Lastminute.com customer refused refund for double-booking error

A Lastminute customer is out of pocket after booking the same holiday twice, believing it hadn’t gone through the first time. 

Mr Liu, from Portsmouth, booked a holiday on 1 December 2019 for four people to travel to Tenerife and stay in all-inclusive accommodation from 8 to 12 December.

During the booking process, he says he had difficulty in completing the booking with the screen showing ‘there was an error, try again’.

He attempted multiple times to book and noticed his Barclaycard account recorded a number of unsuccessful attempts with £0 payment pending.

Holiday hiccup: Lastminute charged a customer twice for the exact same booking – and offered no refund

Eventually, his wife attempted to confirm it instead – with his card, but her email and details, including the same surname – and was able to complete the booking, not wanting to miss out on the deal. 

However, when they checked their emails, they realised duplicate bookings had been made for the exact same trip.

One of the bookings went through at £1,048.98 whilst the other went through for £1,079.26.

He immediately contacted Lastminute to report the double booking and asked the firm to cancel one of the bookings.

He also asked Barclaycard to report the double booking and to request that it hold one of the payments to Lastminute – but it was unable to do so. 

From the 2 to 7 December, Mr Liu contacted Lastminute multiple times and claims he was told every time that it would need 72 hours to process his request.

Mr Liu said: ‘It said it was contacting the airlines and hotel and would call to update me but unfortunately, it did not.’

He went on the holiday with his family as planned despite the double booking issue not yet being resolved.

Mr Liu booked a trip to Tenerife on Lastminute but was charged twice for the holiday

Mr Liu booked a trip to Tenerife on Lastminute but was charged twice for the holiday

When on the trip, he learnt at the airport that Lastminute had not cancelled the duplicate outbound flights and says the group had to check in twice for the same flight.

He also claims to have found out from his hotel that Lastminute had cancelled the hotel booking but luckily he was able to prove that he had made one.

So far, the only response he has had from Lastminute is that it cannot offer him a refund, leaving him out of pocket by more than £1,000.

A spokesperson for Lastminute said: ‘We had a look at Mr Liu’s reservations and we can see that the customer made two separate bookings the same day but nearly two hours apart. 

‘Each was booked using a separate email address and confirmations were sent to the corresponding email addresses within half an hour of the request being made on each occasion.

‘They have been charged different amounts for the bookings as different flights were selected for the outbound sector – one with EasyJet and one with Norwegian. 

‘With this in mind, we would be unable to claim a duplicate refund for the unused one and moreover both of these airlines are fully nonrefundable.

‘With regards to the hotel and inbound flights which were both booked with the same airline, our agents have reached out to the supplier/airline to ask for an exceptional cancellation. 

‘Unfortunately, the hotel has rejected the request and therefore will charge for both reservations. 

‘We have had no response from the airline instead, we will get back to Mr Liu on this as soon as they will reply to our request.

‘In addition, we have checked the footprints of the bookings and couldn’t find any error and, given that the confirmation for the first booking was sent more than an hour before the second one was made, we cannot say this has been caused by an error on our part.

‘Should we receive any positive response from the airline, we will, of course, be happy to pass any refund to the customer, however, we would need to await their response before this can be offered.’

It seems that Mr Liu is not the only person who has been charged twice for a booking on the website. 

Other customers have taken to social media to reveal that they too have found duplicate funds have been taken from their bank accounts. 

This Twitter user said he was charged twice for flights by Lastminute, three days apart

This Twitter user said he was charged twice for flights by Lastminute, three days apart

Another user said that she was charged twice and could no longer use her credit card

Another user said that she was charged twice and could no longer use her credit card 

One other user said she had been charged twice with no explanation and needed assistance

One other user said she had been charged twice with no explanation and needed assistance

This user booked and cancelled flights but found the money had been taken out her bank twice

This user booked and cancelled flights but found the money had been taken out her bank twice

What to do if you have a duplicate booking 

If you receive an error message while booking online, screenshot it and contact the firm in question before attempting to do it again.

It is likely many will attempt to make the payment twice, fearful of the price going up if they hesitate. It is also worth pointing out that travel insurance wouldn’t cover this type of mishap.  

Customers who have been charged twice are advised to contact their bank and Lastminute as soon as possible.  

Lastminute have recently been challenged over claims it has been charging customers for an add-on insurance policy even though they haven’t given their consent. 

Users of the booking site have said that Lastminute’s full-flex extra has been added on their bookings, even though they have deliberately chosen not to purchase it. 

Lastminute has defended the practice because a proactive action is required by the consumer to add the product or to continue without it at the end of the purchase process. 

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