Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[CheGuevara]

Mastercard! Specifically the chargeback "protection".

I've booked flights "home" (Canada) this summer for me, the Mrs and our kids, to visit my parents and siblings. We've not been there in over a decade, when my oldest boy was nine months old. Meant to go two summers ago, but no points for guessing why that didn't come to fruition. As you can imagine, everyone very excited about the trip on both sides.

Except, as it turns out, the agency I booked through has provided a fake booking reference (confirmed with the airline directly), is not answering their phone, is not responding to emails, and as I've discovered is no longer a member of ATOL despite claiming otherwise Lesson learned - book direct with the airline, and I've since discovered there are many other people in the same situation with this travel agency.

Not good news at all (esp as flight prices have climbed another £600, on top of the nearly £4k since I "booked"), but thankfully I've paid by credit card. I began the chargeback process, provided al the evidence I could. Today, 8 days later, I get an email:

"We require confirmation that the flight has not been booked to enable us to process the dispute, I can understand you have called the merchant with no success. However, we require full confirmation from the merchant that the flights are not going ahead. "

Hmmm... Onto the phone with the issuer of my card, and after an hour of arguing my case it boils down to me needing:

1) Confirmation from the agency (who are not answering the phone or emails) that they aren't going to book my tickets, even though they've already issued a fake booking confirmation. He kept referring to it as the "evidence" they needed. I kept trying to get him to acknowledge that such evidence is not going to materialise - even if I could get in touch with them, they're hardly likely to admit fraud.

2) The airline to cancel the flight, so that not tickets could be issued.

3) Run out the clock - once the flight has departed they clearly wont be issuing tickets, and at that point I have a claim.

Not sure my next steps yet -ombudsman maybe, but I'm not hoping that will be resolved in any practical amount of time.

Venting here then going to drink some beer and try not and think about it until morning.

[DJ123]

Have they argued that the fake booking reference isn't enough evidence that the flights haven't been/were never booked?

[CheGuevara]

Originally Posted by DJ123

Have they argued that the fake booking reference isn't enough evidence that the flights haven't been/were never booked?

Nearly- more that there was still lots of time/opportunity for them to decide to issue tickets. So what seems like clear intent to scam, apparently doesn't meet their bar.

[CheGuevara]

Also... Dream World Travel may or may not be the company in question. In any case, do your homework, and how to spot suspect "invited" reviews on trustpilot etc -plenty of people there expressing the same symptoms as me, noting fake booking details.

[daktulos]

Originally Posted by CheGuevara

3) Run out the clock - once the flight has departed they clearly wont be issuing tickets, and at that point I have a claim.

This will likely be what you need to do. You'll get the money back, but not necessarily quickly.

We had a holiday cancelled in March 2019 (at 10:30 the night before) and the company went bust. We didn't get the money back (part CC, part ATOL) until January 2021. Some of that time was us holding onto "vouchers", but it still wasn't quick.

If it's clearly fraud, did you ask if it'd help to report it to the police or trading standards?

[CheGuevara]

Originally Posted by daktulos

This will likely be what you need to do. You'll get the money back, but not necessarily quickly.

We had a holiday cancelled in March 2019 (at 10:30 the night before) and the company went bust. We didn't get the money back (part CC, part ATOL) until January 2021. Some of that time was us holding onto "vouchers", but it still wasn't quick.

If it's clearly fraud, did you ask if it'd help to report it to the police or trading standards?

That's helpful info thanks, even if a bit of a bitter pill to swallow. The real difficulty is deciding whether to re-book tickets, or wait and see what happens and either make the trip, or not, on potentially last-minute notice. I think the worst situation would be being on the hook for both sets of tickets if we re-book - that's £9k in airfare as the price has gone up £1k in the last couple of weeks.

I've not considered the police, but have thought of trading standards, and the ombudsman (as far as the cc company is concerned), but wouldn't be expecting any of those options to bear fruit before end of July when the outbound flights are booked.

[ethariel]

try Mastercard again and tell them you want to claim on a Section 75 - https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/area-of...and-section-75 rather than a straight chargeback. They have broken thier contract with you by providing a false flights reservation number.

If that fails, straight to Mastercard complaints then on to the Ombudsman after that as a last resort.

[Adam Ef]

Ask to speak to Mastercard's fraud department. They should have one. I've had to deal with HSBC's fraud department before now.

[redtrummy]

Just changed my watch battery - on the watch back it states water resistant to 50m - What's that mean? Talk about ambiguity

[daktulos]

Originally Posted by redtrummy

Just changed my watch battery - on the watch back it states water resistant to 50m - What's that mean? Talk about ambiguity

Depth under water - useful if you're a diver. It can handle up to 6 atmospheres of pressure.