So they sold a holiday for the incorrect price, how did this happen?

Probably a simple typing mistake Futurebride. Doubt there was anything intentionally nasty about it.
The problem arose when they didn't honour the price for those customers who had contracted at the wrong rate. They really should have taken the hit gracefully, amended the price in the systems a.s.a.p. and be thankful that it was spotted within 24 hours.

Mike

I have to agree with you there especially regarding the contract that would have been issued when the holiday was purchased. Although i get the impression they feel they can chnage their terms and conditions of their contract when they see fit. And surely the TA would have been suspicious of the price and made a few calls to confim the price shown on their system.

A mistake was made and within 24 hours they notify the customers the price was wrong but they lose in court. Hardly the same offence is it

I'm not saying it is, but my point was to emphasise their lack of customer care. They have a very sloppy attitude to their customers - rebell1's tickets should never have been issued and withdrawn like that when they knew full well they had no flights out. Is it a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing or incompetence?

Sorry to see that some of you have suffered in the same way at the hands of My Travel, hoepfully as one poster suggests people will start to walk away from them to make their point known.

Stuart Wilkie - The point I am making is that they have quite clearly done this for their own greed. I spent hours on the internet checking the condition of hotels in the area and opening dates. They didn't have the dignity to tell me that they were cancelling because they couldn't fill the flight, and I would suggest this is almost definately down to the fact that some of the passengers would have been travelling to hotels which weren't quite so fortunate, i.e. those in Cancun, as opposed to those in the Mayan Riviera which fared far better. Instead they fed us a pack of lies about the airport not accepting flights till FEB 06 etc etc, which were clearly untrue as Thomson and First Choice flights were still operating as were tens of others from the American TO's.

Mike makes the point succinctly in that they, having their own planes, are quite capable of creating alternative holidays, but chose the easier option of dumping us squarely in the S**T.

We have incurred considerable cost running up to this holiday purchasing new clothes etc and the kids may grow out of theirs before the summer, so what do we do with them? I myself wore my t-shirt and shorts on xmas day just to prove a point! Quite who I was making the point to I just don't know but it made me feel better.

I want some compensation and I think they should have offered that rather than me having to write to the MD to get the coutesy of a response. We had a contract which they chose to break, the contract states that they owe me compensation, but I have received nothing - what about the interest they have made on my money over these past months, we might as well all start loaning them money for months at a time as that probably makes them a tidy profit. The refund was made in the same manner as we paid them - debit card, so they should have been able to do this on the same day in the circumstances. Without the money I could not re book, unless I paid an additional £100 in credit card charges and what about the tickets on departure fees I would have to pay through an alternative provider. It all stinks in my opinion and they give back the money and think that everything is okay.

I appreciate what you say about the people of Mexico - I symapthise entirely with their plight, and I am sorry that you think I am wrong to be upset about my xmas when they have lost a lot more but I paid a lot of money for the trip and I think I am entitled to be angry about it. THINK ABOUT THIS - they rely on tourism in those areas so what is the best way to help them get back on their feet - stay away?? I don't think so they need as many people to return as soon as possible to keep the revenues up and to keep people in jobs maybe My Travel should think about this when they try to scare their customers off travelling to the country.

*Edit to remove swear word - Glynis*

The sweet smell of success is sometimes worth the wait! Here is a brief synopsis of my story. Booked a wedding holiday with Direct Holidays. Was miss sold the wedding package and was left with no alternative but to book direct with the Iberostar tucan.
Later, I receive an email from the hotel requesting that as I am getting married I should request from DH a confirmation confirming we will definitely be staying at the hotel as DH had been over booking and bumping customers with little notice. So I did this.
57 days it took DH to reply, in fact it took a member of MyTravel to get DH to contact me. My second letter took a further 56 days and as DH refused to communicate with me we had to cancel our wedding holiday.

This week I receive a phone call from DH informing me my flight was cancelled and we would be due to fly out the next day. As I had already cancelled in writing and emailed- I was a little confused. The caller explained that DH have one department that deals with letters and another that deals with phone calls and perhaps this could be a reason as to why there is no note of cancellation on record. Now I found this rather funny as my recent letter of cancellation had my new phone number on it and this was the number she had called on!
I explained the matter was going to court and left it at that. One minute later I got a call back offering all my deposit back as my holiday date had changes by a day? But I had cancelled and can only assume that I was right all along, they could not provide us our wedding holiday we had booked almost a year ago. Perhaps I should have declined and taken them to court but I decided to have my money back and of course we got no compensation whatsoever.
My letter from DH stated " refund due to cancellation" so I will be further looking into the matter and seeing if I am entitled to compensation after all they ruined my wedding!

Thank you to all those who have advised me and supported me in a time that was so distressing but should have been an enjoying process. To those who told me to give up and cut my losses a very long time ago, well I have nothing to say accept" I told you so!"
Never give up if your treated unfairly.

FB
XX

FB

I am glad to hear that you got the full refund you so rightly deserved. It is a real shame that DH are allowed to treat consumers in this way, particularly over something as important as a wedding.

The ABTA people are very good at helping out in these situations and I think that all companies should have to be registered, and I think it is a disgrace that DH have been allowed to lapse their membership. The lack of contact is indicative of the appaling service which is provided by them on a daily basis.

Have you now sorted the wedding - we got married in the Dominican Republic all booked through First Choice who were fantastic - good luck!

We were so distressed over our wedding holiday that we would not re lan until we got our money back. We have decided on west of Ireland so at least it is something to look forward to but it wont be until next year now as another family member is getting married this year. I have warned the to keep away from DH!

Direct Holidays are protected by ATOL

ATOL website here

excuse last post -spelling and grammer. The old touch typing is very poor!

Just to add to Glynis's post - membership of ABTA is only open to travel agents so it's not a case of DH being allowed to lapse their membership of ABTA - they aren't eligible in the first place. As a direct seller who do not sell anything other than their own packages to customers they are classified as a Tour Operator and are members of and bonded by the ATOL scheme.

The parent company of DH is MyTravel and because they do operate as both a tour operator putting together and offering package holidays and also as travel agency selling other operators' holidays, they are bonded through both the ABTA and ATOL schemes.

SM

Forgot to add that there are many reputable and reliable companies around (mainly specialist operators) that sell only their own packages and are similarly not members of ABTA and are not bonded by them but are covered by the ATOL scheme for the same reason. This doesn't mean that they are not to be trusted. ABTA and ATOL serve different purposes and cover the customer for different things if anything does go wrong.

SM

SM

Thanks for the info - it's not that I don't trust them it's just that as members of ABTA they have a specified code to live up to and if you have a problem and they don't respond to letters etc then ABTA will get involved and give them a kick up the arse!

ATOL is great for financial protection but there is no one to fight our corner with the likes of DH. It seems you "cut out the middleman" but you also cut out a number of your rights. Suggest that an offshoot of ABTA could be used for the TO companies to help protect the humble consumer from shocking customer service.

Cheers

Hi rebll11
Am so sorry to hear about what happened to you and your family. And totally understand how you've been feeling. Being let down so badly and then treated even worse by what was once a great travel company is awful. You are in good company as there are many of us on this and other travel related websites that have experienced the lack of customer care from this organisation. I understand that things happen and things do go wrong within this industry. No one can be blamed for a hurricane etc but its when things do go wrong that the company has a responsibility to their customers. If we'd been treated properly by this company, then I would've sung their praises. But, instead, we had our honeymoon ruined completely and we've been treated with contempt because we complained.

If you are seeking compensation, then the best of luck with it. Do keep us informed if you can.
Best wishes to you.

Off topic but was wondering if anyone know where i can view flight times for mytravel?

Just interested to know if any flights to cancun have been cancelled for the 14-15 and 16th of feb?

I wrote 30.12.05 to the MD and got a standard acknowledgement promising a response within 35 days. I chased on the 8th February, and then the 21st February finally threatening to speak to Dispute Resolution Service who apparently administer a consumer complaint service for Direct Holidays.

I then received a letter (dated 14.2.06) with a cheque for £160 being £40 per passenger "the maximum amount per the booking terms and conditions". Personally I think this is a disgrace I spent days trying to source a suitable alternative and all I get is £160. I have contacted a solicitor to see if it is feasible that I could sue them for more but expect a negative response.

I also emailed the dispute resolution service on 21.02.06 and have never received any response so don't expect this service to help avert the unfair treatment dished out by DH.

The main point of all this is that DH as part of a major tour operator could have offered some suitable alternatives by using their grounded planes to fly somewhere else. I know there were plenty of hotels available all over the carribean but just no flights. They offered me ONE alternative, which was a hotel in the Dominican which I got married at and have been to 3 times already (last time 2 weeks in April 05) and am going to for 3 weeks this summer - 7 weeks in the same hotel in just over a year was I though a bit of overkill. In any case we wanted to see somewhere different but they couldn't even offer Cuba or Jamaica becuase there were no flights yet they had planes which were going to sit around - bit like Sayers having no bread left when they make it themselves - LAZY!

Horrible thing about them not being ABTA members is that you feel very much alone and that you have little chance of sorting problems out when they occur.

Hope it all gets sorted out for you asap. We've been using the ABTA services for our case against Airtours and have had a very favourable response and a lot of advice and assistance from ABTA.
But, its up to us at the end of the day to decide how to proceed with the compensation claim.
Fingers crossed for all of us.
Best wishes