Hi, I too have been stitched up by Freedom Direct.
My flights are ok, but the accommodation, which I've since found out, was booked through Holiday Brokers, is unpaid.
Holiday Brokers are a trade broker who are not ABTA or ATOL bonded and they will not honour my booking although ABTA say they have to. They have since sent me a cancellation invoice to prove my accommodation is cancelled.
ABTA have been no help at all and have given me the "claim from your credit card" line but the credit card company won't do anything until I have written confirmation from ABTA and the liquidators that I cannot claim elsewhere.
Here's the catch: I took out Supplier Failure Insurance when I booked the holiday and this was with Rock insurance. I got no written information about this insurance, other than the charge showing on my invoice and a telephone number to ring. After ringing the number I got through to Europe Assistance who told me the number was only for use once I had travelled. The gave me another number and after speaking to four different departments, they at first said I was not covered as Freedom Direct were an agent, not a supplier, then they put me through to someone else who backpeddalled somewhat and said I may be able to claim but it would take them around 12 weeks to make a decision. If they decided my claim was valid I would have to pay £50 per person excess, which I hadn't known about. This would mean a total loss of £300 which is almost half of our accommodation cost so I told them I didn't want to proceed with a claim until I got further advice. I asked them to send me a copy of their Terms and Conditions and gave them my home address, e-mail and work fax number, but almost 2 weeks later, I have still not received anything.
I rang ABTA again who told me to go back to my credit card company to claim but I'm fairly sure that if they get wind of me having this insurance cover, they will not allow me to claim under Section 75.
I have e-mailed Hays Travel twice to get the "advice and assistance" they so kindly offered in their press conference but have not had a reply. I did however, get a phone call today from them offering to assist me. When I asked how they could help, the girl told me my accommodation was still booked and I just had to pay again. I explained about the cancellation invoice received from Holiday Brokers and she went quiet then said she was sure the accommodation would still be there and did I have my credit card details so I could pay??
I have ended up re-booking my accommodation direct with the hotel rather than pay Hays Travel a penny.
I'm astounded at the lack of press coverage, both National and local, about this situation. I only live around 10 miles from the Freedom Direct offices and most people I speak to have either not heard about it or think everyones holidays have been taken over by Hays Travel.
I contacted the local newspaper about this and received an e-mail from one of their reporters who asked me to ring him. I did so and he said was keen to interview my family as he was struggling to get people to talk about this. He said if he could get enough people involved, he would be in touch the following day. That was 20th April and he has not been back to me.
If anyone wants to contact him, this is his e-mail address: tom.mullen@ncjmedia.co.uk
If enough of us get in touch we may be able to draw the publics and the Governments attention to the farce that this has become. Something has to be done so that next time a travel company goes bust, and there will be a next time, to stop others from suffering the same fate as us in the Freedom Direct Fiasco.
If anyone does manage to get a petition or petitions set up, please post them on here and on Travel Rants, and I for one will sign them and I'm sure many others will too.
Good luck to everyone in pursuing their refunds.
i have been told to ring abta back on tuesday-wednesday next week to see what the final outcome is with youtravel.com (even though youtravel.com have told me that all bookings have been cancelled).
the thing is that i want this certain hotel and hays travel said i can re-book again at the same as the original price which is cheaper than anywhere else on the net.
i dont really want to give hays any money but i guess if i still want the hotel i have to.
i dont want to miss the chance to re-book at the original price so would you suggest i book it again now??
thoughts please
the thing is that i want this certain hotel and hays travel said i can re-book again at the same as the original price which is cheaper than anywhere else on the net.
i dont really want to give hays any money but i guess if i still want the hotel i have to.
i dont want to miss the chance to re-book at the original price so would you suggest i book it again now??
thoughts please
i have my hotel with you travel, what they told me was that as freedom booked a dynamic package, which is flight with one company and hotel with another, because of this they could not honour the booking because abta had told them that any booking that has flights attached would not be covered and they would not be able to get the money back. i think everybody is told different by each company they speak to. you travel did keep my booking and at the original price i paid to freedom. i have re paid them as i want the hotel and like so many people, they are finding the price has been increased to cash in on us. i have faxed by bank to get the money back from them, waiting on their response. i supplied them with the email saying i was in cat c which clearly states i appear to of lost my money for the hotel, also gave them the reciept for new booking from you travel. my bank said this should be enough, time will tell. i had told them in the fax what was happening, included rmt accounting details for them to contact and also explained that i have had the paperwork looked at by ATOL and they had comfirmed verbally that i will not be able to claim. fingers crossed the bank will repay the money, if not it will be the financial ombudsman for the banking to see if they can force them.
i was able to chargeback the xl flights after caa would not pay us back. for people who are planning on claiming back from your credit or debit card, just explain to them and supply as much information as you can, my fax was 16 pages long. if i do get the money back i will post up on here.
i was able to chargeback the xl flights after caa would not pay us back. for people who are planning on claiming back from your credit or debit card, just explain to them and supply as much information as you can, my fax was 16 pages long. if i do get the money back i will post up on here.
found this on another site, maybe everyone should sign up and hopefully the goverment will do something to stop us all getting ripped off by the likes of freedom
This is the link:
petitions.number10.gov.uk/hols-protection/
when you click on to sign up, they ask 4 your email addy, they will then send u an email back to verify your vote, unfortunately this email will 99 times out of 100 end up in your junk folder, this email will be from 10 Downing Street, it will have a link which you must click, it will take you back to their site where it will say thank you your vote has been registered. If you don't click the link your vote does not get registered.
If you sign up please pass the word around
This is the link:
petitions.number10.gov.uk/hols-protection/
when you click on to sign up, they ask 4 your email addy, they will then send u an email back to verify your vote, unfortunately this email will 99 times out of 100 end up in your junk folder, this email will be from 10 Downing Street, it will have a link which you must click, it will take you back to their site where it will say thank you your vote has been registered. If you don't click the link your vote does not get registered.
If you sign up please pass the word around
Can you re-send that link, as I cant get into it.
I emailed my hotel and asked if they have our bookings and they confirmed - at least Low cost beds havent cancelled the bookings yet!
Still cant get an email confirmation from Easy jet regarding my flights. Transfers - well that changes almost daily - I guess I'll need to wait until nearer the time for them to find out whats happening with them!
I emailed my hotel and asked if they have our bookings and they confirmed - at least Low cost beds havent cancelled the bookings yet!
Still cant get an email confirmation from Easy jet regarding my flights. Transfers - well that changes almost daily - I guess I'll need to wait until nearer the time for them to find out whats happening with them!
i had an e mail from tom mullan he asked where i lived and he said not to worry he is only covering the vicinity.ummm. all of the uk has suffered from this perhaps a main newspaper might have the balls to take this on im due to travel 11 may so have to make decision today or my poor children have to suffer and i lose £1000.00 in flights .
Hi,
I am new to holiday-truth.com.I have also had problems with freedom direct. I had booked my accommadation and transfer with them and had paid in full,i even had the vouchers.I called hotels4u.com of whom freedom direct had booked and was told that i would have to send proof that it was paid in full.I did this and even called them back a few days later only to be told that they wouldn't honour my booking.I called ABTA and was told that they should honour it. I tried calling hotels4u again but could not get through.I got so fed up that i emailed freedom direct and hays holidays . They called me back the next day to say that my booking would not be honoured but that i could book it again at same price as they had come to some kind of agreement with hotels4u and claim back the origonal payment from credit card. I had paid it with my brothers credit card so he called credit card company to make a claim and was told that i might not get money back. If i don't i suppose i am still quite lucky as i would only be £99 out of pocket and now i am definately going to make it to marmaris for my brothers 40th.
I hope you all manage to get things sorted.
Theresa
I am new to holiday-truth.com.I have also had problems with freedom direct. I had booked my accommadation and transfer with them and had paid in full,i even had the vouchers.I called hotels4u.com of whom freedom direct had booked and was told that i would have to send proof that it was paid in full.I did this and even called them back a few days later only to be told that they wouldn't honour my booking.I called ABTA and was told that they should honour it. I tried calling hotels4u again but could not get through.I got so fed up that i emailed freedom direct and hays holidays . They called me back the next day to say that my booking would not be honoured but that i could book it again at same price as they had come to some kind of agreement with hotels4u and claim back the origonal payment from credit card. I had paid it with my brothers credit card so he called credit card company to make a claim and was told that i might not get money back. If i don't i suppose i am still quite lucky as i would only be £99 out of pocket and now i am definately going to make it to marmaris for my brothers 40th.
I hope you all manage to get things sorted.
Theresa
I paid in full for acommodation only in January and have now been told by Hays that I am catagory C and 'Unfortunately the amount you have paid for accommodation appears to be lost'. Studiply I paid by Maestro and not credit card, so do not have the option to do a charge back.
ABTA tell me that under Agency Law Med Hotels must honour the booking, but Med Hotels say ABTA have no money to pay any claims and if they honoured all the bookings they would go bust as well.
I just spend my days on the phone between ABTA and Med Hotels saying to each of them 'well ABTA advise this' or ' Med Hotels advise that'. Both have such opposing views that I am just stuck in the middle not knowing where to turn.
ABTA advise NOT to pay again, yet that is all Hays and to some extent Med Hotels want me to do. But why would I pay again for a hotel I have already paid £1000 for without the assurance that I will get the original payment back at sometime in the future.
Tading standards say it is an ABTA issue and so the circle goes on and on.
Why can't ABTA release a statement that at least explains what they are endeavouring to do and what talks are taking place. At least then I wouldl feel that someone is taking this situation seriously.
Is anyone else in the accomodation only , debit card situation with Med Hotels? If you are I would be interested to hear what your experience with ABTA/Med Hotels is.
ABTA tell me that under Agency Law Med Hotels must honour the booking, but Med Hotels say ABTA have no money to pay any claims and if they honoured all the bookings they would go bust as well.
I just spend my days on the phone between ABTA and Med Hotels saying to each of them 'well ABTA advise this' or ' Med Hotels advise that'. Both have such opposing views that I am just stuck in the middle not knowing where to turn.
ABTA advise NOT to pay again, yet that is all Hays and to some extent Med Hotels want me to do. But why would I pay again for a hotel I have already paid £1000 for without the assurance that I will get the original payment back at sometime in the future.
Tading standards say it is an ABTA issue and so the circle goes on and on.
Why can't ABTA release a statement that at least explains what they are endeavouring to do and what talks are taking place. At least then I wouldl feel that someone is taking this situation seriously.
Is anyone else in the accomodation only , debit card situation with Med Hotels? If you are I would be interested to hear what your experience with ABTA/Med Hotels is.
Hi everyone, I've just found a travel article on Google. I isn't helpful in any way but this is the only article I have found so far, which tells of the plight we are in. Note the section about Hays Travel and their assistance promise.
I have pasted the address below as I'm not yet allowed to post links. Just copy it and paste into your web browsers address bar then add the 3 w's to the front of it.
http://www.travelshorthand.com/april-failures-what-can-we-learn/
I'm in the process of e-mailing The Sun newspaper and any others I can obtain e-mail addresses for, to try to highlght the awful situation we are all in. Maybe if we can get some media attention, this might not happen again.
edit to activate link
wizard
I have pasted the address below as I'm not yet allowed to post links. Just copy it and paste into your web browsers address bar then add the 3 w's to the front of it.
http://www.travelshorthand.com/april-failures-what-can-we-learn/
I'm in the process of e-mailing The Sun newspaper and any others I can obtain e-mail addresses for, to try to highlght the awful situation we are all in. Maybe if we can get some media attention, this might not happen again.
edit to activate link
wizard
suebam wrote:
If enough of us get in touch we may be able to draw the publics and the Governments attention to the farce that this has become. Something has to be done so that next time a travel company goes bust, and there will be a next time, to stop others from suffering the same fate as us in the Freedom Direct Fiasco.
How about we all start using proper holiday companies?
i think the goverment is already involved i have come across lots of interesting articles on travelweekly.co.uk about caa rules being broken and summons to companies
gr123 wrote:suebam wrote:
If enough of us get in touch we may be able to draw the publics and the Governments attention to the farce that this has become. Something has to be done so that next time a travel company goes bust, and there will be a next time, to stop others from suffering the same fate as us in the Freedom Direct Fiasco.
How about we all start using proper holiday companies?
I think I will be speaking for most of the people following this forum when I say that I thought Freedom Direct was a proper holiday company.
With 12 years of trading under their belt it's not as if they were a 2 minute wonder!.
Although I think the way Freedom Direct traded was questionable to say the least, what I'm trying to say is that there needs to be clearer guidelines for the public to be able process their claim when a company goes bust.
No one seems to know what is going on, including ABTA, ATOL and the accommodation providers. People have spent weeks trying to resolve this and getting nowhere. We don't stand a chance of sorting out this mess if the professional bodies don't have a clue.
i am also looking into the insurances that were sold on to customers.supplier failure cover of which freedom direct sold. i was told if anything happened to them i would be covered. i thought i covered every aspect before booking £2500.00 holiday. they were selling these policies to boost there own profits. now told no you cant claim for the failure for freedom direct even though they sold me the policy and now told the policy was sold as they new the package wasnt atol protected and this insurance would provide all the protection i need and your tour operators have not failed .umm but want re payment. they are all in with the conspiracy.as long as their pockets are protected. there are loop holes the goverment need to close and close quickly.
I have wrote to my local MSP, who is normally very good at helping the man on the street - so will keep you all posted.
Also waiting to hear back from "The Judge" who is a lawyer who writes for our national Sunday paper - who I believe is looking into at, as they have asked me for more details!
I cant believe there has been no mention of this in any press or tv coverage, considering so many people are involved!
Also waiting to hear back from "The Judge" who is a lawyer who writes for our national Sunday paper - who I believe is looking into at, as they have asked me for more details!
I cant believe there has been no mention of this in any press or tv coverage, considering so many people are involved!
Jakejen
I too have contacted the Judge in the Sunday Mail. I have contacted them previously and got a positive result after the Judge intervened.
Surprisingly enough I also got a letter from ABTA asking me to submit documentation to them by 16 October. Others may wish to do the same to see what happens
Stewart
I too have contacted the Judge in the Sunday Mail. I have contacted them previously and got a positive result after the Judge intervened.
Surprisingly enough I also got a letter from ABTA asking me to submit documentation to them by 16 October. Others may wish to do the same to see what happens
Stewart
Companies do go bust all the time.
I think most people would accept the above comment if it was just that companies were no longer profitable. But in all the cases I am reading of the amount of money involved is in the tens of millions. Why did they continue to trade when it was obvious that they were in trouble.
When I was working I had monthly accounts that showed me exactly where I stood. I have served on committees of various organisations and every month I have had a balance sheet telling me exactly where we stood. Our actions were governed by that balance sheet.
I know there is a credit crunch and banks are being tight but is anyone actually looking at the figures before the bank says enough? In my opinion the continued taking of monies from customers right up until the day before they go bust can only be viewed as a criminal act. If you pay out by cheque knowing that it will not be honoured then you are guilty of f r a u d so why is that different from them taking your money knowing they will not be able to supply the goods (the holiday)
fwh
I think most people would accept the above comment if it was just that companies were no longer profitable. But in all the cases I am reading of the amount of money involved is in the tens of millions. Why did they continue to trade when it was obvious that they were in trouble.
When I was working I had monthly accounts that showed me exactly where I stood. I have served on committees of various organisations and every month I have had a balance sheet telling me exactly where we stood. Our actions were governed by that balance sheet.
I know there is a credit crunch and banks are being tight but is anyone actually looking at the figures before the bank says enough? In my opinion the continued taking of monies from customers right up until the day before they go bust can only be viewed as a criminal act. If you pay out by cheque knowing that it will not be honoured then you are guilty of f r a u d so why is that different from them taking your money knowing they will not be able to supply the goods (the holiday)
fwh
i to have contacted the judge at sunday mail. worth a try tried everybody else! lets hope more people also contact him so we can all hopefully get this resolved together. i had an email from abta asking me 2 submit my booking form by email to them which i did on friday. and as for the caa i received an email from them asking me to submit paperwork to them when in fact i sent all relavant paperwork off to them on 20.4.09 by special delivery. so emailed them back informing them of this and i no they have received it as i tracked it and seen the electronic signature. 
I sent all my documents to ABTA on 19th April, and got a call from them on the 20th telling my it would all be fine, however when I contacted the accom - Lowcost beds, they still insisted that I would need to pay again, same with taxi transfers. When I got back onto ABTA, they gave me the same babble they have given everyone else, that these companies "SHOULD" honour the bookings. I'll look forward to ABTA getting back intouch, if it seems that is what they are now doing!
fwh wrote:Companies do go bust all the time.
I think most people would accept the above comment if it was just that companies were no longer profitable. But in all the cases I am reading of the amount of money involved is in the tens of millions. Why did they continue to trade when it was obvious that they were in trouble.
Surely though, these companies need to keep trading and keep taking in money in order for them to survive another day?
If all companies ceased trading the minute they made a loss, people would still be complaining that the company took their money without providing the goods etc...
The minute a company takes its first ever order, at least 1 person will be disappointed when it all goes belly up!
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