Having read several of the posts on here I'm a little disappointed in myself for not doing my research before booking with On the Beach.

I was one of the many people impacted by the Custom Flights situation and from then my dealings with On the Beach have been stressful, have involved lengthy waits on hold and I've been disappointed with pretty much every person I've spoken with.

I wrote a letter of complaint when finally, after sending my claims form to them twice (both by recorded delivery) they went ahead, without notification, and took a payment from my father's credit card to cover the deposit that had been paid to Custom Flights. I have included sections from my letter below. They replied with a letter which basically goes through each point I have raised, telling me that they happened (ehh I know!) but do not explain why or what they intend to do about it. At one point the response claims that the letters have been lost in the post. Recorded delivery doesn't get lost in the post, it's signed for. So someone in their building has copies of my bank statements and my father's credit card statements!

The first I heard about it was when the forms to complete were sent out. I was assured that I had been emailed prior to this but after trawling through both my inbox and my spam folders I could not find a single communication from On the Beach about the company going bust. This meant that upon receipt of the email about completing forms I was none the wiser and had to call up to find out what had happened. The call handler was extremely impatient with me and basically said I was lying about not having received the initial email. Not exactly helpful in what was quite a stressful situation.

I then completed and sent off the forms and all the information, including my own bank statement and my father's credit card statement by recorded delivery. The items were sent the week before Christmas and according to the Royal Mail, were signed for.

I received an email the first week in January saying that the forms hadn't been received yet so I sent them all again, somewhat concerned that I'd sent items with full details of my bank account and full details of my father's credit card, they'd been signed for but you didn't have them.

Then, without any warning whatsoever I received an email saying that as the necessary documentation had not been received you had gone ahead and debited the original card for the full deposit of £75 per person. This amount was taken from my father's (a pensioner) credit card without permission and without any notice.

I sent the forms off again for the THIRD time and received confirmation from the claims director that they had been received. I emailed him back to enquire about what would happen with the money that had been taken from my father's card. He replied with a completely contradictory email saying that the money would be deducted from the balance of the holiday and refunded to the card. Surely this is two different resolutions. I called to enquire and the call handler agreed that the email was not very clear and explained the refund process. By this time I had spoken to my father, who had received his credit card bill and was having to make the payment or face a late payment fee. He confirmed the total amount of the refund and I checked with the call handler that it would be the full £75 per person plus the credit card charge that would be refunded. She advised that it would be.

A few days later I went online to process the refund and surprisingly enough, it wasn't the full amount. Only the £75 per person had been processed and so we had to wait an additional 3 days for the rest of the funds to be authorised.

Custom Flights going bust was completely out-with your control. Everything else that has happened since then has been within your control and every step of the way a mistake has been made. This was not a cheap and cheerful holiday. The total amount is in excess of £3000 and quite frankly I deeply regret booking the holiday with On The Beach as it has been a stressful, traumatic experience not only for myself but for an elderly gentlemen who found himself out of pocket to the tune of nearly £400. The lack of empathy or ownership shown by the people taking calls is frankly disgusting.

I look forward to hearing a detailed account of the following:
- Who has my bank statements and my father's credit card statements?
- Why were On the Beach not better equipped to deal with a flight company going bust?
- Where did this all go wrong?
- What training did your staff receive in dealing with people who potentially don't have flights for their holiday?
- Why was I not advised, in advance, that monies would be taken from the credit card?
- Why was the wrong amount then refunded?
- Who is responsible for this shambles?
- What are you going to rectify the situation?

A true measure of good customer service is in the way unhappy customers are dealt with and bad experience can be turned into an exceptional experience if you people of the right calibre, with the right attitude dealing with them. Incidentally, once you've got someone allocated to your complaint, if you disagree or unhappy with the response you don't even get the chance to phone or email them, you have to write in again and wait 28 days again! Spectacularly unhelpful!