YAHOOOOOOOOO!!!. Today we recieved the ultimate news our CC company are going to refund us. We are one of those unfortunate people who paid part cc and part cheque, as you would know if you had read our earlier postings. One of my clients who actually gives seminars to Bank and Building Soc. staff, gave us the advise that we should not worry about the refund we will get our money back, because we had paid partly with our cc. we would get our money back under section c 75. We went along to our bankers (with whom we hold all our accounts and cc) and was told we had to claim part from them and part from CAA/ATOL. So thinking they knew what they are talking about we did as we were told. We got our deposit back very promptly from cc company. Then forwarded the paperwork on to CAA/ATOL. As all the paperwork was aimed towards this method of refund we naturally thought they knew what they were doing. Six months later, hundreds of fruitless phone calls and just e-mail, mail sweep answers later, all our paperwork was returned to us stating we had to claim from the cc company under section c75. Where have I heard this before. Hey, we thought these people really don't know what they are doing, why were we not told this in the begining, as it is the law and they must know what they are doing, NOT. So six months down the line we are in exactly the same spot that we were six months ago. CAA/ATOl are shirking their responsibilites, taking monies saying we will protect you, and then when they have to pay out desparately trying to get out of paying. Doesn't that sound just like insurance companies. CC companies saying 'never heard of section C75' they are completely ignorant of this law. This is the biggest problem you are going to hit because they are oblivious of this law, they pass you from pillar to post because they don't know what else to do. If I had not persisted in the telephone calls to my cc company this would never have come to pass. We finally got through to someone who 'LISTENED'. We had learnt so much through my client and the internet. We were educating the line manager of our cc company. We told her, 'this is coming at ya' because the CAA/ATOL have started sending back the paperwork after 6 months and believe me we would not be the last cusomters you hear from in this department. I have to admit she was excellent, she listened and took on board what we were saying. We faxed all the relavent paperwork to her and she put this through as a claim for us, because they never had the correct claims paperwork in place having never had to deal with this before. We had to give her the website addresses so she could read about section c75 for herself. We then stated that if for any reason we were going to be turned down we would need a signed letter of 'final response' so we could then get in touch with the ombudsman. Apparently if the ombudsman have to get involved and the bank or cc company is found to be at fault it is an automatic fine of £500.

Hope this is helpful to anyone who is trying to claim in the same manner. BE PERSISTANT and FIRM. We cannot believe how unethical, unhelpful, unprofessional and useless the CAA/ATOL are, they need to have a look at the whole infastructure of the way they conduct their business. They should put their customers first as we are the people who make it possible for them to exist. Answered Customer help lines would be a start.