Sorry to hear of your obvious nightmare Kevin.

I see you have spoken to Ross for free assessment, have you asked her the best way to proceed ?

Good luck in persuing your claim, and keep us informed.

Kath HT Admin

Several options here I think.
ABTA should help as the agent is, presumably ABTA registered.
The Tour Operator may also hold some responsibility. When the agent booked with the T.O. which resort did the agent specify ? Did the agent get it wrong or did the T.O. get it wrong. If there's two hotels of the same name only 8 miles apart and both serving the same T.O. your documentation raised by the T.O. shortly after the booking is made, and sent to you via the Travel Agent really should have specified the exact hotel/resoirt.

If the T.O. is at fault here your redress might be best directed via the small claims court using the 1992 Package Tour regulations.

If the T.O. is blameless you could still consider a small claims court action against the travel agent. This is not too expensive, can be undertaken by filling in forms online or could be handled by Ros. Chances are, if she believes you'd win the Travel Agent will settle out of court before the case is heard.

Mike

Thank you Kath and Mike for responding to my post.

Kath, A collegue of Ross suggested I send the documents for the free assessment before advising me of the next step.

Mike, Abta inform me although the agent is not abta bonded, as the tour operator is, I am eligible to use the arbitration scheme.(This still doesn't sound right to me but I have asked on two occasions.)

This holiday was booked 5 days before departure, so tickets collected at the airport, and booking confirmation did not arrive until after we had left.
Even if it had, I still don't think we would have spotted the error as the accommodation names are the same, and as the small resort doesn't appear on the tour operators map, it does name the lively resort as nearby.
All booking documents name the Lively resort.

The agent has accepted responsibility after discussions with the T.O.
The agent had found availability with the T.O., only accom. name and resort info. was available, so a search was made on the T.O. database, this is the info. we were given.
The accommodation we ended up in does not appear on this data base or in any of their brochures as they had only just taken it on.

In resort we discovered there were another 3 families who had also been sold the other resort/accom., different agents had been used.
They were also going to complain for miss sale.

It seemed obvious to us the T.O. was at fault, but who am I to decide.

Thank you again for your response.
I will keep updating this post when my claim progresses.

I would like to wish all at Holidaytruths a Happy Christmas.

Kev.

Good Luck Kev. You are in good hands with Ros.

A merry christmas to you and your family from us all at HT.

Kev,
thanks for your clarification of events.

Receiving your confirmation details AFTER departure was of course useless.

First let me say that I'm not a legal expert (Ros is) but your situation has sparked an interest in me and I've looked in detail at the following

The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992

You can access this same information using the following link

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1992/Uksi_19923288_en_1.htm

Look at Regulation 4. It basically stops an organisation from supplying to you, the consumer, any misleading information. It goes on to state that should an organisation or retailer breach this rule they will be liable to compensate you for your losses consequently suffered.

I would class the Tour Operator as the 'Organiser' and the Travel Agent the 'Retailer' (as defined at the start of the regs.). You probably have a case against both for their failure to comply with Reg. 4.

The agent stated which quiet resort and 9 roomed accomodation we were booking, and which tour operators brochure the holiday was in.

If you look at Regulation 5, whilst the retailer (the agent) did not specifically provide you with a brochure he provided the details of the name of that brouchure and the Tour Operator such that you could have read that brochure. In so doing I'd say that the retailer failed to clarify the package details in a comprehensible, legible and accurate manner and is therefor in breach of Reg. 5 clause 2. The tour op. possibly breaches the same reg. but clause 1 if the brouchure does not clearly differentiate between the two identically named accommodations and their clearly distinctive styles. Breaching the Reg. carries the risk of being found guilty of an offence, carrying a fine upon conviction.

Regulation 7 could be of interest. You should have been provided with information BEFORE the contract is concluded.

But Reg. 8 is the interesting one for you. It requires the 'other partu to the contract' (the Tour Operator and not the Agent) to provide you with the following before you depart

Clause 2a requires the T.O. to specify the particulars of the places to be occupied by the traveller - ie. the Hotel. Again, failure to comply with this leaves the T.O. open to being found guilty of an offence and liable to a fine.

The T.O. might try to defend himself by reference to Reg. 9 clause 2 arguing that the time interval between booking and departure is too short to comply with the need to provide written booking details prior to your departure. I would dispute this on the following basis

1) you presumably were able to pay in full before your departure
2) the T.O. was able to get your tickets to you before departure - admittedly using the Ticket On Departure (TOD) facility

The T.O. could clearly have communicated the booking details by either next day guaranteed post (and asked you to pay for such), by fax or email to you or the travel agent and as a last resport, with the tickets themselves when you collected such. They failed in this respect when 5 days should clearly have permitted them to have complied with this basic requirement.

Reg. 14 again is of interest. When you arrived in resort and it immediately became apparent that your booking was not as you understood it to be you requested flights home. Clause 3 states tht if it is not possible for the organiser to make suitable alternate arrangements the organiser should arrange transport back to the original point of departure and where appropriate, compensate the consumer.

Having failed to provide you with SUITABLE alternate accomm. you asked fro flights home. The organiser refused this and consequently breached this regulation.

Reg 15 states that the T.O. is liable to the consumer for the proper performance of the obligations under the contract. The T.O.'s suppliers failures become the T.O.'s failures. If the travel agent is acting as a retail agent for the T.O. then the T.O. is responsible for the agent's failures as well as it's own.

Finally, the travel agent has already accepted liability. If you check your documentation and find it written that the agent is acting as the Retail Agent of the Principal (the T.O.) and your contract is with the Principal then you should be pursuing the T.O. rather thamn the agent.

Hope this lot helps.

Mike

Mike,
Thanks for your detailed post, especially the time taken to research it all.

It looks like i'm spoilt for choice as to which section of the regulations were not adhered to.

My paperwork specifies the agents are acting for the tour operator, and my contract is with the T.O.

I originally sent complaint letters to both agent and tour operator pointing out the Package Travel Regulations 1992 had been breached.
The agent eventually replied in full (60 days) stating they were at fault and offering the first sum of £200 compensation.

All your info. has confirmed the finer detail, and has helped alot.

Thanks again, and I wish everyone a Happy Chrismas,(exept the T.O. and agent. lol).

Hello to you all,

To conclude this post I filed for a small claim in the court in Jan 2006 for compensation from my Travel agent.(Court costs were £220.)

The case was heard in Dec 2006 and I received £1450 plus costs of £220.
(The judge decided what percentage of the holiday was without benefit.)

All in all we are very pleased with this outcome, although at times I did wonder if it was all worth it.

My advice to anyone in a similar situation, don't just put it down to experience and forget about it.
If you have got proof of your claim, try and recover your compensation either through the court or ABTA.

Thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in my claim and watch out for my posts in the Greece or Cyprus sections as we are looking to put the money towards a Villa holiday this year.

Cheers
Kev

Hi Kev

dare i ask where you went on this holiday?

Well done for seeing it through Kev.
I would have liked to see you get a full refund and even perhaps compensation, especially if your holiday was a disaster.
If you're happy then it's a good result.

Enjoy your holidays this year,

Robby

I am sure that everyone is pleased you have achieved a good result.

What I think is just as pleasing, is that having asked for advice/assistance from members of HT you have taken the time to advise us of the outcome.

A big failing of so many who come on here with a problem.

On behalf of all those members who try to assist may I express our thanks.

fwh

Seconded.
Well done Kev and family - good news for a dull Friday.

I also think the registrar at the court was mean for one reason. You ASKED to be sent home immed. upon arrival when you first found out. That means you were forced to endure, against your express wishes, the following days. This, in my view warrants compensation for distress and inconvenience.

I think the Travel Agent should count itself lucky.

Yes congratulations on your result, and thanks for reporting back as many people ask for advice and opinion and then don't bother to let us know the outcomes.

Everybody benefits when people pursue genuine complaints in this way and take the matter through to a conclusion. I know sometimes the buracracy of it all wears people down and they give up, so well done.

Well done Kev, and thank you for advising us of the outcome.

Mike, I agree with you. I pick out this from Kev's original posting.

We requested flights home, this was also refused.

This is an appalling and blatant breach of the Package Holiday Regulations, as you will be aware. Enough to warrant prosecution by Trading Standards I hazard a guess.

Wonder if it's now statute barred ............ ?

Peter

A good result Kevin. Hope you enjoy your next holiday even more!