Furious Thomas Cook passengers’ holidays cancelled AGAIN as replacement trips scrapped by Loveholidays hours a – The Sun, Thesun.co.uk

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But after having full payments taken from their banks, frustrated travelers had their trips cancelled just hours later.

The customers have also been left unable to find alternative travel as refunds take up to five working days to be returned to their accounts.

Calvin Jeff, 56, from Dumfries, Scotland, lost his £ 1, 200 trip to Turkey with partner Urszula Patela, 51, when Thomas Cook went bust.

After booking a £ 900 replacement break for mid-October with Loveholidays, he was told the holiday had been cancelled around five hours later – with the money having already been taken from his account.

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He said: “It’s added insult to injury, it’s been another 40 – odd phonecalls with no-one picking up just trying to sort another refund.

“Clearly the holiday wasn’t confirmed but they took the money anyway.

“That’s money we could be using to find another holiday which has been taken from us for absolutely nothing.

“If this is happening to hundreds of people then presumably that’s also thousands of pounds passing through their accounts earning interest.

“Throughout all of this the focus on the customer has been non-existent it’s just been about getting money, money, money.”

£ 4, (HOLIDAY CANCELLED WITHIN HOURS)

Kevin Percy, 48, from Hucknall, Notts, paid nearly £ 4, 500 for his holiday to Cancun, Mexico, in November before being left in turmoil when Thomas Cook folded.

He paid £ 4, 300 for a replacement holiday with his partner Crystal, 38, only for it to be cancelled the next day, leaving him further in the lurch.

He said: “We’re sick to the back teeth of the way we’ve been treated, it seems like it’s all about getting the money and worrying about the customer service later.

“We’re thousands of pounds down now and extremely angry at the amount of our time and energy that’s being wasted as well.

“Luckily we were able to book another holiday while we waited for the refund from Loveholidays but for most people it would have left them completely in limbo.”

Karen, 60, from Northumberland, booked her original Thomas Cook holiday to Cyprus through Loveholidays and was left disappointed again when her replacement holiday booked through the firm collapsed.

It is certainly not our intention to accept a customer’s payment and then not proceed to confirm

Loveholidays spokeswoman

She said: “I was surprised they took the full payment before the holiday had even been confirmed and the communication was poor.

“The refund came through in the end without any problems but it’s very disappointing to have gone through all that twice and be left without a holiday.”

Thomas Cook’s demise left 160, 000 passengers stranded overseas and thousands more with ruined holiday plans.

Hotels across the world have also been left chasing debts left behind by the doomed firm.

Loveholidays said the UK holiday market has been left struggling to cope in the wake of the disaster and as a travel agent it needs to take money from customers in order to secure bookings on their behalf.

A spokeswoman said: “As already widely reported, the demise of Thomas Cook has caused significant volatility in the price and impacted the availability of flights with some airlines tripling or even quadrupling fares.

“In a small number of cases, loveholidays has been trying to book flights on behalf of customers and unfortunately the airline is simply unable to fulfil the request.

“This is highly frustrating for all concerned and not reflective of the service that has made us so popular with the public. We have brought in additional staff to help deal with this situation.

“It is certainly not our intention to accept a customer’s payment and then not proceed to confirm their holiday. However, due the aforementioned issues with the airlines, this is something which is entirely outside of our control and is affecting a large number of travel agents.

“We do sincerely apologise to any customer who have had their refund delayed, however please be assured that we are working as quickly as possible to ensure funds are returned in the quickest possible time.