Actually the likely baggage fee is stated reasonably clearly in the T&Cs and is becoming standard in this part of the trade. But on the bright side, there is also a clause that says if the offer price isn't available the binding agreement doesn't come into force until any price change has been accepted by you. So there should be no problem with cancelling since the flight price did change. Was this a package out of a brochure or a put together deal? Can you keep an eye on the site for us and see whether the price is updated any time soon?

.....and for MajorTom, Trading Standards departments are run by local councils who usually don't have enough money to fund them properly. The national Consumer Direct telephone service is being scrapped by the government as it is part of the Office of Fair Trading, which is one of the quangos we apparently don't need. So basically it's everyman for himself and read the T&Cs before anything else!

I'm booking a holiday over the next week to portugal, have looked at many over the last couple of weeks but holiday gems i found tonight. What a fantastic price they offered! Luckily, i researched them first. My boyfriend was calling me obsessive for researching so much, he's very thankful for my research now!
Can anybody recomend an online, cheap site that's trustworthy?

amy88

welcome to HT

all on line travel agents have good and bad reviews [some a lot more than others] of those some of the better ones are the larger organisations, Fleetway travel, A1 travel,Hayes travel,travelrepublic all have had problems but all also have their supporters, personally I tend to use Thomson but i have also used frequently [when Thomson could not offer the hotels we wanted] Fleetway and A1 but none of these will be a cheap as some of the one man bands that advertise on teletext

whatever you chose make sure you take out a decent travel insurance [preferably not from the travel agent] the same day as you book

wizard

Our biggest complaint about this company has been their over the top reaction when someone says something they don't like. If you read the T&Cs of similar companies they're probably not much different, they just keep their heads down and melt away when things are said about them.

For advice on Portugal (presumably the Algarve) try posting in that forum and give dates, suitable departure airports and any resort you had in mind (or facilities you want).

i went on holiday to egypt last october with my daughter and grandaughter, when we got there the hotel had not been paid for, even though the holiday was paid in full 5 months earlier. the hotel refused to give us a room untill i had handed over my debit card (i dont have a credit card) so they could get there money if i could not get the holiday company to pay up.

The contact number in resort would not answer and i had to call the uk holiday company for advise. Tthey could not do anything at that time and promised it would be sorted the next day. The hotel had no sympathy and clearly stated that no payment,no room. I had no choice but to give the hotel my card details but unknown to them i had not got the money in the account to pay for the hotel but they promised no money would be debited until the end of the holiday giving the holiday company time to pay up and if they had not recieved payment then they would debit the full cost of the stay.

The next day and for every day for 5 out of 7 i had constant calls back and forth to the uk with the holiday company and the contract company that they used to book the hotel to get someone to pay for the hotel that had been booked and paid for by me 5 months previously. I used all my holiday spending money to top up my mobile and i have documented evidence in a mobile phone bill that all the calls cost me £152. I had to pay for made and recieved calls and my bill as you do when you are abroad. Every day for 5 days we were locked out of our room because the hotel had not recieved payment resulting in having to go back to reception and update them on where the payment was for the room we had and to then call back to the uk to ask them why for another day had it not been paid and we had been locked out of our room and not able to access our belongings.(by locked out i mean we had an electronic card which they only activated for 24 hours at a time, after that it would not unlock the hotel room door)

i complained and sent documented evidence of every call and event that happened on a daily basis and the destaught we went through for 5 days because i had no idea what the egyption hotel would do if at the end of the holiday when they tried to debit the card and found that there was not enough funds to cover the cost. I had my daughter and 5year old grandaughter with me. This was a special holiday as i had saved for over a year so we could all go away together and had booked it at this date as it was my granddaughters 5th birthday whilst away and 1st holiday abroad and i had gone 2 years in remission from cancer. we were so looking forward to a holiday for both these reasons and to spend 5 days with not knowing if we were going to be able to ever leave egypt if the holiday company had not paidand i could'nt was so traumatising. After only3 days i was praying to that i could get my daughter and granddaughter home safe and sound.

I recieved notification that they had recived this complaint in november but since then nothing i have sent another recorded letter in february and made and documented 3 calls and the company are just ignoring me and not responding to what i have complained about. I have names of both of the people i spoke to from there companies and whilst talking to them while i was abroad both were appologetic and constantly informed me my mobile bill would be refunded as this was there problem and my mobile bill documenting there phone numbers and cost per call both to and from my mobile.

At the least my mobile bill should be compensated and with several daily trauma's that are to much to list on here that happened that was listed in the original complaint i feel some additional compensation should be recieved for that as well as the cost of recorded letters and calls what do you think i should do now. The holiday company which is a large company is not abta listed but atol if that is any difference. Any advise would be gratefully recieved.

JOANNE1505 wrote:

when we got there the hotel had not been paid for, even though the holiday was paid in full 5 months earlier.

The holiday company which is a large company is not abta listed but atol if that is any difference. Any advise would be gratefully recieved.

Hi there, sounds like a nightmare!1

1) Did you have reciepts for your hotel accom. from the T/A?
2)ATOL only covers Flights and Airline holidays... it sounds like you were dealing with agents?

Name the company?

ATB,J.

Merseygull

Agents have to be Atol bonded to package holidays. Holiday Gems is a member of the GTG and it is that Atol that they use.

The question is who did Holiday Gems book the accommodation with, because it will be that company that hasn't paid the hotel.
Also did Holiday Gems package the holiday or was it an 'unpackaged' one?

The company that booked the hotel were triton rooms. It was a all inclusive package through Holiday Gems so as my contract so to speak was with them and it was them that i paid then i have to go directly through them so i am told. Is this correct or do you think i should be directly targeting Triton rooms as it was them that i was liasing with from egypt ? They did eventually pay for the accomadation and my debit card information was returned to me, but i had to use all our holiday money to top up my mobile so the trips we had planned to go on never happened and although i had my debit card i dare not take a penny out because we were trying to get money into that account in case we had to pay for the hotel. When we were finally informed that it had been payed on wednesday evening 5 full days into the holiday we had not got any time to do the things we wanted as the trips we wanted were not on the thursday or friday that we had left of our holiday.

If it was a true package you will not have a breakdown of the price, only one figure for flights, accommodation, transfers and you should also have an Atol receipt.
If this is the case, your contract is with Holiday Gems, and it is them you should be chasing with your complaint.
Even if it wasn't a package you should really still go through them, as you booked through them, but your contract would be with Triton. I would be tempted to have a go at Triton. They are an agency only bed bank, and are the in house accommodation supplier for Global Travel.

So, to sum up... you had some inconveniece and angst, but the only costs that you ACTUALLY incurred were your mobile phone calls?

Or have I misread?

ATB,J.

So, to sum up... you had some inconveniece and angst, but the only costs that you ACTUALLY incurred were your mobile phone calls?

Or have I misread?

ATB,J.

yes the only cost i actually got are the £152 mobile bill, but up until wednesday evening we were looking at paying the hotel costs ourselves but how we had no idea because the hotel wanted the costs that it would charge per night and not the 1s the holiday company's negotiate. Leaving us for 5 days worrying how we were going to do this without suffitient funds in the debit account.

...so whilst not having to pay again for the hotel, half the holiday was ruined with the worry that you might have to. Not to mention the holiday time wasted chasing them. It all has a value!

So, to sum up... you had some inconvenience and angst, but the only costs that you ACTUALLY incurred were your mobile phone calls?

So i take it you would be more than happy to pay £150 on phone calls and worry about if you were going to get charged again for a holiday you have already paid for plus not have the time to do the things you want to do or relax.

Sorry i thought they were having a go at the poster.
Dont mean to offend anyone.

can see people Quoting things on here, i dont knoe how to do that so i am having to copy/paste peoples comment to reply, sorry if it reads a little strange..

steve8482 wrote:

I don't think merseygull meant it that way, he was just trying to establish exactly what the loss was.

Thanks Steve.....

Yes, we've had discussions on the forum before about what I would call "Hard" losses (as in this case, the phone bills)as opposed to the "Soft" losses such as anxiety and loss of enjoyment, which are much harder to quantify......

ATB,J.

God I really hope you decide to take them to court. I have never booked with this company but a friend was about to book with them and I said I would look on here. Needless to say I shall be telling her to avoid them like the plague. I hope someone from HG is on here looking at feedback- judging from some of the new member posts in support of them I suspect they check on here regularly!

Hi rachealb44,

I am in the process of sending them a letter before action as advised by a legal representative, and further to that i am going to take it to court, which should be interesting as i have so much evidence about them.

I have also discovered that although they show the ATOL Protection badge on there sight after some checking they are not listed as ATOL members. So it looks like they are frauding this. They state on there website that they are a fully bonded member of The global travel group, on looking at there ATOL status they list a few companies that trade under them but HOLIDAY GEMS is not listed. So where does that leave holiday makers. Another thing that will be brought up in court should i need to attend.