BA refusing refund they previously agreed by phone
Dec 10, 2018, 10:37 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 1
BA refusing refund they previously agreed by phone
We had a 4-leg ticket with BA club class from Leeds to Heathrow and then on to USA. BA cancelled 1st leg 24 hours before.
Eventually got human on phone who offered other flights from Newcastle. That was no-go as our only way to get there was 80 miles by taxi. Waited for my partner to get home to discuss best options. We saw there was availability from Manchester to Heathrow and again got a human on the phone after much time spent on hold. We were told they had a systems problem so could not rebook us anything.
By this time it was almost 7pm and we needed to get travel plans made for travel next day. We had no difficulty booking suitable Manchester flights ourselves - of course on a separate booking. The following morning before we left for the airport we again spoke to a human at BA to get an assurance that they would refund this new Manchester flight. They said they would and within 21 days.
But they haven't. Protracted correspondence later they are adamant they will not refund. £ 900 out of pocket. Any advice welcome. Am really not sure they have even read our letters with any care as they are banging on about not being responsible for onward travel. It was patently not onward travel.
Eventually got human on phone who offered other flights from Newcastle. That was no-go as our only way to get there was 80 miles by taxi. Waited for my partner to get home to discuss best options. We saw there was availability from Manchester to Heathrow and again got a human on the phone after much time spent on hold. We were told they had a systems problem so could not rebook us anything.
By this time it was almost 7pm and we needed to get travel plans made for travel next day. We had no difficulty booking suitable Manchester flights ourselves - of course on a separate booking. The following morning before we left for the airport we again spoke to a human at BA to get an assurance that they would refund this new Manchester flight. They said they would and within 21 days.
But they haven't. Protracted correspondence later they are adamant they will not refund. £ 900 out of pocket. Any advice welcome. Am really not sure they have even read our letters with any care as they are banging on about not being responsible for onward travel. It was patently not onward travel.
Dec 10, 2018, 10:52 am
#2
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: South East England
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IANAL, but my understanding is if you are induced to take our any contract by a mistatement or misrepresentation (in this case by BA's call centre staff) then you are entitled to compensation (Misrepresentation Act + common law). You could use the arbitration process, and I'm sure others here will post to advise on how to do this. Personally I'd just put a Money Claim Online in now and be done with it. Details of the law are here https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/lexisp...ment_overview#
Dec 10, 2018, 11:33 am
#3
Ambassador: Emirates Airlines
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Manchester, UK
Posts: 18,600
I assume you booked MAN-LHR-USA tickets rather than just the MAN-LHR tickets? I say this as I assume the LHR-USA tickets would be cancelled.
I think the only thing you can do is get a go via MoneyClaim online and request that BA provide the recordings of the calls with customer services. Assuming that these verify your claim, then they should find in your favour.
Also contact your credit card company. They may be able to do something.
I think the only thing you can do is get a go via MoneyClaim online and request that BA provide the recordings of the calls with customer services. Assuming that these verify your claim, then they should find in your favour.
Also contact your credit card company. They may be able to do something.
Dec 10, 2018, 11:45 am
#4
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Brighton. UK
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welcome to FT. Unfortunately BA customer services often fails to do what it says it will do which is shameful.
There are a couple of options open to you including as suggested take BA to the small claims court (MCOL)
There is no need to go to MCOL to get the recordings you can do that by doing a subject access request but I see no need.
However I would write to the Legal Department at Waterside (address on the website) with a few simple sentences on the lines of "I was booked to do XX but YY happened I was told on AA date that BA would refund BBB flights but have failed to do so. Therefore please refund me the £££ by a date 14 days later otherwise you will invoke MCOL"
The legal department will soon resolve this (as well as no doubt roll its eyes are the customer service department messing up again).
There are a couple of options open to you including as suggested take BA to the small claims court (MCOL)
There is no need to go to MCOL to get the recordings you can do that by doing a subject access request but I see no need.
However I would write to the Legal Department at Waterside (address on the website) with a few simple sentences on the lines of "I was booked to do XX but YY happened I was told on AA date that BA would refund BBB flights but have failed to do so. Therefore please refund me the £££ by a date 14 days later otherwise you will invoke MCOL"
The legal department will soon resolve this (as well as no doubt roll its eyes are the customer service department messing up again).
Dec 10, 2018, 11:54 am
#5
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: DCA
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Posts: 50,262
It isn't worth protracted correspondence. I would do two things:
1. Make a call. Simplify the issue down to the narrowest possible set of facts. It won't likely work, but once these things get out of sorts, no amount of correspondence will change them.
2. Either issue an MCOL Letter Before Action (forms on the MCOL website) or an Impasse and head to CEDR. Neither is better than the other for a factual issue such as this. If you elect CEDR and win, BA has agreed to be bound, but you are not.
I would also start the process of having BA pull the tapes of the call. The passage of time does not help and there is no assurance that BA still has the recording or that it made one in the first place. But, what you are looking for is the specific conversation between you and the BA agent in which she committed to a refund.
Finally, if you could provide a bit more detail here, it would be helpful. What exactly did you rebook on your own and what happened to the original tickets?
1. Make a call. Simplify the issue down to the narrowest possible set of facts. It won't likely work, but once these things get out of sorts, no amount of correspondence will change them.
2. Either issue an MCOL Letter Before Action (forms on the MCOL website) or an Impasse and head to CEDR. Neither is better than the other for a factual issue such as this. If you elect CEDR and win, BA has agreed to be bound, but you are not.
I would also start the process of having BA pull the tapes of the call. The passage of time does not help and there is no assurance that BA still has the recording or that it made one in the first place. But, what you are looking for is the specific conversation between you and the BA agent in which she committed to a refund.
Finally, if you could provide a bit more detail here, it would be helpful. What exactly did you rebook on your own and what happened to the original tickets?
Dec 10, 2018, 12:02 pm
#6
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
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Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum, it's good to see you here eehchristie, less good to see the reasons why. It's a good place to get advice and so for example we could have given some pointers at the time this happened. One of which is that actually in this situation you would have been entitled to a full refund of the original booking, which may (or may not) have helped you rebook on a carrier of your choice at the time and knowing where you were financially.
Given where you are, it seems you have become caught up in a Customer Relations loop which won't easily be shifted since the agents that handle it tend to be led by whatever the first agent read into the situation, even if it was completely wrong. At least that is my reading of "protracted correspondence". My advice would be:
1) Call Customer Relations on the telephone (or use Twitter if you prefer) and see if you can explain this situation with a human. They are a bit hard to get hold of, but use the Customer Relations number on the BA.com website, but call between 13 and 17 hrs UK time, Monday to Friday.
2) If that doesn't work, you have a choice. You can go to CEDR with this or MCOL. There is a Dashboard with information on EC261. This isn't quite a neat EC261 case, but the thread gives a lot of information on CEDR and MCOL. 99% of CEDR's work is EC261, but they do handle other matters too.
3) If going through CEDR wait until you have past 8 weeks from the initial complaint, alternatively as BA for a deadlock email which typically will say something like "our position won't change".
4) If going MCOL, well, read up on it first, since you need to be quite disciplined on the paperwork and deadlines, but in the meantime send a note to BA's legal team at the Harmsworth address in the EC261 thread spelling out in very brief terms you formal demand for £900 - 3 paragraphs should do it - and give them 16 days to repay.
5) Either way, it would be good to write up a factual list of telephone calls, using ideally precise times and the names of agents you spoke to.
It would be good to know how the £900 was calculated, is that for one leg from MAN-LHR or was there more to it than that? Not that it changes much of the above. Normally BA will honour comments made on the telephone, and there is a system by which they retract the call logs and listen in to calls to double check what exactly was said to you. Even if the agent was incorrect in offering the refund, the usual BA policy would be to pay you at that point. So I'm not sure why they didn't offer to check the tapes.
[Flyertalk has a 5 post limit in the first 24 hours of posting, just for information].
Given where you are, it seems you have become caught up in a Customer Relations loop which won't easily be shifted since the agents that handle it tend to be led by whatever the first agent read into the situation, even if it was completely wrong. At least that is my reading of "protracted correspondence". My advice would be:
1) Call Customer Relations on the telephone (or use Twitter if you prefer) and see if you can explain this situation with a human. They are a bit hard to get hold of, but use the Customer Relations number on the BA.com website, but call between 13 and 17 hrs UK time, Monday to Friday.
2) If that doesn't work, you have a choice. You can go to CEDR with this or MCOL. There is a Dashboard with information on EC261. This isn't quite a neat EC261 case, but the thread gives a lot of information on CEDR and MCOL. 99% of CEDR's work is EC261, but they do handle other matters too.
3) If going through CEDR wait until you have past 8 weeks from the initial complaint, alternatively as BA for a deadlock email which typically will say something like "our position won't change".
4) If going MCOL, well, read up on it first, since you need to be quite disciplined on the paperwork and deadlines, but in the meantime send a note to BA's legal team at the Harmsworth address in the EC261 thread spelling out in very brief terms you formal demand for £900 - 3 paragraphs should do it - and give them 16 days to repay.
5) Either way, it would be good to write up a factual list of telephone calls, using ideally precise times and the names of agents you spoke to.
It would be good to know how the £900 was calculated, is that for one leg from MAN-LHR or was there more to it than that? Not that it changes much of the above. Normally BA will honour comments made on the telephone, and there is a system by which they retract the call logs and listen in to calls to double check what exactly was said to you. Even if the agent was incorrect in offering the refund, the usual BA policy would be to pay you at that point. So I'm not sure why they didn't offer to check the tapes.
[Flyertalk has a 5 post limit in the first 24 hours of posting, just for information].