I stand corrected on Consumer Direct.

Sarah

no the message certainly wasnt spam. just a private message sent to me with the contact details for consumer direct. sorry if I wasnt clear on this

How can it be spamming ? Surely it is somebody trying to help Kelly, at the end of the day she has paid for a holiday twice due to misinformation from onthebeach.

Fwh often puts up links to consumer direct on the complaints forum to help people, they are a legitimate organisation, not someone out for their own gain.

People say all companys make mistakes, yes they do, but I have been reading this forum for five years and I can't ever remember a post about one of the big companys like Thomson or Thomas Cook doing something like this.

They may bump people from premium economy to economy now and again and people seem to get more sympathy for something like that than Kelly is who is probably hundreds of pounds out of pocket.

thank you for your supportive message

yes I am £900 out of pocket and the worse of it is that the holiday is only 6 weeks away, so I havent got a lot of time to sort this problem out. I have contacted many organisations like consumer direct, trading standards etc but it will take such a lot of time to sort anything out that I do risk losing all of the money.

i did even consider paying for a change of date on one of the holidays until next year rather than lose all my money completely, but as its within 56 days the company wont allow this. my bank is also looking into this as its obviously unethical what otb did but nobody seems to be sure i can get my money back - and its assurance I need

How can it be spamming ? Surely it is somebody trying to help Kelly, at the end of the day she has paid for a holiday twice due to misinformation from onthebeach.

As I said in my message above yours, "I Stand Corrected"

Have you asked them to listen to the tape they will have made of your call asking for assurance that the holiday had not registered on their system as booked, and a transcript, before OTB handily delete it? That evidence would be very useful in your struggle to get this sorted.

Yes I have already tried that and they say they have no record of the conversation - how convenient!

All the travel companies I have worked for have never recorded their phone calls as a matter of routine, no matter what they say on their paperwork or whilst you're on hold ("your phone call may be recorded for training purposes etc").

I think that's more to do with the data protection act than anything. Some consultants would have occasional sales calls recorded for training purposes, but that's once in a blue moon. The chance of any phone call being recorded is minute.

Here on HT as I have said before we can only express our personal opinions - none of which have any standing in law. I posted the link for consumer direct and the information about Trading Standards because someone else had mentioned them and I had spoken with them last week on another matter.

Some of us have personal experience/knowledge of a topic so are able to assist more than others. When I write about a car hire problem I speak as someone who actually set up and ran a very successful operation, but would by no means class myself as "the expert". I do however have a better understanding than most - that applies to others here on HT on various subjects.

I do think that one problem is people letting personal feelings get in the way. You might feel better having a rant about some company or other but those who post in an attempt at assisting can take a detached view. Insulting them because what they say is at divergence only results in their being less willing. We only get one side of the story and whilst not suggesting that the poster is wrong the information we have is limited to that one side.

Ask for help by all means but just because we say black is white it is only an opinion based on what we read. When I spoke with consumer direct last week I was told what steps I should take next. It did not give me an immediate solution, and as with the problems posted on here it will take time to resolve. Frustrating I know but unfortunately that is how things work. It is tempting to bombard a company with telephone calls, emails and letters but it will not move things along any quicker. In my experience it can actually slow things down.

fwh

Well I for one won't use On The Beach. The fact that this thread was started by another person and we are now discussing someone else with the same sort of problem is enough for me. They can get lost (in my opinion of course)

We have made our position clear on how we handle and approach complaints earlier in this thread. We have contacted Miss Thomas and discussed the case. We have provided information regarding call recordings and offers we have made in an attempt to resolve the issue. We do not feel it is appropriate to discuss individual bookings and cases on open forums such as these and therefore we will not be responding any further. If any other customer has any issues that they would like to raise, we ask them to contact on forums@otbeach.com. This email address has been specifically set up in order for customers using this site to contact us directly. Many Thanks On the Beach.

As this issue seems to have caused problems to more than one of our members - I do understand that On the Beach cannot discuss individual cases(of course) - but I do feel that if someone is posting here as a member and representing a company (On the Beach) - then as a company could they post on why they cannot address this perceived (by quite a few members here) glitch in their booking system on the website?

We have all debated the ins and outs of reading the T & C's before booking - and I thank this thread for making me much more aware of this - however it still is very relevant that the website and booking process is confusing at best regarding the "add-ons".

Would it be such a technical problem to ensure that the customer has to click a button about the add ons BEFORE the "confirm booking" button - just a little box saying "please confirm that you are aware that you MAY be charged for extras such as hold baggage/meals etc" followed by a tickbox "yes" before the booking can be processed? It wouldnt be a big adjustment and would be much more consumer friendly and would stop these problems happening?

Some of us have been posting on here for years and are aware of the intricies of all this - but what about someone booking for the first time?

"Technically" perhaps On the Beach have done no wrong.............but reading the posts here should tell them that they should at least have a look at this anomoly?

I made a booking online last week with Ryanair. Initially I had some problems in that it would not take me through to the final booking.
Later I was able to do this but I had a notice telling me that there was a problem and that the booking didn't go through.
It told me to check my email prior to trying to rebook, When I did so an email did confirm my booking. I did nothing further as I have the booking Ref. on the email. I can find my booking by going to Ryanair on line for check in etc.
Sound sensible to me,

Sue

Good advice Tootsie, maybe won't be taken if OTB want to keep trying to catch people out! Which in my opinion is what they are doing!!!

Thank you for that Chivas - being diplomatic I stopped short of saying "and if they dont want to make it more customer friendly you would have to ask why??"

but you came right out with it!

In all seriousness though - if it really is a way to catch people out then I would lose a lot of respect for them professionally.

They are getting very valuable advice and feedback on here from "ordinary" travellers - if they refuse to take it on board I would wonder if there are "reasons" for this.

For the last time please do not post in this topic unless you have a complaint towards OTB. I am not going to tolerate this form being used to mount a campaign against them. We all know that OTB aren't perfect but at least they seem to have the backbone to come on here and address their issues, unlike lots of others.

Any further OTB bashing will be deleted without question. If you have a complaint fine post away.

I really could do with some further advice on this matter please.

After weeks of trying resolve this matter (as otbeach were no help at all!) by contacting ABTA, Consumer Affairs etc and the airline directly, I finally got Thomsons to say they would be able to refund 50% of the flights (which is better than nothing, although I still feel this very unfair as otbeach should not have processed the booking in the first place, especially when I phoned and they said it had not been processed, before I went on to book the holiday elsewhere) I passed this information from Thomsons to otbeach but otbeach are now saying I will lose 70%.

When I originally asked otbeach to cancel the booking on 10th July - they told me I would lose 100% so its only because I went to the airline directly that I was able to go back to otbeach to say the airlines had agreed 50% .

Should I accept 70% and let otbeach get away with this - or keep disputing this? The holiday is now only 22 days away"¦

It all seems so unfair. Surely otbeach could have given me the 50% refund on 10 July when I asked for the cancellation when they told me I would lose 100%. Its all so unfair that they get away with it.

My holiday is ruined now anyway - I feel like I no longer want to go with losing all this money. My boyfriend has since been made redundant so things couldn't get any worse!

Kelly, I cant give any specific advice, I just wanted to say how sorry I am that this has happened to you.

Unfortunately the thread went off track due to people talking about OTB and I think it deflected attention from you complaint and the quality of the advice you received.

If you are still very unhappy about the outcome and not looking forward to the holiday at all I think you should phone Ros the solicitor who works with this site, she doesn't read the threads on here, but she gives free advice, and if she takes on your case she is no win no fee.

Well done for taking the initative and getting in touch with Thomson at least you have managed to achieve a certain amount under your own efforts, I suppose only you can decide if that is enough for you, or if you wish to take it further.

thanks for your advice. i have spoken to Ros and she is going to look into this for me as are ABTA but I their enquiries take so long and the holiday is only a couple of weeks away now so I need to faster resolution really

I went to Thomson (as I have 2 bookings of the same flight and holiday with them) - they were quite helpful and agreed that if I cancel the flight and they re-sell them (which I'm sure they would) they would give me a full refund minus £60. They cant say fairer than that really - but the only draw back is they have to issue the refund through on the beach who would pass it on to me.

AND can you believe otbeach have refused to do this. I have spent weeks trying to sort this out - I finally think I have a resultion with the help of thomsons but otbeach wont agree it - they wont lose a penny as the refund would come from Thomsons but they wont agree to it. I really dont know how they get away with treating people like this.