Ola's website shows the baggage rules at http://www.olaholidays.com/baggage.aspx , it clearly states that Ryanair will charge for hold baggage and for checkin. Actually it shows what they will charge for the first 15kg each, I'm guessing you had more than that.

As your wife booked over the phone she wouldn't have seen this but that doesn't help. This problem of staff not knowing the rules is becoming common, the last thread I was in was the same issue with a different company. Your problem is that you have nothing in writing that helps your claim. You would have a very hard time taking this to court without the mistake in writing or a recording of the phone call.

Theoretically you could try complaining to ABTA but in my experience they are a waste of time, they are only really interested if you have absolute evidence and the company is going to get the whole industry a bad name.

I'm afraid without decent documented evidence you're going to have to put this down to experience. Never pay for anything over the phone if you don't know exactly what you're getting and haven't got it in writing first.

in fact we didnt have more than 15kg we had 3 bags at 13 kg each the only reason we took 3 bags was because they told us specifically we could take 4 bags, 1 each.

i take your point on board too but is it that they could tell anyone anything and get away with it there must be something i can do. i belive they have recordings of the conversations because at the time they told us this but after the complaint they told us they didnt. i could go on and on really but im seeing what you mean there is very little evidence but my word against theres.

arrgghh

Actually 3 bags in 2 directions plus 4 checkin charges in 2 directions adds up to £122 according to Ola's chart.

Except that is out of date now - Ryanair have recently changed their fees! If they had made this mistake now you would have a been given a bill for £290.

There's no harm in writing to ABTA and the Trading Standards office local to Ola's head office just in case either of them have a file going on this problem. You could also write to Ryanair, not as a complaint but politely warning them that Ola are gong to cause a lot of hassle for Ryanair staff by giving out false info and asking if they could tighten up on these agents. You might not get anything off them but it might give Ola some problems back!

Sometimes i feel its down to the staff member each travel agnet is so different, i book with ola holidays 2 times a year as i know they are good.

I also feel for a company to only have 24 bad reports its not that bad. Every buisness has hick ups its just unfair on the people it happends 2, misunderstandings do happen.

I would recommend ola holidays and just take note of what has been said and always make sure your lugage is booked and all paper work is correct.

always reconfirm the full amount to be paid even ask them to email it to you as then you have evidence of what you are booking.

im afraid i dont agree with the comment above missunderstandings should not happen if i book a all inclusive and the company tell me its all inclusive i expect everything to be all inclusive. when your told your luggage is included when we phone up and then they resend the air tickets to replace the first one they sent its just the fact that this was my first holiday in my life and did not know what i would be looking for. they knew this and are now wondering if this is the reason why they shafted me. as i feel i have been shafted. there customer service is crap we still havent had in writing the reasons why they wont refund they still havent got back to us from numerous e-mails i now belive they are ignoring us and we are going to give them one more phone call then i feel small claims court might be my only way. i feel cheated and it does spoil your holiday before it even starts. its there responsibility to make sure there staff give out correct information and when they do not do this i feel they should take responsibility. if there quick enough to take the cash they should be quick enough to take the blame.

what i am surprised about is the lack of gunine help on this website there has been nobody to come on and say try this try that and wonder if some of the comments are from ola staff under alias names.

Im in the procces of writing them one last letter explaining the reasons why i am considering the small claims court and the cost involved for them and the very little cost involved for me. A verbal contract is what it is a contract and i live by my word we were told by ola staff when phoned specifically about luggage it was all included and booked.

i have spoke to more and more people about and the more i ask the more i feel i have a case. if anyone would like to add anything to this poat please do.

Many Thanks

what i am surprised about is the lack of gunine help on this website there has been nobody to come on and say try this try that and wonder if some of the comments are from Ola staff under alias names.

You have had two replies from posters recommending that you could try:

1) Contacting Teletext because that had been successful for the poster in another instance and they know that Teeltext are monitoring Ola.

2) Contacting ABTA

3) Contacting Ryanair

Also, elsewhere on the forum there are abundant recommendations to contact Ros our 'friendly neighbourhood travel law' solicitor. People on this site are just ordinary travel consumers like you - they have offered the best advice they can but they can't come up with magic solutions for you. You probably do have a case and the time has probably come to consult a specialist if you are getting nowhere on your own.

Even the worst of companies are going to get it right at least some of the time and there is no justification for assuming that just because some posters point out that they did get a decent service from a company does not mean that one should assume they are anything other than genuine. Also, some of the best companies get it wrong at times and a few bad experiences from amongst the millions who have no problems doesn't mean that they never get it right. In the end we all have to do what we think best in the light of our own experiences and take it from there.

SM

teletext is no good because we didnt book by teletext which i did state in a other post.

Contacting abta if you read the post it does go on to say how abta are no good basically and will get you know where.

Contatcting ryan air as ive said its nothing to do with ryan air but all to do with ola if ola havent booked us any luggage what can ryan air do. there not going to complain or put any restarints on a company that basically is giving them good buisness.

i apologise if it seems my tone is a bit out there but to be honest ive had a good look around the site and ive missed all the recomendations about ros taht is purely ive been looing for people in the same cituation or having similar problems and havent seen anywhere about travel law solicitor.

Its only becasue i have experience with forums and know that alias poster do often happen and some of the comments left feel to defensive on the companys behalf if they have even read the post i cant imagine why they have felt the need to defend andf really are offering no constructive point on the discussion as below.

[i

](Sometimes i feel its down to the staff member each travel agnet is so different, i book with ola holidays 2 times a year as i know they are good.I also feel for a company to only have 24 bad reports its not that bad. Every buisness has hick ups its just unfair on the people it happends 2, misunderstandings do happen.I would recommend ola holidays and just take note of what has been said and always make sure your lugage is booked and all paper work is correct.always reconfirm the full amount to be paid even ask them to email it to you as then you have evidence of what you are booking.)[/

i]

if i have offended anybody then i do apologise that is not my reason for being on this forum i picked this forum as it looks the best and seems to get help for a lot of people.

I just imagined that this would have happened to more poeple in the past and that there would have been people able to explain how they went about such prolems (which is what i meant by saying a lack of genuine help) but as ive not really had anyone ive been surprised. I know you cant expect people to read my problems and whatever but i will comeback to this site and help anyone with the same problem.

fof88, I am sure that you are still very angry with your experiences with Ola holidays, and that will obviously affect how you view the replies. I can't help with the practicalities of your own personal situation, but would advise you not to discount ABTA: not everyone gets the result they hope for, but that doesn't necessarily mean that ABTA are not worth contacting.

I am glad that you did enjoy your holiday and of course spending another £120 on baggage charges is probably a substantial percentage of the total cost of your holiday, no wonder you feel unhappy with the situation and no 'happy ending' in view at the moment.

I would suggest that you contact Ros Ferneyhough (sp?) or her assistant Pam if she is not available. That way you'll know where you stand about contesting your complaint through the legal channels. Of course it would not hurt to contact ABTA, or even HolidayWatchdog, and to see what they can suggest.

I hope that you get the matter resolved to your satisfaction very soon.

Hi,

Not sure if this has been asked or not but have you asked for a copy of the call at the time of booking, i think legally you are entitled to see what information they hold about you (but don't quote me on that)

If they believe in customer service then they should not charge for this as it is a simple few clicks on the computer to email you the call for you to listen to.
Call recordings, which im sure Ola do solve 90% of all complaints regarding what was told at the time of booking. If they kick up a fuss then it begs the question to know if they have something to hide.
Once listened to the call you will see what was said and the proof will be in the call.

Not sure what else to say but i think that is your only way of solving this once and for all. It should then give a clear indication as to who is in the wrong or been misinformed etc.

Thanks

Thanks for the reply that is the kind of reply i was expecting from this site if im honest.

In the last ten minutes we have phoned Ola again who now claim they have no record of a member of staff who wouldnt give her name contacting us to say they wouldnt give a refund and are now looking in to it. They said if someone has contacted you there would be a note on the computer and as far as i can see there isnt one. this women was very helpfull but not the Managemnet we have been trying to speak to. this just becomes more astonishing the more we talk to them. we were told to wait will they talk to admin and they would get back to us how long befor eall this just gets lost in translation. Its been over a month since our holiday and 3 plus weeks since the complaint.

I have said we would like to sort this out between ourselves and ola and are continuing to try but does anyone know if there is a time limit on these type of things.

Originally we were told that they record all calls for training purposes. so when we asked if we could listen to the phone call regarding luggage (there was one specific ten minute call just about what we were or were not allowed to carry} they said qoute "the only recordings we have are the ones were the sales lady would say i will give you a call back" that is the gods honest truth. now when we have just phoned up they dont even have a record of them calling us saying we cant get a refund but they will give us dicount and so on.

we are now awaiting there reply again i wish i had a way of recording there calls to us because i feel there would be people deeply shocked how the last person called and spoke to my wife and i mean that in the most honest way.

From what i gather they have 14days to acknowledge your complaint. then a further 28 to investigate and reply back to you. I think they are then allowed up to another 14 days to give a full response and settle the dispute or at least provide a full response.

After this point i think it is deemed you have given them the opportunity to explain and resolve and if still not satisfied then i think this is where ABTA may have some kind of clout but don't hold your breath.

Get that call if you can, i think it is the only way of solving it once and for all.

Depends on the call system i spose, they may only record calls when making the actual booking or reading a statement to you.

I work for a small company and all our calls are recorded permanently and with Ola, i think a company of their size would record all calls. Bit silly if they don't.

well according to them they only have call saying they will call us back.

To our amazment we found this hard to belive.

This is at least what they have told us. again true story which is hard to belive

If this is the case then it would be a your word against theirs scenario, will be down to how they handle it and what they believe in to be customer service.

The sinic in me does make me wonder if they are just saying that in the hope that you will let it fo so that they will not have to refund.

If they offered you even half, would that be any kind of conselation !!

friendorfoe008
I think you've been somewhat rude about some of the comments you've made about the replies you've received from HT members:

what i am surprised about is the lack of gunine help on this website there has been nobody to come on and say try this try that and wonder if some of the comments are from ola staff under alias names

As SMa has pointed out you've had several posts giving advice about a way forward.
To say that some of the people who have tried to help you are employed by the tour company that you have issues with is (IMHO) ungrateful.

You did apologise for your 'tone being a bit out' but then go on to say

Thanks for the reply that is the kind of reply i was expecting from this site if im honest.

What exactly were you expecting from this site?

Nobody who posts on this website can wave a magic wand and get you the £120 back.

I hope you do resolve this issue to your satisfaction.

To be honest i never dreamt they would come back and point blanc refuse. but at the time if they did say half i did say to the wife i would have accepted just so i could have some peace of mind. to be totally honest im not so sure now.

The shamefull thing is we said regardless of there mistake we still thought they provided i very good holiday to the point we would have booked with them again but the phone call off there member of staff and the attitude of her at the time has since changed our minds. again if they come back and help resolve this problem we might review that opinion.

Just for the record:
http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=57959

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=117254

Here's how to contact Ros, the Travel Law Solicitor who will give you free impartial advice.

She does NOT read this website.

I think it's legal advice you need.
Regardless of what other people have done in similar situations, this is about YOU.

what i am surprised about is the lack of gunine help on this website there has been nobody to come on and say try this try that and wonder if some of the comments are from ola staff under alias names

i have said i didnt explain myself well when making that comment i was mearly talking about people who must have been in this position thereselves and how they went about it. Again ive apologised for sounding rude as that was not my intent i only implied one was agin i have listed taht above with my reasons for saying that.

again like i say i was expecting maybe people who had been in the same boat as they say.

Just to finish on since i made that post ive had more helpfull information in one day than 2 weeks on here so for some point it has helped but Again people on here i really do appreciate the time you are taking to help me and maybe make me realise something ive missed or not realised. All your post are appreciated.

Please people dont take offence!

Pretty poly cat thank you very much for that info

if Ola fail to come back to me with a reasonable offer i think i shall contact her.

again i didnt know she existed untill today so thank you to evryone who has pointed that out.