I Was Going Away With Shearings On 6 Th April

[tamaris]

I heard nothing from them about the holiday. I managed to chat online with Emma earlier they have closed the phone lines. I looked at my bank statement and they have charged me TWICE for the holiday. £259 x 2.
She is adamant the company are not giving refunds. On tv this morning there was an article which said travel firm's had to refund monies in seven days. Can anyone help ?

[Buenchico]

ABTA policy here:
https://www.abta.com/news/coronavirus-outbreak

Shearings policy here (which complies with the ABTA one):
https://www.shearings.com/help/covid19

Most travel operators are providing credit notes (in the form of eVouchers, etc) in respect of cancelled travel. e.g. Eurostar are providing me an eVoucher to the value of the trip to Paris I had booked in three weeks time.

In common with nearly all travel firms, there's a 'force majeure' provision within Shearing's contractual terms, which almost certainly relieves them of their normal responsibility to provide you with a refund (rather than a credit note) under the current circumstances:
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/test.uat.images.shearings/docs/default-source/2019/holiday-info.pdf?sfvrsn=a4f9e085_2
(See Section 10 of the Trading Charter)

So it seems likely that you'll have to either book another holiday now (at a 10% discount) or accept a credit note and book another holiday (at the regular price) later on.

However if they've actually charged you twice for a single booking then, clearly, you're still entitled to a refund of the unauthorised payment. (Contact your bank or credit card provider for advice).

[Tilly2]

Do you have travel insurance, Tamaris? Try getting in touch to ask about this.

[tamaris]

Thanks Chris. I see that so why was the financial chap on tv saying we were entitled to our money refunded in 7 days ?

[Buenchico]

Probably because he'd forgotten about 'force majeure'!

[tamaris]

Oh right

[Tilly2]

Have you heard from Shearings, Tam?

[Buenchico]

It's worth remembering that the 'experts' on the telly, who say that you're entitled to a full refund within 7 days, are probably talking about air travel. That's covered by EC Regulation 261/2004, which prevents airlines using a 'force majeure' provision in their contract terms to avoid paying up. However it doesn't cover coach travel.

[tamaris]

I think you may be right chris. No I haven't heard back about the overpayment tilly. I had an email again about the actual holiday statement

[ubasses]

Have you tried their online contact form? If not it might be worth a go, enter your reference number and tell them the date you booked, then proceed to advise them that they have debited you twice for the same holiday and you want them to refund the over payment with immediate effect. Do not mention any other element of the holiday or other concerns you have about it.
That way there is no confusion about what you want, I never find on line chats satisfactory, they are similar to a call centre where they tend to follow a script and misunderstand what you are getting at.
Exaggerate if necessary and tell them that their error is causing some financial difficulty.
Good luck and apologies if you have already thought of this.
https://www.shearings.com/contact-us

[tamaris]

Thanks glasses will give that a try

[Hopkirk]

Autocorrect?

[tamaris]

???

[Hopkirk]

Glasses / Ubasses

[tamaris]

Oh yes I missed that lol

[tamaris]

Ubasses I have sent them a message on the form thank you x

[TonyV]

tamaris have you spoken to your bank about it?

[TonyV]

^^^^^
To add to my answer, bank will probably advise you to let company their own internal procedures, but worth letting them know.

[tamaris]

Hi Tony no I had just paid the monthly bill