Family’ s lengthy battle for holiday cash refund

ADundee family have been fighting for months to get hundreds of pounds refunded after their holiday was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In January 2020, Greig and Kimberly MacPhail, who works as a nurse, booked a seven day all-inclusive holiday to Majorca with Teletext Holidays with their two daughters Chloe, 14, and Amber, 12.

They were due to fly off in October but because of the coronavirus outbreak the holiday was cancelled.

But dad Greig says the family is still waiting for a £1,280 refund from Teletext Holidays.

This comes after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last week said it had launched an investigation into the company after hundreds of people complained about not getting refunds for their cancelled package holidays.

Greig said: “We have been fighting with Teletext Holidays after we booked a package holiday with them in January last year.

“Normally we go away to my mum’s villa but the kids saw something on TV and said they wanted to go to a hotel with a buffet and waterslides instead.

“We had to contact Teletext Holidays after my wife found out on Facebook the hotel we were meant to be staying in closed down, but we were told the holiday was still going ahead and the flights were still running.

“But Ryanair cancelled the flights and refunded Teletext Holidays, and the hotel and transfer company all said it was cancelled too.

“We paid £1,600 including a £200 deposit on the credit card, which I was able to get back through a charge back, but officially we are still due £1,280 from Teletext Holidays.

“I am a car salesman and my salary took a massive nosedive and I am down about £1,000 a month now in wages, so that money would be nice to have.”

Greig said initially Teletext Holidays tried to persuade the family to change their holiday to another destination or get the money refunded as a voucher rather than cash.

He added: “Initially they said if they couldn’t send us to Spain they would send us to Turkey, but because different countries were closing all the time we said ‘no, give us the money back’.

“I didn’t want to go somewhere like Turkey and then find out everything was shutting down and we would have to quarantine, because I would not get paid for that.

“We can think about holidays another time but they kept trying to give us a voucher.

“We were due to travel on October 12 and now it is the middle of February, we just want our money back.

“We did end up going away in our caravan, but there is no way I would book with Teletext Holidays again, it has put me off booking with any travel company again.”

A spokeswoman for the

CMA said the investigation was launched under consumer protection law after receiving hundreds of complaints that people were not receiving refunds for their package holidays cancelled due to coronavirus.

The CMA is now engaging with Teletext Holidays to gather evidence on whether the company has broken consumer protection law.

Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, said: “We understand that the pandemic is presenting challenges for travel businesses, but it is important that the interests of consumers are properly protected and that businesses comply with the law.

“We’ll be engaging with Teletext to establish whether the law has been broken and will take further action if necessary.”

Teletext Holidays was approached for a comment.

“There’s no way I would book with Teletext again

FRUSTRATING: Greig and Kimberly MacPhail, from Dundee, had booked a family break to Majorca with Teletext Holidays. Picture by Mhairi Edwards.