We cannot afford to wait for our travel refund
MY BOYFRIEND and I booked a holiday with Club Med to Bali in May, but it was cancelled due to Covid-19.
We had already paid the £4,383 total bill, and have since been sent a credit note valid until January 31 next year.
But we need a refund. We were both furloughed for most of the summer, and although my boyfriend is now working full-time, I am only working a couple of days a week.
I have had emails from Club Med staff saying the refund will be paid in due course, but I still have not received it.
E. H., Hemel Hempstead, Herts.
I have some sympathy with travel firms over the refund issue, but I often wonder where this money is sitting while it is not being repaid to customers.
have hoteliers been paid? are airlines sitting on some of the cash? This is a mystery that I have not seen explained.
But those in the travel industry are going to have to obey the law and pay refunds when customers want them.
In your longer letter you say you are running short of money.
Club Med was quick to put things right when I made contact. You received an email saying the refund would be actioned within two days and the money would be in your bank account within ten days of this. You now have your money.
a Club Med spokesman says: ‘We are sorry that some of our customers have been left unsatisfied. It has been, and still is, a very challenging time for the business, with many staff on furlough. Like many others in the industry, Club Med has been inundated with enquiries. With a leaner team, we have focused on prioritising refunds for trips with closer departure dates.
‘We are processing all the refunds and have committed to refunding people in up to 60 days as a maximum — wherever possible, we are trying to go much faster.’
Your holiday was due to take place from May 24 to June 4, so the 60 days had passed, but Club Med appears to be trying to do the right thing.
The travel industry talks much about confidence, but perhaps people would be more inclined to book their next holiday if they had been refunded for the trips that have been cancelled this year.
I AM a frail pensioner with little money and chronic arthritis. I was advised that a treadmill might help my mobility. I ordered one costing £270 from Amazon in mid-May. It arrived on June 26.
When my partner and I started to unpack it, we discovered that all of the assembly and operating instructions were in a foreign language — Chinese, I think.
Amazon told me it was sold by a third-party seller, and asked the seller to email me a return address label, which it did. However, this did not include postage, which would be £310. The description of the product on the website does not warn that the instructions are in a foreign language.
B. V., Surrey.
Those of us who frequently shop with amazon know how to spot third-party sellers. If you want to buy from amazon itself, look for the words, ‘Dispatched from and sold by amazon’ under the ‘add to basket’ box.
after receiving a picture with a warped frame and out-of-date printer inks, I am wary of purchasing from third-party sellers. amazon’s a-to-Z guarantee, which is meant to protect you when buying from them, is all very well. But when you are dealing with an intractable seller in another part of the world you realise the huge value of shopping on the high street, where you can simply take back anything that is not as described.
In fact, you are unlikely to have bought such a product in the first place because you will have seen and examined it.
amazon intervened when I made contact and it granted your claim. Your money has been refunded and you do not need to return the product, which you are donating to the British Red Cross. amazon has sent you flowers as a gesture of goodwill, too.
I HAD a Club Lloyds current account which I used for its regular saver facility.
When money got tight during lockdown, I emptied all my accounts and put my money into the one earning the highest interest. For three months, Lloyds charged me a £3 fee for not putting £1,500 into my account each month, which left me £9 overdrawn.
This debt has put a black mark against my credit file, stopping me from getting a mortgage. I have tried calling Lloyds twice as I received no letter or email telling me I was overdrawn. Lloyds said it would only take the mark off my file if it was the bank’s error, which it says it wasn’t.
C. V., Crawley Down, West Sussex.
LLoYDs has removed any negative marks against your credit history and paid a £50 goodwill gesture.
I thought this was generous. You are registered for internet banking and messages regarding the fee had been sent to your inbox. There is an onus on you to adhere to the terms of your account, read messages from your bank and check your balance regularly.
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