A SCOTS mum who says she is due a £7,000 refund after her “dream” holiday was cancelled last minute claims she is still waiting – six months later.
Anne Donnelly had booked a package holiday to Cancun, Mexico and Las Vegas, USA with family through travel agents Virikson Holidays last year, and was due to fly in September.
However, Anne and her family from Wishaw, North Lanarkshire were left reeling after allegedly being told that their first flight with British Airways was cancelled, about a week before the trip.
The family were then allegedly told by Virikson that their hotel was being changed, leaving them distraught as the travel company admitted their mistakes and abruptly cancelled the trip just three days before they were due to leave.
The family’s first flight from Glasgow to London was cancelled around a week before the trip, but after contacting Virikson, they were told that it would all be sorted in time for the day they were scheduled to leave.
Anne and her family were then left even more confused when they were told by the holiday company that their hotel in Mexico had been changed.
This resulted in the company admitting their mistakes and cancelling the holiday on Monday, September 5, just three days before they were due to leave.
Believing they would be refunded for the cancelled trip, Anne went to a local travel agent and booked a new holiday away to Mexico.
However, the 54-year-old claims that after a few weeks of no contact, it became apparent that getting their money back would be a lot harder than expected.
Taking to social media on behalf of her mum, Anne’s daughter Kirsty wrote: “Last year in September 2022 my mum and three others booked a big package holiday to Vegas and Cancun with this company, spending over £7,000 only for this to be cancelled three days before they were supposed to go.
“They still have not got any refund and the company is just ignoring all messages, emails, calls, including letters from lawyers.
“Please share as we wouldn’t want this to happen to anyone else.”
Speaking today, Anne said: “When we were told our British Airways flight was cancelled we had emailed the company, who assured us that it would be sorted and we would get to London okay.
“We had to be in London for our flight to Las Vegas, where we were booked to stay for four nights before flying to Mexico for ten more.
“We were then told that our hotel in Cancun had been changed to one on an island off the coast, which we weren’t expecting.
“When they admitted that they couldn’t provide the holiday we had booked and paid for, they told us we would be entitled to a refund and that they would sort this for us.”
Anne continued: “We went to the bank who weren’t able to help as well as the Citizens Advice Bureau who also couldn’t help us.
“Our last attempt was going to a local lawyer who sent a number of letters to Virikson but each of these didn’t have any reply. Even when he sent a letter via recorded delivery there was still nothing.
“We have been looking to take the company to court as they owe us over £7,000. There has been absolutely no correspondence since they cancelled the holiday six months ago.”
Reviews online suggest that Anne is not the first customer to have experienced difficulties with the company.
One review on TrustPilot claims: “This is the worst experience of my life dealing with this company. Every step of the way has been a total nightmare.
“I’m wondering why they haven’t been shut down especially when they keep changing their name. Their office is called Times Travel but when I turned up no one was there.”
While another alleges: “Whilst booking the holiday they were extremely helpful however six weeks ago we receive an email to advise us our holiday was increasing £400pp.
“I explained that this was unacceptable and I requested a full refund and this is when things became difficult and customer service went out the window.
“Currently three weeks past the date we had been told we would receive our full refund and as of today we have had only half.”
Virikson Holidays have been approached for comment.
