Pardon me where’s our Chattanooga choo choo cheque?
B.S. writes: Great Rail Journeys, which is based in York, cancelled our £10,000 railway t our of t he southern US because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and has told us it will not even consider giving us our money back until after the end of March next year. We paid by credit card, so we made a claim to Barclaycard but this was rejected as it appears the rail company, or its bank, told Barclaycard we had been given a refund credit note.
IF THERE are two industries that have suffered particular damage to their reputation during the Covid-19 outbreak, they are travel firms and insurance companies – and you have suffered at the hands of both.
Great Rail Journeys wanted to give you a credit note for use next year – if travel proves possible. However, you pointed out that you and your wife are well into your 70s, so forking out for another travel insurance policy for next year would be prohibitively expensive, particularly given the cost of medical treatment in the US.
Your planned railway tour was expensive enough at £9,970, but it would certainly have been impressive, taking in stops at Nashville, Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans and – perhaps best of all for railway fans – Chattanooga, the city made famous by the Glenn Miller Orchestra’s recording of Chattanooga Choo Choo in 1941, the first song to be awarded a gold disc for over a million sales.
Sadly, your own Chattanooga choo choo never left the station. Great Rail Journeys agreed that you were entitled to your money back. It told you: ‘Under the 2018 Package Travel Regulations, there is a 14-day window within which to make that refund.’
But it added: ‘However, these are unprecedented times, and rather than one tour being cancelled, the restrictions put in place by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and other equivalent bodies worldwide, have hit a significant part of our and other tour operators’ programmes for 2020.’
So, along with other travel agents and tour operators, Great Rail Journeys wanted to kick the refund can as far down the road as possible. It was offering you a credit note with the incentive of a separate voucher for 15 per cent off the cost of a holiday. If Great Rail Journeys went bust, the credit note – but not the discount voucher – would be covered by its tour operator’s bond.
Barclaycard honoured your chargeback claim and returned the £9,970 to your account, but the York company objected and reinstated the charge. Great Rail Journeys told me it had written to you with the offer of a credit note and discount voucher, and it explained: ‘Having not heard to the contrary, we wrongly assumed that Mr S was happy with that.’
The company now says it accepts that you are not happy. Barclaycard had already got the message and started a second chargeback. Great Rail Journeys told me on Wednesday last week that it had dropped its objections, and your £9,970 would be refunded immediately.
It will also let you keep the 15 per cent discount voucher in case you are tempted by a future trip.
Barclaycard has confirmed that, after hearing from you, it did not agree with the rail company’s position so was happy to continue with the second chargeback claim. And, very fairly, staff at the card company also issued a temporary credit to your account so you would not be charged even one day’s interest on the £9,970 while the payment was in dispute.