated as people catch on to this being a way to shave off a bit of the holiday cost & so they are more resistant to compensation requests, plus all companies are struggling with costs.

With your letter of intention I'd include plenty of info which would be a headache for them in court e.g. photos of room, detailed schedule of events and complaints at the time with exact times. However, if you think they are out and out scammers then you might consider keeping some of the best evidence up your sleeve until you make an actual claim.

The number of claims against package holiday operators has ballooned. Unfortunately, many in the industry don't understand the law and confidently mis-state the law to customers. To be fair, this is true of many industries. I have come across many cases where a retailer has confidently told a customer that they don't have rights which they clearly do.

Without knowing the details, it is impossible to say for sure how likely it is that you will win, but many do. Assuming this was not a special holiday, compensation for loss of enjoyment is likely to be in the range £80-£900. You are also entitled to compensation for diminution in value of the holiday - in essence, the amount the holiday should have cost after deducting the value of any missing elements or elements that were not of the advertised standard.

There is not enough information on here to say if that adds up to 30% of the cost of your holiday. If you want to make a claim, you will need to break down the amount you are claiming to show what elements were missing or not of the advertised standard, how much you are claiming for diminution of value for each of those elements and how much you are claiming for loss of enjoyment.

Loss of enjoyment compensation will be very low as it is mostly subjective. Out of the cost of the holiday you have to exclude the value of flights, accommodation, facilities and any included food that you did use. Out of whatever is left what percentage is the £30 offered. If it’s about 10-20% then that’s probably in the right ballpark. One to chalk down to experience?

I'm curious about the law and whether it's correct, as some PP have suggested, that a customer in this situation couldn't ever seek compensation for flights, food etc that they had taken. If the promised tour was the main reason for someone purchasing the holiday, and was headlined when selling, surely the company would be in breach of contract if they had knowingly mis-sold or not done everything the reasonably could to provide the missing parts of the tour? If a holiday was advertised as a tour to visit the pyramides but never left Cairo and had made no reasonable efforts to ensure they did so, would it really be the case that the company would only be required to refund the cost of the bus & guide for one day for the pyramids? Obviously it would be different if Ts & Cs didn't guarantee the pyramids, but the OP has confirmed this wasn't the case for her holiday.

Maybe the law is not as close to my own sense of right and wrong as I think it is, so I'd really like to know the answer if there's a lawyer on here.

For some reason, a lot of people who come on here with consumer problems (faulty second hand cars, holiday issues, etc.) are met with a load of responses wrongly telling them that they have no rights, or that any compensation will be minimal and swallowed up in legal fees. Sometimes the posters that make these claims try to shout down those posters who actually know the law.

If a holiday does not live up to your reasonable expectations, you may be entitled to compensation under two headings - loss of enjoyment and diminution of value.

As a previous poster says, loss of enjoyment is subjective. However, that poster is quite wrong to say that means it will be very low. For a normal holiday, awards are generally in the range £80-£900 but can go higher. Loss of enjoyment awards are higher for special holidays (e.g. to celebrate a landmark birthday), ruined honeymoons and wrecked weddings. Awards under this heading can exceed £5,000.

Diminution of value is about the difference between the value of the holiday you reasonably expected and the value of the holiday you actually got. This covers elements that were missing (e.g. extras that were included in the price but not actually provided) and also elements that were present but not of the standard you reasonably expected. Some posters seem to think that the fact accommodation was provided means that you cannot reclaim any of that. This is wrong. If the accommodation is not of the expected standard, you can claim an appropriate proportion of the accommodation cost. So if, for example, you reasonably believe you will be staying in a luxury hotel with en-suite facilities and find you are actually in a guest house with a shared bathroom, you would be able to claim the difference in cost. It is, however, true that, if you spend 2 days from an 8-day holiday sorting out a problem with the accommodation, that won't entitle you to a 25% refund of the whole holiday, only 25% of the cost of the accommodation.

Thanks @prh47bridge that's really clear and helpful and I would expect useful to the OP too.