Refund for flight cancellation

[life in the old dog]

I'm hoping that someone can help with refund on flights which we had to cancel.

I contacted Worldwideflights by telephone on Thursday January 18th to enquire about airline tickets to Bangkok. A booking was made and my debit card details were given to them over the telephone. I was informed that the seats had been reserved and that I would receive a booking confirmation by email which I should check and confirm by email.

The booking details were emailed to me on Friday January 19th at 11:56 and I was telephoned on Saturday January 20th at approximately 14:00 and asked to confirm by email that the details were correct. I was told that the written email confirmation was required before the tickets could be issued.

On Sunday January 21st at 08:43 I responded to the booking email by stating that our circumstances had changed and that the tickets should NOT be issued. I also requested a refund of the amount paid £1327.00. I received an email back stating that the tickets had already been issued and that no refund was possible.

At no time was I told that the tickets were non-refundable and could not be cancelled - these stipulations only appeared on the booking confirmation which I subsequently declined to confirm. The company's terms and conditions do not appear on their website (Worldwideflights - The Online Travel Agent).

They have since emailed to say that they have a recording of the conversation that took place on January 20th (see email below). On January 22nd I requested that a copy of this recording be sent to me within 7 days. Since then I have heard nothing from the company - no offer of refund of taxes, etc..... and no tickets.

I have contacted Qatar Airlines who say that the booking was made and electronic tickets were issued so presumably these have been kept by Worldwideflights.

If they have a recording then it will show that I was told that tickets could not be issued until I had replied to the booking confirmation.

Any ideas as to which track I should take to obtain some kind of refund on this - eg. should I proceed with a subject access request under the Data Protection Act - they have clearly stated that a recording exists and I requested a copy back on January 22nd. Or should I go to court to obtain a refund of taxes, etc.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

----------------------
Extract from email sent January 22nd 10:20am:
“YOU ENTERED A CONTRACT WITH US THE MOMENT YOU MADE A BOOKING WITH US.....AND
ON TOP VERBAL CONTRACT ALSO STANDS......FURTHERMORE WE HAVE RECORDED
CONVERSATION WHEREBY YOU HAVE AUTHRORISED THE TRANSACTION AND ISSSUE OF
TICKETS...”
-----------------------

[livelylad]

What are the actual flight dates and when did you book and then cancel?
Most companies have a 14 day cancellation policy. I also suggest you ask the company to provide a copy of their cancellation policy.