Refund due as travel firm went bust

A.G. writes: I booked a holiday with Shearings and paid a deposit of £135 by debit card. After lockdown began last year, this holiday was cancelled but I was able to use the deposit as credit for future bookings, so I made two new reservations involving a further £90 payment. However, Shearings then went into administration so I asked my bank, Lloyds, to refund my money, but staff say they cannot assist.

I ASKED officials at the head office of Lloyds to take a look at your claim, as cardholders are able to claim their money back if a merchant ceases trading, as long as their claim is lodged within 120 days of the date the service should have been provided.

Your claim was made within the time limit, but because staff were handling a huge volume of claims it was not reviewed until after the 120 days had expired.

In a simple case of human error, a member of staff turned your claim down.

Lloyds Bank told me: ‘We are extremely sorry to Mr G for not getting this right first time.’

Your full £225 has now been refunded by the bank, and it has been supplemented with a further £75 by way of apologising for the inconvenience.