We were charged extra £196 for ‘beach bungalow’ that had stairs

I BOOKED a holiday to Cuba with my daughter through Airtours. I wanted it to be really special, so paid an extra £196 for a bungalow on the beach.

But when checking in to the hotel, we were told none of the bungalows were available. Instead, we were put in a flat with access up two flights of stairs.

When I explained that I am 73 and can’t manage stairs, we were moved into the main hotel with a room facing the pool and entertainment area. But this was very noisy because we were close to a 24-hour bar, and the room was always in the shade.

I asked for a refund of £196, which was not supplied, and compensation for the disappointment and the unsuitable replacement room.

A. S., Buckinghamshire.

The literature you received told you that you’d made a ‘great choice’ and promised ‘we’ll do everything we can to make sure you have a fantastic holiday’.

everything, that is, except giving you the room you booked and the holiday experience you’d been promised, it seemed when I read your letter.

Airtours says it is very sorry to hear you are unhappy, but a spokesman tells me you made your request for a ground floor room only two days before the holiday was due to start, and by then all such rooms were booked.

I can see where your confusion arose. You booked a room that was described as a bungalow — I think most people would be astonished to discover that here that meant a room in a three-storey building!

But this is explained on the Airtours website.

In addition, Airtours tells me it has customer representatives at all of its resorts. It checked and has no record of you contacting the representative for help during your stay. This is a shame because they would have been able to sort out your room difficulties.

The firm has offered its sincere apologies and has refunded the cost of the room upgrade. MY HUSBAND and I have been with BT for more than 50 years.

Our bill for the last quarter was £108.84. During that time, 54 calls are supposed to have been made from our landline to my husband’s mobile phone. This is just not so.

We are 81 and spend at least 90 pc of our time together. My husband goes shopping once a week and I call his mobile once, maybe twice, or not at all.

S. Q., Essex. You apologised to me for writing on an old typewriter. But I think you deserve congratulations.

Your letter does not contain a single spelling, punctuation or typing mistake. I wish I could say the same of the emails I receive, some of which do not even include full stops at the end of sentences!

Initially, BT thought the calls may be caused by your burglar alarm. These can be set by the alarm company to contact the household’s mobile phone, and there have been cases where they have proved to be faulty and made numerous calls.

however, this proved not to be the case. Next, BT suggested that you stop calling your husband’s mobile phone. This resolved the problem. If you think about it, over the course of 13 weeks you would have to phone your husband’s mobile only four times a week to run up 52 calls.

A BT adviser has spoken to you to see if you would be better off moving to an alternative tariff. or you could move to a new provider.

TalkTalk, for example, has a tariff that allows you to make unlimited calls to mobile phones for £5 extra per month.

I tried to twist BT’s arm, but it insists the calls were made and so you do have to pay this bill, which is about £31 more than usual. I AM executor of my late mother’s estate. When she died and her house was sold, I sent British Gas a photo of the meter to confirm the final reading was accurate.

Instead of using this to calculate the bill, they sent an estimate, which meant I was given a refund of more than £1,000 when it should have been closer to £200.

The mistake was not discovered for three months. Instead of admitting to it, British Gas tried to cover it up by presenting a bogus bill of more than £700 for gas my mother allegedly used after her death.

Had British Gas written a polite letter, I would have been only too happy to return the extra money.

But by disguising the overpayment as a legitimate bill, British Gas has caused me a considerable amount of unnecessary distress.

British Gas has passed the debt on to Phillips & Cohen.

S. B., Sussex. BrITIsh Gas offered you £150 compensation. But you have sent me a detailed explanation of why you believe it should write off the whole bill of £787.10. You say you will argue your case in civil court or via the ombudsman. Meanwhile, British Gas has passed on the debt for collection.

sometimes I find it useful to think through what I would do in a similar situation.

My mother died two years ago and I dealt with her estate, so I can appreciate your position. however, I would accept the compensation and pay the bill.

There is no doubt that British Gas has behaved extremely badly — its behaviour has been unprofessional, not to mention a little callous. I suggested it offered more compensation — say £250 to £300 — to bridge the gap and resolve the issue. But, in what I regard as a petty and intransigent response, it has refused.

Looking at the detail, I feel you may have become a little too absorbed in this argument — it may have become a focus for your grief.

Please, take a step backwards and think this through carefully.

By all means, try the ombudsman if you wish, but I wouldn’t get involved in a court battle that could be lost and cost money.