Alpharooms refund

Michael_Plum

Hi, I received an email which appeared to be from alpharooms concerning my refund for a covid-cancelled holiday. It arrived in my junk folder but the addresses looked somewhat legit. However they don't ask for my booking reference so it appears to be a scam. Here's the email:

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From: update @ comms.alpharooms.com

Dear Customer,

We write further to your refund request.

We are unfortunately unable to refund the card with which you paid for your holiday as our systems do not hold your data any longer for security reasons. Your refund will be made by a BACS transfer into your account as per the below schedule.

Date on which your package holiday was cancelled -

Before 31 July 2020 - payment to be made on or before 30 June 2021

Between 1 August 2020 and 31 October 2020 - payment to be made on or before 31 July 2021

Between 1 November 2020 and 24 May 2021 - payment to be made on or before 31 August 2021

In order for us to be able to do this, we will need the following details:
Bank name:
Sort Code:
Account Name:
Account Number:

Kindly provide the above information by emailing covidwebform @ trulytravel.com

Assuring you of our closest attention at all times.

Regards,
Alpharooms

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FYI Alpharooms are owned by trulytravel. Alpharooms didn't exactly confirm over the phone that this is a scam but they did say that they would ring if they need bank information. Just thought I'd share the info as I was almost caught out by it and it could make an already tough situation regarding getting our refunds back that much worse so keep your eyes peeled. Hope this helps.

mccartj5

Michael_Plum wrote: »

Hi, I received an email which appeared to be from alpharooms concerning my refund for a covid-cancelled holiday. It arrived in my junk folder but the addresses looked somewhat legit. However they don't ask for my booking reference so it appears to be a scam. Here's the email:

---

From: update @ comms.alpharooms.com

Dear Customer,

We write further to your refund request.

We are unfortunately unable to refund the card with which you paid for your holiday as our systems do not hold your data any longer for security reasons. Your refund will be made by a BACS transfer into your account as per the below schedule.

Date on which your package holiday was cancelled -

Before 31 July 2020 - payment to be made on or before 30 June 2021

Between 1 August 2020 and 31 October 2020 - payment to be made on or before 31 July 2021

Between 1 November 2020 and 24 May 2021 - payment to be made on or before 31 August 2021

In order for us to be able to do this, we will need the following details:
Bank name:
Sort Code:
Account Name:
Account Number:

Kindly provide the above information by emailing covidwebform @ trulytravel.com

Assuring you of our closest attention at all times.

Regards,
Alpharooms

---

FYI Alpharooms are owned by trulytravel. Alpharooms didn't exactly confirm over the phone that this is a scam but they did say that they would ring if they need bank information. Just thought I'd share the info as I was almost caught out by it and it could make an already tough situation regarding getting our refunds back that much worse so keep your eyes peeled. Hope this helps.

Thanks for that. You actually got through to them on the phone :eek: we can only ever get replies through FB messenger

They are a nightmare, we are still waiting on our refund (a year now)and they keep coming back with all sort of nonsense. The latest one is that we should check with our bank because we initiated a chargeback. The bit they are conveniently forgetting is that they disputed the chargeback and it was reversed.

Never again will I book with them or any of their subsidiaries

Tow

BACS is the company who run the British bank clearing system, hence looking for an Account Number and Sortcode. So even if it was legit, they could not transfer money via BACS into an Irish bank account.

Michael_Plum

Thanks for clarifying. Truly travel got back in touch saying that the email is legit but offering 2 different emails to send the information to. The whole thing is all over the place and I don't feel safe sending them any information through email so my advice is to ring them and give them your bank details over the phone, they've been better at picking up lately. When I get the refund is another story...

mccartj5

Michael_Plum wrote: »

Thanks for clarifying. Truly travel got back in touch saying that the email is legit but offering 2 different emails to send the information to. The whole thing is all over the place and I don't feel safe sending them any information through email so my advice is to ring them and give them your bank details over the phone, they've been better at picking up lately. When I get the refund is another story...

Thanks, is this the number you're using? 016 950 980

Michael_Plum

mccartj5 wrote: »

Thanks, is this the number you're using? 016 950 980

Yeah that's the one. If they don't answer, you could try ringing from a different number, maybe I just got lucky but that's worked for me a couple of times. I wouldn't put it past them the blacklist troublesome callers.

Michael_Plum

Just want to write a quick update. After numerous calls and emails to both Alpharooms and Truly Travel, it turns out that the email was legit. Congratulations to them for sending the most dodgy looking email possible but they did confirm that covidwebform @ trulytravel.com (minus spaces in between, I'm a new user so I can't post email addresses) is a legitimate email address. I would still err on the side of caution though, ring them and try to give them your bank information over the phone.

antix80

Tow wrote: »

BACS is the company who run the British bank clearing system, hence looking for an Account Number and Sortcode. So even if it was legit, they could not transfer money via BACS into an Irish bank account.

Yes they can.

Tow

antix80 wrote: »

Yes they can.

But not via BACS, they would do a SEPA transfer.