Not Happy
I appreciate this will be a lengthy post and no doubt people will glance and think I'm just someone who is never happy and complains about every little thing. I can assure you this is not the case and I have never given a bad online review before.
We booked our holiday with lowcostholidays after hearing good things about them from a friend. On booking, we were contacted by the company to say our flight prices had increased and we were to pay more money. Not sure how this is possible as they should not be advertising flights at a price if they cannot ensure this is correct. Came off the phone to discuss this with my partner and we agreed to pay the extra (major regret here). By the time we were contacted by the company again (20 minutes later), the prices had increased yet again. We decided to cancel the whole booking as did not wish to pay a second increase on our original agreed total price.
Obviously desperate not to lose our entire booking, the company kindly offered to pay the second increase for us. I received my confirmation email stating my outstanding balance and all was fine.
A couple of weeks later I received an email saying the outstanding balance was now due. This was a couple of weeks short of the date stated on our confirmation. The other issue was that our outstanding balance had somehow increased by £50.
I contacted Customer Service and was told it was a matter for the Aviation department. The problem would be forwarded to them and I would be contacted. We heard nothing. I called again, explained the situation, someone would be in touch. It was now approaching the agreed date for us to pay our outstanding balance and I was worried this would affect my booking. I sent an email via the website to the Customer Services thinking if the issue was written down it could be understood and dealt with more quickly. No contact or help from the company despite two further phone calls.
I called again and was told, after being put on hold for around 40 minutes that they would have to pass my issue on to another department and someone would be in touch, I think not. Enough was enough. I requested to be put through to the cancellations department (after another spell on hold) told them I found the service appalling, had received no help or information from the company despite great effort on my part to highlight it and get it resolved. I was told I couldn't cancel my holiday. Evidently sheer incompetence of staff does not fit in with the Terms and Conditions for cancelling. This adviser did however put me on hold and managed to sort the issue. She then proceeded to request I pay the outstanding balance over the phone as my payment was technically late. I stated I would pay the outstanding balance once I had written confirmation that this issue had been resolved. She encouraged me to pay up as soon as possible. A little cheeky in my book.
Anyway, our holiday is now paid and I sit wonder what else could go wrong before our holiday actually comes around.
I would advise that if you ever have an issue with lowcostholidays, phone the cancellation department. They'll get you sorted out right away. Or to save yourself any holiday hassle just book with someone else.
Response to lowcostholidays reply - absolute waste of time. Generic apology not actually taking responsibility for any of the nonsense we've had to deal with. Might I suggest the person sitting writing these worthless replies is redeployed to answering calls and complaints as I can guarantee there are more than a few irate customers in a queue or on hold and getting absolutely nowhere!!!
7 June 2015
Unprompted review