OnTheBeachHolidays wrote:

Just spotted some people recommending people to email forums@onthebeach.com - just so you know this is not us... you need to email forums@onthebeach.co.uk with your MYB.

Thanks

I might try this - has anyone had any success with this email?

Here is my problem....

On Monday 27th December I booked 2 flight tickets through them for a Thomas Cook flight costing £234. I understood that as it was a live system confirmation would take up to 48 hrs.
By the Wednesday evening there was still no confirmation.

On the Thursday I received an email saying they had tried to contact me regarding the booking (no missed calls or voice message) and asked me to call them.

This is when the problems began!

I caled them and was told that the person who was dealing with it was on the phone and would call me back immediately. 2 hrs after this when I didnt receive a call I rang back again and was told that the person dealing with it (different name again) would definetly call me at 4pm. They didnt, of couse.

I did manage to speak to someone when I called again at 5pm, who then informed me that the prices had gone up £80 to and they had to check if I wanted to continue at the higher price. I said that i didnt want to as I knew I could still get them cheaper than the newest cost with a different airline. I was then informed that the booking would be cancelled. I then asked if any money would be deducted from my account and was informed that it wouldnt be. I then rushed around and booked other tickets through Thomson costing £30 more. This was confirmed straight away as done through the airline.

On Saturday 1st January I received confirmation from Onthebeach that the original flights had been booked and deducted from my account, at a cost of £238!! So this price is more than the £234 first, and less than the £314 quoted during the phone call.

Crazy. So now I am left with 2 sets of tickets on the same day!

How likely is a refund? I spoke to them as soon as i noticed the email and they said they would 'review the call' it to see if I can get a refund.

Hope you can help!

L

Hmmm! I had the same issue a while back and they refused to refund, said it was in their terms and conditions. They also said they would reveiw the calls to see what was said, just in case, but still no joy. I really got fed up with the run around so i decided to go all the way, if i was to lose over £750, then another £25 was not going to make a lot of diference, so i went to Moneyclaim online. I was determined to take them to court over this, paid my £25 for the action, filled in all the neccesary online documents, requested transcripts of all the telephone conversations, and requested any other data held,ie. ip address data for the online booking. Seven days later the documents were served by the court and low and behold 10 days after that a full refund if i dropped the case, including my £25 back. Job done!

This company is notorious for doing this type of stuff and they will give you the run around until you give up. Frankly their customer service is total cr*p and i doubt it if you will get your refund in the normal way. Just dont give up on this.

Thanks for the info. I received a PM so I have emailed the address above.
I will keep you updated with what happens.

Also to note is that when I paid originally, I agreed to £234 (and this was confirmed through a visa security check that you get now) but they actually took £238 from my account. is this in anyway unlawful?

This thread was closest to my irritation but believe it's illegal & wonder how it can be solved ? Was shopping around for best priced flight to Turkey on specific date later this year. I found same Monarch flight at different prices and best on Travel Republic, chose to book this & was surprised but VERY pleased to not get fleeced with credit charges+++ ! For this reason chose deposit & balance at later date.
When e-mail confirmation/e-ticket/receipt came through they had taken several pounds extra as charges & only then told me there would be another set of similar charges when balance paid. These charges wipe out the best price that I'd found. Had they identified them as they usually do (even if only at the very final point of booking but before agreeing to transaction) I'd have continued shopping.
Although a relatively minor amount is this not illegal ? I was told x amount but they took x + £1.94 & only then told me that there is a further £3.98 charge when balance paid. To minimise charges I usualy pay total at booking & use debit card. Used credit on this occasion. Does this make my position any better ?

Many thanks for any advice out there.

Also to note is that when I paid originally, I agreed to £234 (and this was confirmed through a visa security check that you get now) but they actually took £238 from my account. is this in anyway unlawful?

These sort of checks are usually for the purpose of confirming that it is the genuine cardholder who is making the transaction and that it isn't an instance of fraudulent use of the card details. Wether taking the extra is legal or not will depend on the terms and conditions that you 'ticked' as having read before the transaction was completed. It is not uncommon for suppliers of services to request authorisation from you for further payments at the time of the original transaction. Many hotels do it when you register so that they can add any 'extras' to your account without you having to agree a separate authorisation eg items from the minibar. Car hire companies often do it so that they can take the excess if the car is returned damaged or without the required amount of fuel being left in it etc. This does sometiomes take people by surprise but they have usually authorised this when signing for the car without realising because they have read the T&Cs fully.

So the best thing to do in the first instance is to go back and carefully read through OTBs T&Cs - you'll have a case if there is no mention of this in them, you won't if they stipulate that you are agreeing to this when you accept the T&Cs.

SM

Although a relatively minor amount is this not illegal ? I was told x amount but they took x + £1.94 & only then told me that there is a further £3.98 charge when balance paid. To minimise charges I usualy pay total at booking & use debit card. Used credit on this occasion. Does this make my position any better ?

These sound to me very much like the charges applied by most companies for use of credit/debit cards. It is of course a bit deisengenious of them really - how else are you going to pay them? Many of them will not even accept cheques now, even if sent well in advance.

fwh

To minimise charges I usually pay total at booking & use debit card.

I've used Travel Republic a lot over the years and to be honest can't remember whether they made a charge or not and at what point in the booking process this was applied, if they did. However, can you give us a bit more information on how this charge was arrived at? Most web-based travel companies and airlines charge a fixed sum for a credit card transaction but the fact that this is different for the deposit compared to the balance suggests that they are levying a % based charge. Is this the case? I'm fairly certain that if I did use a credit card to pay for my last Travel Republic booking that I would have remembered paying a 2% charge because it would have been for a lot more than they've charged you on this occasion I did initially wonder if this extra charge was in some way connected to the change in VAT but checked and realised that VAT isn't payable on air travel so taht can't be the case.

However, unless the total payment is less than £100 it can be false economy to use a debit card instead of a credit card because in a dispute with a retailer you have far more rights if you use an credit card than if you use most debit cards because the card company is equally liable if things go wrong. So I do usually use a credit card for web transactions over £100 and regard the charge as a payment for the added protection that gives me. So assuming the flights came to more than £100 you could now take this up via your credit card supplier if you are disputing this payment.

SM

PS Lakappa, forgot to add that as this is a complaint about Travel Republic rather than On The Beach, it might be an idea to post it in the Travel Republic thread on the 'Tour Operators and Travel Agents' part of the board because an employee of theirs (steved1) regularly responds to and deals with problems and questions posted there.

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=74888&start=560

SM

Also to note is that when I paid originally, I agreed to £234 (and this was confirmed through a visa security check that you get now) but they actually took £238 from my account. is this in anyway unlawful?

OTB charge 1.95% for a debit card so that's not a million miles from they extra they've taken. Strange though if this is the case, as I would have thought it would have gone through on the verified by visa check.

UPDATE!!

To update you on the outcome from a few posts above.
I didnt get a reply from the email adress so had to use the premium rate number they give.

As I suspected a refund was not the easiest thing to aquire. The company had to retrieve the phone call that said the costs had gone up and that i wanted to cancel. Once they had this call they would hear the 'evidence' and give a refund.

Conveniently, for them, they couldnt find the call so as a result wouldnt give a refund.

I then asked why instead of £234 +£3.16 card charges, £238 + £6.16 had been charged to my card. They stated that this was because they were taking a loss on the total cost of the flight anyway (presumably the extra £80 they claim to not have told me about), so charged me a little more.
There were doing me a favour apparently.....but they werent as i had already booked another flight, and my !!!! isnt big enough to require two seats....on different planes!

It was only after querying whether they could take extra without my approval, and me mentioning contacting the bank to start the chargeback process did they eventually agree to refund the full amount.

Holidays eh? who needs them!

OHH my god! They are the worst holiday firm ever............... (I used to love them)

I got very confused when trying to book my holiday, I seemed to keep going though pages and pages requesting more money i.e., baggage, After realising what a massive error I had made in trying to book this holiday. I thought I would cancel it (after all there is no terms and condition on there website that say you can not cancel a pending holiday order)

So I called customer services and explained what happened, got told they could not help me and I needed to speak with sales. I called sales and got put through to the most RUDE, ARROGANT, man on the plant who keeps me waiting for a very long time. He said he could not help me at all as I had booked this holiday and sales do not deal with cancellations. I explained my order had not been confirmed and was only pending, he was admit he was not going to help me, so I asked to speak with a manger, None were available to talk to me and they would call me back........I am still waiting for my call back

So out of frustration I called customer services who helpfully informed me. that there were not going to cancel my pending order, nor would they be able to help me in any way and that def no manger would not call me back........ohh and my order was confirmed in there system 15 minutes AFTER I was I was on the phone trying to cancel it. Also in the booking bit they sent to me my name been his spelt. So now I stuck with a very expensive holiday in the wrong name with a company I cant stand.

So I have written my complaint, still no answer"¦"¦"¦.

WARNING TO OTHERS DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY

You certainly aren't the first to complain, and will no doubt, not be the last.

With regards to cancellation - it is not OTB that sets the cancellation terms, it is the supplier. Maybe OTB had already confirmed it with one or all suppliers involved?

I'm a bit confused - I have never used On the Beach so don't know what you mean by the term 'pending order'? Did you change your mind before or after providing them with your card details and/or after you hit the 'confirm order/booking' button? I'm assuming that at the very least, it was after you provided the card details - or how else would they now have been able to bill you and hold you to this booking?

If a 'pending order' is their terminology for a booking that you have committed to but that they haven't yet confirmed by email to you then I'm not sure that how much you can do about this. You will have placed a firm order which they went ahead and fulfilled and you would need to check their T&Cs as to whether they allow a 'cooling off' period or not which is what you seem to have assumed you had.

(after all there is no terms and condition on there website that say you can not cancel a pending holiday order)

I don't think that it is ever safe to can assume that because they don't specifically state that you can't cancel a 'pending order' that you can. Unless they state that you definitely can do something then it's always best to assume that you can't. In this instance, I think that they would probably point to the fact that you appear to have hit the 'complete booking' button and hence did confirm your booking with them which is now binding and that that is what counts.

SM

I didn't think there was such a thing as a 'pending order' in the holiday industry. You may not have received confirmation from OTB but they will have probably confirmed to their suppliers, and that is who your contract is with - not OTB.
I am unaware of any holiday company that allows a 'cooling off period'. Once you hit confirm, accept, buy now or whatever they call it, you have agreed to 'buy' whatever it is you have just said yes to.

Thanks for your answers but sated in there terms and conditions, its not a binding contract until I have received the confirmation email.

So where in there terms dose it say I could not cancel before it becomes a confirmed (legally binding) order??

Here

http://www.onthebeach.co.uk/popups/terms_of_business

where it states

By clicking to book and entering your personal and payment details on our website, you are requesting us to make an offer to the Principal/Flight provider to purchase the products(s) on your behalf. At this point we immediately re-contact the Principal. Each Principal will still require a short period of time to confirm that your chosen flight / hotel is still available. Although the email confirmation sent to you is NOT contractual acceptance of the Principal's ability to provide this product, it is an acknowledgement that we have received your offer, and should the product be available as detailed on our website then you have entered into a legally binding agreement to purchase this product subject to the Principal's Terms and Conditions.

I interpret this to mean that the contract isn't binding on their part until you receive an email confirming that the provider is able to complete your booking but that it is binding on you to complete your purchase it as long as it is still available to book at the price you were quoted. Whether this is fair or not is perhaps debateable but it is legal and is clearly stated in their T&Cs which you must have 'ticked to say that you had understood and accepted them.

SM

So where in there terms dose it say I could not cancel before it becomes a confirmed (legally binding) order??

It doesn't. If you could, it would.

I agree with SMa, you have agreed to buy as long as it is available. Also sometimes the time scale between you clicking accept or whatever, and the principle acknowledging availability is very short. It is possible that they had already confirmed back to OTB.

Just read that post back. Not quite right.

I should have said, if you could cancel before you think it is legally binding, it would say so.

I agre with the interpretation posted by SMa. You have made an offer to purchase. The "Pending" simply means that the offer is awaiting their acceptance. Unlike booking with such as Thomson, Thos Cook or another TO, OTB are an agent and therefore need to confirm that their suppliers can provide what you are booking. This of course can be only a matter of a few minutes. I know of no TO or agent who would accept a provisional order - which is what you are asking for. Once you enter your payment details and click submit then you have booked it providing they in turn can confirm they are able to accept/deliver what you are requesting.

You say.

I got very confused when trying to book my holiday, I seemed to keep going though pages and pages requesting more money i.e., baggage, After realising what a massive error I had made in trying to book this holiday. I thought I would cancel it (after all there is no terms and condition on there website that say you can not cancel a pending holiday order)

I accept that sometimes the click through page after page can become very confusing, and not only on a holiday booking site. The adding on of various items, baggage, transfers, meals is quite standard on most sites. This however is not the problem of OTB or any other supplier. Personally I would not have clicked the confirm button if I had any doubts.

fwh