A reader called Brian booked a four-day family holiday for himself, his wife and his son and daughter-in-law to Fuerteventura with Loveholidays in the middle of May but between all the jigs and the reels he ended up far from in love with Loveholidays.
His booking covered three rooms on a bed and breakfast basis on the Spanish island and came at a total cost of €3,531 with the money to be paid over four instalments with a final payment of €1,903 due on September 7th.
A couple of days before that payment was due, Brian contacted Loveholidays by phone to inquire about the cost of getting a room with a pool view and upgrading to an all-inclusive package.
“We received a reply that evening with a cost update that we did not fully understand. I and my wife phoned them the next morning to clarify the costs and spoke with a lady who confirmed that the cost of changing was going to be €3,794.89. I was not willing to pay this amount to change and I informed her of that. After we finished the call my wife thought that that figure was the total price of the holiday, so we phoned back again,” he says.
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On the second occasion he spoke to a different person and he explained that he had already spoken to one of their colleagues but he needed clarification of what was said.
“On both occasions we were informed that the calls were being recorded which I was delighted with. We went through the costs again and in the end we agreed that the total cost of the holiday was €3,794.89. Before I contacted the company there was an outstanding balance of €1,962.91 which was due to come out of my credit card on September 7th.”
He says that it was agreed that the new outstanding balance was now €2,226.29 – to cover the upgrade. “We were very clear on that, as we wanted to be 100 per cent sure of what we were paying. I actually asked the agent to total the amount that was outstanding if we were to agree to make the changes. I was asked to confirm my choice by email which I did and I also included the final figure of €2,226.29 in it.”
That, you would imagine, should have been that. It wasn’t.
“I made the call to Loveholidays at 9:58am and I sent the email at 10:19am to confirm my decision and also to confirm the final payment. They replied at 10:47am to say my changes had been successful and it was only when I opened the mail at 12:15pm that I discovered that what we agreed on the phone had changed. I subsequently phoned again and explained that we had agreed on a figure that I agreed to pay as a final instalment (€2,226.29) and not the one that they had now charged me (€3,794.89).”
Our reader was told that this would not now be changed “as I had agreed on the phone to accept the changes. I assumed that the changes would not be made until I had sent on my decision via email. I agreed to the changes, not the figure they were now charging me. I had sent an email confirming the amount of the final payment which we agreed at 10:19am, 28 minutes before I received their email. I pleaded with them to revert to my original booking and asked to speak to a manager. Neither was agreed to.”
He was then told “they would listen to the recording and then make a decision. The agent did not know when that might happen, one day, maybe a week was what he thought. This amount of money made no sense to me and I would never spend that amount on a short four-day holiday,” he continues.
“I was informed that they were going to listen to a recording of the conversations and that they would make a decision based on that. We are due to fly on the morning of September 21st, a very short period of time to try and sort it out.”
We got on to Loveholidays and received the following statement. “We are really sorry that [Brian] was mistakenly given the wrong advice regarding the cost to upgrade his hotel, and we have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again. We have now issued him with a refund and wish him a lovely holiday.”
