how much ?? if anything ?**WON IN COURT**

[laidbackfreak]

ok guys n gals, im in the process of trying to claim some kind of refund & compensation from a holiday company and just need to see what my next options are, the situation so far is :-

i booked a holiday in sept last year for swmbo birthday... found the holiday online booked for the period i wanted.. (sat - sat)

(now this was a last minute booking and as such we had to collect the tickets at the airport)

all the emails and paperwork came through with the correct details on... dates time etc...

however when we arrived at the airport the tickets were returning a day early... this is where the problem lies...

i would NEVER have booked this with these dates as swmbo birthday was the friday... so we wanted to be on holiday for this day specifically..

got told at the airport they couldnt do anything and would have to call the office upon arrival... due to it being a sat when we arrived we were told we'd have to call back on the monday...

various phone calls later and despite being told firstly there were no flights on the original return date.. they did say if a cancellation came up we would be informed ((for a flight that doesnt exist ?! ) as it happens we already new the flight DID exists as it was a scheduled flight)

so far we have written to them and had very little response from them... so we wrote again and this time got abta involved... to which holiday company did reply.. and offered us 10% on any other holidays we wanted to book with them ?! (like why would i use them again ! )

so we disputed that and have now been offered a 10% discount plus a cheque for 79quid (this works out at the one day we lost)
however we have had 6 months of wrangling since then, not to say anything about the incurred costs while we were there... phone calls... arranging flight to airport and stress of not knowing when we were to go home....

if we now start court proceedings... how do we quantify this claim ? or are we wasting our time ??
we cheekily stated that we wanted 75% of the original cost of the holiday and are now trying to claim 500quid compensation, I'm basing that figure on costs incurred while there and subsequent time spent trying to resolve this, is this a realistic figure??
any advice or words or wisdom greatly appreciated...

[Loubychew]

Hi laidbackfreak,

This may be a daft question, but could you post the exact flight timings so that we can see them? From the itinerary you received by e-mail. Times leaving UK, landing in resort and vice versa?

I ask because I have seen this before. At the company I work for, we use a local airline. We have a flight from Ireland that arrives in resort early on a Saturday morning but flies back on a Friday evening, landing back in Ireland on a Saturday. In effect giving only a 6 night holiday as the outbound flight is overnight.

[laidbackfreak]

flight details in writing and email state the following :-
departs sat sep 8th 2007 08:45
arrives 14:45

departs sat sep15th 2007 22:40
arrives sun sep16th 2007 00:55


the tickets at the airport stated the return leg
departs fri sep14th 2007 22:40
arrives sat sep15th 2007 00:55

[10110001]

Its not supplied according to contract. With your original confirmation and travel documents ask for a compensation for the curtailment of your holiday of £500 according to a fixed deadline and go from there.

If no positive reponse, file a claim in the small claims track.

[Loubychew]

I have to agree with 10110001. You did not get the holiday you booked and paid for.

In normal circumstances, when you book enough in advance to have your tickets sent to you at home, you have the opportunity to check them over for any errors (as TO's usually advise you to do). As this was not possible you are relying on them to get it right.

Certainly keep at this. They have made a massive error and by offereing you 10% and the 79 quid they are as good as saying you are right and are hoping that this will be enough to make you happy. Send the cheque back, whatever you do - don't bank it. Its all over if you do.

[laidbackfreak]

thanks guys pretty much what we were thinking but always nice to get some reassurance

Lou thanks for the advice re cheque we were literally discuusing that this morning...

so looks like a recorded letter is next step to inform them we intend to proceed with court action unless full settlement is reached ...

In our last letter we asked for 75% of the cost of holiday plus an additional 500 compensation... so a total of jsut over 900 quid....

should we reduce this now to 500 ? or procede with our original amount ?

havent looked fully at the small claims side of things yet, so forgive me if this is already covered elsewhere...

can we state for exaample... claim X amount or another deemed more suitable by the court ?? does this make things any easier ??"

[10110001]

This is what I would do considering you have already asked for £900 in writing.

Send LBA asking for £900. Offer a gesture of goodwill and tell them you will accept £500 to close the claim as final without further action if paid in full within 14 days being February 29, 2008. Otherwise for the avoidance of doubt, you will automatically file at court a claim for £900 plus costs.

See also Making a Small Claim and Money Claim Online, and the summary of the small claims procedure.

[laidbackfreak]

cheers guys will follow thos guides and let you know how i get on

[laidbackfreak]

hi guys, ok to update you of my current status, after no further response,
i eventually issued them with a online court claim and yesterday the 14 day period for them to respond to the courts expired, leaving me with the option to start judgement...

today I have recieved a letter from the company offering me 400quid without prejudice..

so do i take the offer ? or press the button to start judegment ??

[nicolee2931]

Me personally I would go for judgement, they seem to not want the court to know an offer had been made for 400.00 quid hence the without prejudice statement. Looks like they have been caught out fair and square and they know it. Push forward get the judgement and if they don´t ask for an appeal or set aside send the bailiffs in .

[laidbackfreak]

well we pressed the button....
and got a rejection.....
they have submitted in a partial admmision and disputed the amounts owed...
there defence is poor imo but there now claiming to have told us xyz... most of it twisted and are claiming to owe us only 200quid... and have mentioned that they have made previous offers including the last one of 400quid....
so looks like we have to present our case to court....
anyone got any tips ??

[laidbackfreak]

well finally had my day in court this week, cant believe it took so long !?
the first court date was re-scheduled for some reasons and then last week I got a letter asking for copies of the paperwork as they had lost them !

Anyways got to court and the company director was presenting there deffence...

We ended up with payout of 470. the company director was VERY p'd off about it and even asked the judge for a word afterwards (off the record) and the judge flatly refuesed

At the end of the day I'm not bothered about the cash (even tho its a nice bonus before xmas) but it was nice to get the judgement and see the guy who as far as I'm concerned who couldve stopped it all if they had responded in a prompt manner

So cheers to tho's on here who offered support n advice.... it was certainly a learning experience and if it ever happens again I will be better prepared.

[Loubychew]

Well done you! Good result.

[slick132]

Hi LBF,

Congratulations on your result in court.

Title changed to **WON**

[laidbackfreak]

Originally Posted by slick132

Hi LBF,

Congratulations on your result in court.

Title changed to **WON**

Oh yes... well remembered lol