Travel agents double booked our holiday?

TillyD said:
Falcon rang back, they can get us nothing.
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No but they can 'evict' someone else who booked more recently than you! - who probably paid a higher price and can afford to replace the holiday. Have you asked them if they can do that? I would definitely threaten the small claims court and suggest to them to ensure that they keep good records of who booked when and for how much so when they come to defend themselves, they can show that they 'evicted' in a fair manner - which I presume should be last-in-first-out and not 'keep those who paid most'. Ask them to document in writing their process for deciding who got shafted and who kept their holiday.
 
Small claims court won't work, as Falcon have/will repay anything you've paid them.
 
Also travel agents/tour operators have clauses stating that they will only submit to arbitration where there is a dispute and not the courts.
 
Tour operators and travel agents are taken to court. I've been taken to court and acted as a witness in court cases involving customers and tour ops.
Again, this is an example of a condition in a contract not having real legal validity.

As regards small claims courts I'm on less knowledgeable ground here. But OP is not claiming a refund -she is claiming the additional cost arising from a failure of the service provider. Ten years ago my company was taken to the small claims court because clients claimed hotel was so bad they had to move elsewhere and she was claiming the extra cost. (Client had signed booking form with the usual "must-go-to-arbitration")

Anyway it only costs 20/30 euro to make the application (can be done online)>
 
Didn't get that far..

I got the usual letter from SCC stating they had received enclosed complaint and asked for my response.
i responded( enclosing some good comments from recent clients at that same hotel)

And then the claimant wrote her comments about my response. The official sent me her comments accompanied by a couple of his questions to which i replied.

And then I heard nothing else. I'm guessing that the official (judge?) decided there was no merit to the customers claim, but I was surprised I heard nothing. The whole thing took months -which is one of the problems with SCCs.
 
Thanks again for all your replies especially oldnic.

I got another call this evening, they can offer us the hotel I booked but it's two weeks earlier, which is not a problem for us but they want an extra €700!!! They said it is more expensive to travel two weeks earlier.

Wouldn't you think the fact that they made this awful error that they would forget about the €700. It's just terrible customer service.

After searching online, I can get the same hotel with half board for an extra €700 so we have decided to go with this option. Half board was not included with the Falcon booking.

I am 100% going to go ahead with some kind of legal action. Even though Sylvia from Falcon has informed me she has a legal background and they are doing nothing wrong.

We will also be travelling the same dates that we had planned to travel and while I am there it will be interesting to see when the thompson/falcon families booked their holidays before August 2012.

Thanks again for all the advice guys.
 
Tilly, have you asked them to confirm to you in writing that you were not one of the first 10 (or however many places they actually had available) to book?

If you were first in it seems cut and dried that they haven't a leg to stand on, if somehow you weren't then that's different. Surely it all hinges on that and it's a question of fact.
 
TillyD, I am unable to get a PM to you regarding booking a holiday privately from some of my contacts. But, there are websites where you can book. I recommend you book through an Irish holiday home owner. Word of mouth speaks well of holiday home owners and I am sure you will have no difficulty contacting one.

Regards
Lep
 
Time said:
Also travel agents/tour operators have clauses stating that they will only submit to arbitration where there is a dispute and not the courts.
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I've read on AAM numerous times in the past that you can't sign away your statutory rights.
 
The holiday is officially cancelled. Falcon could not get us a one bed apt in the resort (mainland spain) we had originally booked, offered us a 2 bedroom in Lanzarote though

We are putting a claim through with the small claims online for €25. I just don't believe that we should be the ones out of pocket 8 months after signing our contract due to an error that Falcon holidays made.

We have booked directly with the hotel and ryanair flights for earlier dates. It's costing us an extra €700. We will forget about it now and move on until we hear word back from the small claims.

I will update the thread then.

Thanks for the replies and PMs over the last few days.

Tilly.
 
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