Tour Operators and Travel Agents

Discussions regarding Tour Operators and Travel Agents
Re: Goldtrail
264 Posts
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jersey moo can your bank not call that payment back with it only been paid monday its worth asking ive just sent my claim form in to OTB we booked accomodation with OTB they used hotels4u ive cancelled but i dont know what they are going to charge for doing this did hotels4u tell you what the cancellation fee would be? curious to see if they are going to be sympathetic or just cash in on our misery hope the bank can help you
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I booked my holiday through OTB last Friday and payment wasn't debited from my account until Monday so I cannot see how OTB could have paid the monies onto Goldtrail before the close of business on Friday.


I cannot answer for when payments were made to Goldtrail but as far as an item not being debited against your account until Monday is concerned that is due for two reasons.

1 - When you make a payment by credit or debit card it begins a journey through the system. If you look at other payments you make it is normal for payments made to take several days to actually hit your account.

2 - The payments made on a Friday also hit the slow down that occurs with weekends. In effect they enter a limbo until Monday. The payment has been authorised but gets stuck in the system.

Because all this is done by computer and electronic transfers then OTB could have paid the money into the system. Not defending anyone but sometimes we all get caught up in the system. Oh for the days when we paid by cheque.

fwh
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Booked my flight directly with Goldtrail on Thursday ( due to fly tomorrow) day before Goldtrail went into admin. As soon as I heard the news I looked for an alternative flight and was lucky to find one cheaper than the original Goldtrail flight so consider myself fortunate that I can still go on holiday.

Today I contacted Mastercard and they are sending me out forms to be completed so I can claim back monies paid for the original flight and they confirmed that as soon as the form is recieved it will be processed straight away. There was no dispute over whether I had to claim via CAA, so I am hoping that claim will be quite straightforward. It's quite astonishing the way different banks are giving out different information isn't it? You would have thought by now after so many travel companies have folded that it would be a routine procedure for the banks!

Good luck to everyone affected by the collapse of Goldtrail, hope you manage to get your holidays and/or reimbursed very soon x
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Sandy49 - I'm certain the bank wouldn't be able to recall the money as as soon as I gave my card number, I authorised payment. Had I paid direct to Goldtrail I could try and get the funds back via the chargeback system but as I used an agent, I understand I have to claim via ATOL.
I telephoned Hotels4u last Saturday regarding cancellation and was told that under the circumstances they would accept cancellation but I didn't ask about charges - I would hope no charge but probably not.
The guy I spoke to at OTB did say that when they look at their books, they are able to ascertain if funds haven't been paid over to Goldtrail and also ATOL do double check before refunding.
So much for a relatively cheap late deal - in addition to any cancellation charges, I have 3 flights into Gatwick from the CI either to loose or change at £60 a time.....................
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jersey moo i will ring hotels4u shortly and let u know if there is any charges i want to know what they say and then when i finally get through to OTB see what amount they come up with

* well i tried to get through 40 min on hold so gave up !
sent them a email hotels4u said the booking was cancelled by OTB on monday no mention of charges have emailed back to ask still waiting a response no emails from OTB since sunday unable to get through on the phone
  • Edited by sandy149 2010-07-21 18:28:29
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My brother-in-law has put his claim in for flights with Goldtrail . He cancelled his holiday as cannot get flights and already his refund is in his bank account for the Hotel.
Good work for Sunhine holidays .co.uk very very quick he only emailed to cancel on Monday night .He just needs flights money back but that could be a while yet.
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Another thumbs up from me for sunshine.co.uk. I had flights booked direct with Goldtrail and hotel and transfers booked with sunshine. Rang sunshine on Saturday when I heard about Goldtrail and they said that hotel and transfer will be refunded through the free supplier failure cover that they provide. I faxed them copies of Goldtrails invoices etc on Monday as proof that I was due to fly with Goldtrail, and I have received an email to say that all monies for hotel and transfers (minus £15 admin fee) will be paid into my account in the next few days.

Now, lets just hope that the CAA/ATOL are as quick and willing to pay back my money owed for the flights.
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Yes i agree cannot fault sunshine.co.uk at all as i said earlier fast is not the word. ?I would of been in same situation but my wife. insisted a differant country this year.We are off in 3 weeks to Cyprus. But i will miss not going to Turkey
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I bet OTB admin fee wont be so reasonable still waiting to hear from them to confirm cancellation
glad you got your refund
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Thanks Sandy149 hope you get sorted soon
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sandy149
I've just spoken to Hotels4u who said the booking was cancelled on Monday free of charge and OTB have the money.

OTB told me yesterday that they e-mailed to cancel at 3.30pm on Monday so that's pretty efficient of Hotels4u. OTB also told me that I would see the refunded money when I go to the page "manage your booking" but there's nothing showing on there. I will give them a ring in a bit when I can face it!
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The CAA website has been updated with information for Goldtrail customers currently abroad, who were due to fly home Friday or Saturday. Some flight schedules have had to be changed and passengers need to contact the CAA overseas helpline on 0044 203 441 0846 to confirm reservations and timings:

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=2036&pagetype=90

David :wave
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Hotels4u very kindly accept a cancellation free of charge and funds with OTB the same day (Monday), although I suspect they were never actually paid over to Hotels4u as the booking was only made last Friday. I've just spoken to OTB who says it will take another couple of days for the funds to be processed and they will charge a cancellation fee of £30 per person - £90!
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i got a email from hotels4u they have kindly not charged any cancellation fee however what was interesting is they asked me to confirm if OTB have taken any cancellation fee and if they have would i let them know so they can investigate
very interesting.....
not heard a thing from OTB
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Just thought I would mention how fantastic Sunshine.co.uk have been in dealing with this situation.
I've had daily emails whilst trying to re-arrange my accomdation dates to fit in with my new travel dates.
Their "cut" of the flight costs have been returned to my account already and now only have to wait for the claim to be processed with ATOL.

Out of a bad situation it's good to offer praise when praise is due. Not sure if any of the "big boys" would have handled it any better
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just got through to OTB (have been trying since last sat)
i asked if they could give me an update...they confirmed i had cancelled the accomadation- I agreed i had "we have to wait for it to be refunded"he said i asked when "not sure" i asked do hotels 4 u charge for cancelling"(knowing they hadn) not sure to be honest" ok not much information there
told to put my claim in i told him it was sent on monday recorded i asked could you confirm it was recieved "no doesnt tell me on the system"
great!!! waste of a phone call advised to ring tomorrow??? will the information be any different no i dont think so
my whole experience with OTB from start to finish has been terrible and it certainly isnt improving
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jesey moo re your charges i rang today to find out what was happening and was told my accomadation was cancelled on monday and they were waiting to here from hotels4u i know hotels 4u havent charged so i asked OTB if they would be charging for the cancellation she said no not under the circumstances? however ill wait and see first but if i were you i would be asking why you have paid 90.00 unless its because you were due to travel soon we were not due to go till 5th sept let me know how you get on
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not at all.. many of the independent holiday companies/travel agents use to purchase flights mainly to turkey from goldtrail, so apart from the thousands of gold trail customers caught out there are many others who may [or may not yet] know that their flight has gone down the pan,
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ABTA to meet Goldtrail administrators over agent advice

ABTA is meeting tomorrow with Goldtrail administrators Begbies Traynor to discuss inconsistencies in the advice it has given agents.

The administrators originally advised agents, through its website, to refund any money they held for untaken Goldtrail holidays back to the relevant customers.

Now Begbies Traynor says agents should pay the money to Goldtrail Travel Limited - in Administration.

Customers must claim back money through the ATOL scheme.

ABTA advises agents to pass such funds to the administrators and says it will be discussing at the meeting the issue of agents who have mistakenly refunded consumers.

An ABTA spokesperson said: "Any agent who acted on advice given to them acted in good faith and we'll be strongly raising that with [the administrators]."

With permission from Travelmole
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