A MUM is £1,400 out of pocket after chasing a refund for her cancelled trip booked through Teletext Holidays for nearly a year.
Christine Dow, 35, a mum-of-one and call centre operator from Halifax, planned a holiday of a lifetime with her partner and her autistic son back in 2019.
1
Christine says: “I booked the holiday because my son has autism and everything from the flights to hotel catered for his needs.
“When I told him that we weren’t going on holiday and didn’t want to rebook it because of the upset the whole experience had caused, he was devastated. It’s the first holiday he would have been on for five years.”
She booked a £1,280 holiday to Majorca for seven nights through Teletext Holidays, which arranged everything from the hotel to transfers and flights.
But when Covid hit and the country was plunged into lockdown in March 2020, Christine’s trip was cancelled.
Although initially disappointed, she received a credit note from Teletext Holidays which she used to rebook her holiday for April 2021 instead – but she had to pay £40 of her own money to switch her dates and flights.
When the UK was once again put into lockdown at the beginning of 2021, her holiday was cancelled once more.
Most read in Money
Ryanair, which cancelled the flights, told Christine to talk to her provider, Teletext Holidays, about getting a refund for the flights, with Teletext Holidays itself cancelling the hotel and transfers.
Because Teletext Holidays arranged the whole holiday, Christine had to go through the company to get her full refund.
Desperate to get her money back and shelve her holiday plans for the foreseeable future, Christine asked Teletext Holidays for her money back – but is still waiting on her cash months later.
Now the firm has gone into liquidation, she fears she may never get her money back.
Christine said she was calling every couple of days since her holiday was cancelled – but despite “hundreds” of phone calls and emails, as well as four complaints to customer services, she hasn’t got a penny back.
After getting nowhere, Christine filed a legal claim against Teletext Holidays in October.
She used the gov.uk website to file her claim – which cost her a fee of £80.
Teletext Holidays then received a County Court Judgement by a default when it failed to reply within 21 days to her claim.
A CCJ is issued when you owe someone money and the court has formally decided you must pay the cash back.
In total, Christine is waiting on a £1,400 payment from Teletext Holidays – which includes the charges she paid for re-booking the holiday and the court fees too.
But now she’s worried that she won’t see her hard-earned money again, following the news that Truly Holidays, the parent company which owns Teletext Holidays, has gone into liquidation.
Entering liquidation means the company stops trading and its remaining money and assets are handed out to claimants.
It usually happens when a company is insolvent, meaning it doesn’t have enough cash to meet its payments and debts.
“It’s caused so much frustration and upset,” Christine said, adding that it has also taken a toll on her personal life.
“It’s been very, very stressful – it has had an effect on mental health and caused a lot of stress.
“I worry a lot about when I’m going to get my money back, it’s caused me sleepless nights. I shouldn’t have to go through this to get my money.”
Christine is not the only customer who has been left in the lurch following Teletext Holiday’s collapse into liquidation.
Around 4,000 customers are impacted, according to MoneySavingExpert.
It came as Teletext Holidays was slammed last year for failing to refund customers for holidays cancelled due to Covid.
It promised to refund £7million to customers still owed cash for cancelled trips – and thousands complained after they were left in the dark over where their refunds were at.
What to do if you’re affected
If your holiday was cancelled due to Covid, If your holiday was cancelled due to Covid, you need to submit a claims form through the Travel Trust Association to get a refund.
You’ll need to provide proof of payment was made to Truly Travel to get your cash back.
But it’s not yet clear whether refunds will go ahead – this is because when companies are liquidated, funds are first used to pay of its debts.
If you booked your holiday using a credit card, you could get your money back under the consumer protection right, Section 75.
It means your credit card provider will pay you back if you run into an issue with something you bought using credit.
This only applies if your holiday cost over £100 but not more than £30,000.
If you used a debit card, its still worth getting in touch with your bank to see if you can get a refund too – charge backs are granted in a number of scenarios.
Grant Shapps hints ALL travel tests could soon be ditched in boost for holidays
