Who can i complain to - lastminute.com problem

mel123

So just to fill you in on my story:


Booked a flight with lastminute.com which all went fine.

When I was on the way to the airport (two days after booking the flight, with my confirmation etc), I got a call from lastminute saying that there was a problem with my booking and my flight was cancelled. Of course I was very annoyed but what could I do literally being in the taxi, so I went to the airport. The flight cost me considerably more than what I had got it for on lastminute, and I couldn’t get the flight which I had booked, I had to wait around the airport for 7 hours.
So I lost a lot of money and lost a day of my trip also.

I received a mail also confirming cancellation, and it says on the email:

Every effort has been made to confirm this booking but unfortunately with no success. We now have no alternatives to offer you and so we have processed a full refund to your card which will take 5 working days to appear in your statement.

So today, the 6th of February, there is still no refund in my account. I proceeded to ring lastminute.com which I am pretty sure gets me through to a call centre in India. They are basically telling me my refund is going to take up to 16 weeks, yes SIXTEEN WEEKS. So what lastminute are telling me is they are having problems getting a refund from the airline when they get it they pass it onto me. They wont give me a refund until they get the refund from the airline, even though I have told them and they agree that my contract is with them.

I already have a complaint in with them about cancelling the flight at such a late stage, and now this. I am so annoyed.
Basically I want to know who I can complain to about this, its ridiculous if I am expected to wait 16 week for a credit card refund, and then of course I will be even more out of pocket after paying interest on my credit card??

testicle

Small Claims Court

jor el

mel123 wrote: »

Basically I want to know who I can complain to about this

There is no one to complain to about Internet booking agents. It's an unregulated and unprotected sector.

You can ask your bank to do a charge back on the credit card though. Tell them that they cancelled your booking and are now refusing to refund for up to 4 months. Forward all information to the bank if requested.

mel123

thanks for the replies

cruzzo08

It may be worth checking this out with the commission for aviation regulation http://www.aviationreg.ie/

jor el

They regulate the airlines themselves, not brokers or agents.

cruzzo08

jor el wrote: »

They regulate the airlines themselves, not brokers or agents.

Commission of aviation regulation does indeed regulate airlines & aviation handling agents. However they also are the regulator for travel agents & provide the bond to all travel agents licensed with them. Lastminute.com are listed on their listing of operators licensed by C.A.R.

daenerysstormborn3

I do not understand why companies do this! How about refunding your customer and having a relatively happy customer who has received their refund and will sing your praises for having gotten the refund so promptly and then go off and get your in house legal team to deal with getting the refund from the airline? Instead they have a very disgruntled customer who is probably going mad because of (a) the cancelled flight and (b) the wait for a refund and who will probably go bad mouthing them (as I think they are entitled to do) and the annoyance will only continue to build up over the 16 weeks waiting on a refund.

I agree with jor el, if you booked by credit card, initiate a charge back through your bank, bring them all correspondence and hopefully they'll be able to sort you out.

jor el

cruzzo08 wrote: »

Commission of aviation regulation does indeed regulate airlines & aviation handling agents. However they also are the regulator for travel agents & provide the bond to all travel agents licensed with them. Lastminute.com are listed on their listing of operators licensed by C.A.R.

So they do, didn't know that. However;

http://www.aviationreg.ie/Travel_Trade__the_Commissions_Role/Default.93.html
The Commission's role does not encompass the following:

licensing travel arrangments for domestic travel in Ireland;
handling consumer complaints about travel agents, tour operators, hotels, luggage or airlines; or
handling complaints about advertising (unless this is by an alleged unlicensed trader).

So even though they are the regulator, they don't handle complaints about the licensed travel agents. All they do is investigate illegal activities or cover the traveller in the event the agent goes bankrupt.

So the CAR license the agents, but do not really regulate them.

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

Our man in Havana

Maybe the booking was never made with the airline to begin with? Or they were slow paying them.

jor el

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Maybe the booking was never made with the airline to begin with? Or they were slow paying them.

It would seem that it was never confirmed in the first place, reading this part of the OP anyway.

Every effort has been made to confirm this booking but unfortunately with no success.

OP needs to check what was in any confirmation mail they received after making the booking. If this was a confirmation mail, and included an e-ticket, then it could be considered booked and confirmed with the airline. If there was just an acknowledgement of receiving the booking, but no confirmation or e-ticket, then the booking was never made at all.

If the booking was never confirmed, then there's pretty much nothing to be done, bar getting the refund on the credit card (which should not take 16 weeks). If the booking was confirmed, then I would try to hold lastminute.com liable to pay for the extra costs that were incurred at the airport because of them cancelling the booking.

networkguy

Quickest and easiest thing to do is a chargeback with your credit card company

They wont charge you any interest and they have equal liability to provide the goods/service to you.

Its not your problem that they cant get a refund from their suppliers