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Online Booking Issue- Help!

JudyN

Hi All

I tried to book a holiday this morning with a well known online booking company. The first time I entered my card details it said there was an error and to try again, which I did, and the error appeared again. I checked my bank balance and about 6 random payments were in my pending transactions leaving me with almost no money. I assumed at least 1 booking went through so I contacted the booking provider and they said they received no confirmation so there was no booking and I should contact my bank. To cut a long story short (and after hours of phone calls to both the bank and the booking service) I have been told it will be up to 5 days before I get my money back. I am now completely broke, cannot pay my rent and have no holiday! Surely this is not legal?? Any advice would be very much appreciated.

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Comments

njs030

Are they all for the same amount? It sounds like the bank put a hold on the money to start the transaction but it was never called for by the company.
The problem is with your bank not the holiday company, unfortunately we are very behind in this country and it can take a few days for the bank to unlock money and return it to your account which is crazy!!
See if your bank will give you a short term overdraft maybe?

maximoose

notjustsweet wrote: »

The problem is with your bank not the holiday company, unfortunately we are very behind in this country and it can take a few days for the bank to unlock money and return it to your account which is crazy!!

Not the banks fault - The company places the authorization on the funds, then either confirms it and the charge is complete or they can release the funds. If they do neither it will automatically lapse and return after 5 (I think?) days.

njs030

maximoose wrote: »

Not the banks fault - The company places the authorization on the funds, then either confirms it and the charge is complete or they can release the funds. If they do neither it will automatically lapse and return after 10 days.

Well she's been told it will take 5 days which is how long it takes for the bank to return shadow charges.
Obviously the company didn't authorise 6 charges either.
Sure look these threads always disintergrate into is it the bank or the company type drama!

Like I said op see if you can get a short term overdraft to help you through

JudyN

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. The bank cannot give me an overdraft unfortunately and they are saying it is in the hands of the online booking service.

What happened was, there must have been some sort of glitch with the online booking service, I was charged 6 times in random amounts which makes it even more strange. Surely if the payment went through, and there is still rooms/flights available, the booking should have gone through. I can't understand the logic behind it at all. I am also not impressed with the correspondence to the booking service who has given me no sort of compensation or apology. I asked if they could hold the price of the holiday until I get my money back so that I could book it then, but they wouldn't do that either.

Miaireland

I am not being rude or cheeky or anything like that but are you sure you were on the genuine site. The only reason I ask is the fact that different amounts have been taken from your account in a number of transactions.

JudyN

Yes, I have been in touch with the company and they have traced my email, bank reference etc

njs030

JudyN wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. The bank cannot give me an overdraft unfortunately and they are saying it is in the hands of the online booking service.

What happened was, there must have been some sort of glitch with the online booking service, I was charged 6 times in random amounts which makes it even more strange. Surely if the payment went through, and there is still rooms/flights available, the booking should have gone through. I can't understand the logic behind it at all. I am also not impressed with the correspondence to the booking service who has given me no sort of compensation or apology. I asked if they could hold the price of the holiday until I get my money back so that I could book it then, but they wouldn't do that either.

In these situations the company blames the bank and the bank blames the company but unfortunately its you that's left out of pocket!

It's happened to me a couple of times and it's only taken a day or two for the money to reappear rather than the 5 days they say to cover themselves. As long as the company have said they definitely haven't charged you for anything you will get it all back.

Not much help but hopefully you can borrow to get through a few days!

endofrainbow

why would you be due compensation ?

RoYoBo

endofrainbow wrote: »

why would you be due compensation ?

Imagine you went into a shop to buy a washing machine and the store took your money from your wallet 6 times over and failed to give you the washing machine. To add insult to injury, you were then informed that you'd have to wait 5 days to get ANY of your money back as the till was stuck. Tough that you now can't eat or live or pay for anything else in the meantime. I'd be wanting some kind of compensation too - maybe not likely, but certainly not right.

CeilingFly

Compensation?????

That's what's wrong with the country.

People make mistakes and they want others to give compensation???

L1011

This is yet another thread where there wouldn't be anywhere near as much of an issue if a credit card had been used. Using a debit card for this sort of stuff brings huge risks on, which are made clear in the T&Cs that likely nobody has read.

Alpha_zero

L1011 wrote: »

This is yet another thread where there wouldn't be anywhere near as much of an issue if a credit card had been used. Using a debit card for this sort of stuff brings huge risks on, which are made clear in the T&Cs that likely nobody has read.

What

L1011

Alpha_zero wrote: »

What

using a debit card means the cash is out of your account immediately.

Using a credit card means its not, and if its refunded you don't pay interest on the time it was out (if it even goes in to an interest period)

Another extremely common issue is people having pre-authorisation holds put on debit cards. In this case the cash is blocked on your account for 5 working days, and is effectively unreleasable. On a credit card, its just reduced from your limit, does not charge you interest, and can be released. Also, most places never convert the hold on debit cards so you can have the hold for the 5 days taken *and* an actual bill taken.

Effectively, credit cards are an extremely useful tool to avoid huge amounts of issues (and debit card charges, etc) once you don't use them as a form of borrowing.

Life was a lot easier for people when Laser cards could be used on about three websites in the entire world!

RoYoBo

CeilingFly wrote: »

Compensation?????

That's what's wrong with the country.

People make mistakes and they want others to give compensation???

What mistake did the OP make? They didn't try to complete the transaction 6 times, but the money was taken and put on hold 6 times. What they wanted first of all and foremost is for the mistake they didn't make to be rectified in time for them to be able to use their own money elsewhere. As it stands, they have neither the holiday nor their money (6 times over).

CeilingFly

RoYoBo wrote: »

What mistake did the OP make? They didn't try to complete the transaction 6 times, but the money was taken and put on hold 6 times. What they wanted first of all and foremost is for the mistake they didn't make to be rectified in time for them to be able to use their own money elsewhere. As it stands, they have neither the holiday nor their money (6 times over).

It the iummediate run for "compensation" demand that I and many other despise.

Once the Compo word is mentioned you lose the argument.

The op did enter it more than once. - and remember you are only hearing one side of the argument.

Compo me arse

Former Former

JudyN wrote: »

Hi,

I was charged 6 times in random amounts which makes it even more strange.

What do you mean by random amounts?

Neither the operator nor the bank should be charging you anything other than what you agreed to pay.

[I know some companies maybe charge a euro to your account to make sure the account is genuine, but that's not the case here]

RoYoBo

CeilingFly wrote: »

It the iummediate run for "compensation" demand that I and many other despise.

Once the Compo word is mentioned you lose the argument.

The op did enter it more than once. - and remember you are only hearing one side of the argument.

Compo me arse

The OP did not mention compensation in the initial post. He/she entered the amount more than once as a result a notification to try again - granted, that's something which would not be advised when purchasing online. But they didn't try 6 times, according to their initial post.

Further to that, one only ever hears one side of the story on any forum - that's the nature of same. Posting becomes a pointless exercise for an OP or responders if we decide to doubt the truth and/or try to second guess the circumstances.

Regardless of whether compensation has become a dirty word and a red flag for people to dump blame on any poster who mentions it here, the whole point of compensation is to make amends for someone who has suffered a loss. The OP has suffered a loss and is now without funds or the purchase. The OP mentioned compensation only once out of a genuine sense of grievance.

Which of us here would be complacent and forgiving to find ourselves with no money in our account for 5 days as a result of errors that were not (for the most part) of our making? The very least the booking company could have done (and they refused to do) is allow the OP to get the original booking at the initial cost.