E-Bookers.com- The Consumers Complaint List-In the Public Domain

After booking a flight to Inverness through e-bookers, I selected the apparently convenient Alamo car hire option.

A confirmation of our request was sent with the explicit notification that we would be contacted if any problems arose.

When we arrived at Inverness slightly late (about 10:30pm), we were surprised to find out that Alamo were based in Inverness City, many miles away. A telephone call revealed that they were closed and had no record of our car hire.

By this stage we were in a hurry and chose the only practical option left to us - to hire a last minute car through Avis, who were about to shut. We chose the cheapest available option, which was some £36 more than our pre-arranged Alamo deal.

On return, I notified e-bookers, who accepted that they had made a mistake. However, because we were not sent a written separate confirmation of our car hire, they have refused to accept any responsibility or offer us the difference between our original price and the higher Avis price.

I find e-bookers attitude rather dissapointing - it may be that they have no legal obligation to pay us (I will be testing this out in the small claims court), but they admit to a mistake which left us in the lurch and out of pocket, and seem to have no interest in rectifying the situation.
Are the managers of e-bookers happy with this situation?

Link to other e-bookers complaints: Link1

Editorial Comments

We hope to find out. A Right of Reply letter has been issued.

update
Well it seems from ebookers.com reply dated 25 November 2001- see Right of Reply column above- the managers are "happy with this situation" and confident of the "excellent" Alternative Dispute Resolution procedures of the BTA..mmmmmm

Your comments are welcomed..

I recently placed a flight through Ebookers for the busy Christmas season. The flight was on better days than a different flight being held for a similar price. My first suprise was that the apparently automated front-end, was not. Although your money is "gone" they give themselves 24 hours to confirm. 24 hours elapsed and not confirmation.

Three phone calls later and I was finally assured that the flights were held. Later that day an email was received requiring FAXed authority to use my credit card. Of course, no authority form was attached. Neither did a FAX copy arrive after a phone call. A second call finally managed to get the form emailed.

Form was FAXed and I emailed a scanned copy. One day later I received another email saying that the airling had "unconfirmed the flight" and now there was 250 GBP more to pay. I can only see that this came about from them not issuing the tickets. I will be taking this further. Pretty shoddy operation. Jeremy Green - Tokyo- ... 24 November 2003
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I am afraid that e-bookers are correct in this situation. No paperwork was issued for car hire, and no payment was made.
MR Smith... 12 Janury 2002
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I am having problems in getting a promised refund from flights we had to cancel on the 14th September due to the NY disaster. I have made at least ten calls to E. Bookers most taking as long as 20 minutes to get through and have E. Mailed them 4 or 5 times getting a standard response each time. I have established that they only sent my tickets to Delta on the 28th November and also established that they have had the money back from Delta for several weeks. One girl told me in confidence that she had had a lot of complaints of non-refunds. I could sent you a 13 page document with all my correspondence which I have had to put in the hands of ABTA. What else can I do to get my £1000 back? Any help would be gratefully received.Sincerely, Adele Hemmings
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I booked & paid on-line for two tickets to Memphis USA last year for relatives. When I received the tickets (eight weeks before the oiutbound flight)I realised that e.bookers had made an error with the return date. To my disgust I was charged £75 admin fees per ticket for the correction. Never again! K Moore.... 7 February 2002
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I would never book through Ebookers again.
I have used them a few times to purchase over 10 flight tickets. The customer service is non-existent, they are happy to take the money and sell you anything, but not to help you sort there mistakes.

I booked a car throught them for NY, they promised they had charged and booked a luxury car, to my dislike when I checked with Alamo they confirmed a booking for a premium car, which was not acceptable.

I would never use them again, they also employ people who do not have the training in dealing with customers.
WIlliam Smith...17 October 2002