If You have successfully defended a Credit Card Charge back, and I saw in an earlier post that for every $100 a Chargeback can cost the Mercant $140. Can you serve notice to the Client that you would expext those charges to be reclaimed from them? And What should be the next step the Client should take? we have asked them initially to Ask their Insurers,and I believe they were waiting to see which came back first to help their claim so at the same time as initiating two Chargebacks ( 1 for Deposit and 1 for Balance) they also went to claim from Insurers. Under the Ever Changing advice from ABTA, I guess the best option would be for us to contact the clients and suggest we ask the Operator to now give a reasonable Timeframe for Full Refund?

This query is especially directed at recruiting agencies who hired out temps. What advice or remedies are available to freelance/temp business travel consultants who had to be suddenly laid off due to. COVID19 shutdown. 13 March.

Probably this is one of those examples where there is nothing on offer other than Universal Credit. What might the recruitment agency be doing more of the help/advise over and above the usual for their candidates who were laid off while working under their banner?

Hi,

I work in the cruise industry and was put on furlough on 9th April until further notice but received a phone call last night at 5.30pm to say I was being made redundant with a week's notice but that the company would pay me until the end of May. When I queried their reasons for this and asked if I could stay on the furlough scheme until the end of June, I was told no because they could not afford to cover my costs. I did challenge them on what these costs were because I am on 80% furlough pay which they are not topping up.

I started my employment with them on 1st Feb and my probation was due to end at the end of April but I was furloughed two weeks short of this but assured my probation was simply going to be put on hold and would resume once 'things were back to normal'. I have received nothing but glowing feedback to date and this has come as a complete shock - although I had anticipated it would perhaps be the case at the end of June.

I have emailed them several times today to query why my employment is costing them when two separate accountants and ACAS have advised that there should be no costs to the company however they have failed to answer my queries and I have been told that their decision is final. I have not had a conversation with my manager, only the phone call to say I was being made redundant from the company director which was followed up with a call from the HR manager half an hour later - at my request. Below is a paragraph from the JRS letter which I signed in April as well as the latest email from my employer.

I would hugely appreciate any advice as this all seems so unfair and I can't understand why they won't allow me to stay on furlough until the end of June. I am now being pushed into signing my termination letter which I am not comfortable doing and they have now threatened me with a delay on my final pay if I take too long to sign and return this to them.

Many thanks in advance,

Laura Griffiths

JRS

The Furloughed Worker designation will be effective from 9th April 2020 and will continue for the period as defined by the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Your eligibility for the scheme is also dependent on meeting the Government’s defined criteria, which are also subject to ongoing definition and clarification by the Government. The Company might extend this.

Latest email from employer

Dear Laura

Thank you for your email and expressing your concerns.

We understand that this news is not ideal, especially in the current climate, but unfortunately the decision to terminate your employment is final. The termination of your contract and the Furlough Scheme are two separate entities. The same process would have applied if you were not furloughed. Your contract could have been terminated at any time during your probation period with only one week’s notice. We appreciate the situation this leaves you in and have extended your notice period to 3.5 weeks as a gesture of good will.

In regards to your concerns about furlough pay, I can assure you that we have followed the Governments guidelines for the payment of staff on the Furlough scheme and have checked your payments during your furlough period which are correct as per the details provided by Rachel.

Please can you sign and return the letter that was sent this morning as soon as possible, and as per my previous email, you will need to package up any company equipment and inform Rachel of the size and weight so we can arrange a courier to collect.

Any delay in the receiving of the letter or all company equipment allocated to you could result in a delay in your final pay.

Hi,

We are a small holiday accommodation company offering villas in the Canary Islands. A client due to travel on 7th April 2020 is insisting he is entitled to a full refund. He says he has been unsuccessful in claiming off of his travel insurance although is reluctant to show any proof of that and is insisting that a demand of refund is his right regardless of insurance. We had already paid the owner who has said he is not legally obliged to pay the money back to us/the client. Our terms and conditions state normal cancellation policy of full amount held less than 69 days before travel and that we cannot be held responsible for cancellation due to distatsers, acts of God etc but it seems to be on all news outlets that all customers are entitled to a full refund. What are our legal rights as a company on this?

Please are you be able to provide me your email address, I have a question regarding furlough.

Thanks very much

If a package holiday is curtailed while a client is abroad due to FCO advice against all but essential travel, and the tour operator cancels all future accommodation and return flights and arranges repatriation with a different airline, is the tour operator legally liable to refund the 'unused' part of the holiday to the client? This would include unused accommodation, transfers, excursions and the return flight? All discussions regarding refunds seem to apply to the cancellation of future packages but not the situation when the client was actually abroad but had to return following FCO advice and had only used a portion of the package. The return flights with BA were cancelled 8-9 days before the client was due to travel.

In September 2019 two bookings made with Netflights with British Airways (LGW/BGI/LGW). Both outward flights were used 20th November 8th January but both travelers were returning on 2 April 2020 which was subsequently cancelled within 14 days of travel by BA. Netflights offered return flights on 1st May 2020, which of course, did not happen. BA are now denying any liability for a refund or vouchers despite initially offering vouchers.

Netflights have repeatedly delayed a refund or vouchers. Where does the liability lie please?

If a client had booked a villa only through one of our villas suppliers and was unable to travel is there any protection for his money. We currently have a client who has currently lost £11,000 as he will not be able to travel with his family next year. The villa owner has been paid and will not refund. I have suggested he tries an insurance claim but feel I ought to be able to do more.

Hi can you please clarify my stance. Holiday Extras, lounge was cancelled and it cancelled free of charge on their system and they emailed confirming refund would go back on to the card used for payment. This was on 17/03/20. Today 17/04/20 they have emailed with a credit note and are now not honouring refunds. I believe that I will have many more of these scenarios in the next few days. thank you.

With the recent ABTA advise update on the validity of the Refund Credit Notes (RCO) , I wanted to ask if, to maximize the chances of rebooking a holiday, can we offer names changes on the RCO? If we have elderly customers who are unlikely to book a holiday for the next year, are we able to offer them ATOL protected RCO with the name change option? If the clients from the original booking would transfer the RCO to a different traveller, will the RCO still be ATOL protected for the new passenger?

Thank you!

You 03:50 PM

Because of FCO advice now does that mean all forward bookings can be cancelled and customers have a right to a full refund or do we look at bookings on a rolling basis? Eg a booking in November....?

Hello, is there any guidance on U.K. self catering accommodation and what date they should be currently closed to?
A property owner we work with has advised 30th April but cannot see anything and not sure where this guidance has come from.
We have a holiday booked here for our customer who is due to travel mid May but in the vulnerable group category therefore told by gp to self isolate for 12 weeks which would take them into June.

The owner has offered to transfer holiday but only to dates from Oct - Feb, which is our of season and the customer cannot do any of the dates anyway.

I wondered if there is guidance also on what U.K. property owners are obliged to be offering.. for example ‘like for like’ or full refunds?

Are customers covered by their travel insurance if they book now for future travel?

I understand from my contact at Cardnet, the maximum length of time a Chargeback can be imposed by a customer is 120 days. Is this correct?

Clients due to go on Sunday to Orlando with United Airlines out of Dublin and the flight isn't going. United standing firm on no refund just credit note but clients don't know if they can take the travel window offered and really don't want to go as one child is ADHD and Autistic. Booked with a Tour Operator. Where do they stand with the 'eventual' refund and when? These people could do with the money at present.

We've had lots of requests for the chargeback scheme guidance from Mastercard and Visa to which Abta's John de Vial referred in today's Business Support Live session. Here they are...

-Visa: d2osdnqd2igqfx.cloudfront.net/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/169/Vis...

-Mastercard: d2osdnqd2igqfx.cloudfront.net/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/169/Mas...

Good morning. We are a tour operator. If a balance payment is taken by an agent for an existing booking that has had to be cancelled owing to the travel restrictions, and they have decided to rebook for a date later in the year, could you confirm the agent is bound to remit this payment to us now and not 8 weeks before the new departure date? Thank you.