Not sure if this is a travel industry thing or a distance selling thing or
whatever but I'm hoping that some kind soul here may be able to help.

On 11th October we used www.gtahotels.com to book four hotel rooms and the
room rate given was a grand total of 880 GBP (110 GBP per room per night,
for two nights). Gtahotels.com trade in Euro's as their base currency and at
that time they quoted an exchange rate of 1 EUR = 0.79174 GBP.

As you can see in this picture here
http://www.natureswayhealthandbeauty.co.uk/gta1a.jpg their system appears to
be converting incorrectly as they say we owe them 1260 EUR, which is the
equivalent (at their quoted exchange rate) of 998 GBP and not the 880 GBP
quoted (which would be 1112 EUR).

We ring the helpline and speak to a foreign-sounding person who tells us
that there is a technical problem with the website. She advises us to
complete the transaction because, if we wait for the problem to be sorted
the rooms may no longer be available, and she will refund the difference to
my credit card later - so we do.

We also follow this up with an email to the person concerned and ask for the
refund to be applied as soon as possible, but hear nothing. Incidentally,
that person no longer works there - or so the manager told me yesterday.

Yesterday (12 Nov, and four weeks after we made the booking), my credit card
statement arrives and an entry states "Gtahotels.Com, Lefkose, 1,260 EUR,
Turkey."

So, I call the helpdesk again and escalate it to a manager, following up
with email confirmation, and he promises to look into it.

This morning I get an email reply from them and they are saying that the
conversion calculations are correct - the actual problem was with the room
rates quoted. They say that the room rate was supposed to be 124.75 GBP per
night (instead of the quoted 110) which gives the 998 GBP (1260 EUR) that
they have (in their eyes, correctly) charged us and so we are not going to
get a refund.

OK, I know it is only an extra 30-quid per room over the two-night stay, but
given the current economic situation, that's not good. None of us can really
afford to be making this trip anyway really. We're all pushing ourselves
because it's a milestone birthday for our dad, and for various medical
reasons he may not be around much longer.

If it helps, I found this on their website:

* Gtahotels.com is accredited by the travel industry and is a proud to be
member of IATA, ASTA and TURSAB. *

Are we stuck with paying the extra or is there something I can do to get the
rooms for the original quoted price?

TIA,

John.

In message , at 14:35:04 on
Thu, 13 Nov 2008, John remarked:
They say that the room rate was supposed to be 124.75 GBP per
night (instead of the quoted 110) which gives the 998 GBP (1260 EUR) that
they have (in their eyes, correctly) charged us and so we are not going to
get a refund.

Is this because they've added tax (of some sort) to the price?
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:35:04 on
Thu, 13 Nov 2008, John remarked:
They say that the room rate was supposed to be 124.75 GBP per
night (instead of the quoted 110) which gives the 998 GBP (1260 EUR)
that they have (in their eyes, correctly) charged us and so we are
not going to get a refund.

Is this because they've added tax (of some sort) to the price?

No, not at all. We originally thought that there was some sort of technical
problem with whatever part of their website (Java? XML? whatever?) handled
the actual currency conversion. You can see quite clearly in this link
http://www.natureswayhealthandbeauty.co.uk/gta1a.jpg that their own website
had the room rate advertised at 110/night, 220 for the two-night stay, and
correctly calculated the grand total for the four rooms to be 880 GBP, but
right underneath that their software says that that is 1260 EUR, which is
incorrect and is the reason why we thought there was a problem with the
conversion software.

We were told at the time that there *was* in fact a technical fault with the
website, to go ahead and book (to secure the rooms) and that a refund would
be given later.

They are now saying that there was indeed a technical fault with the
website, but rather than the fault being in the conversion software, that
was working correctly, the figure of 1260 EUR is correct, and the fault was
with the room rate displayed on the site. They say that the room rate was
never meant to be (the quoted) 110 GBP but should always have been displayed
on the website as 124.75 GBP.

John

On Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:25:09 +0000, "John" wrote:

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:35:04 on
Thu, 13 Nov 2008, John remarked:
They say that the room rate was supposed to be 124.75 GBP per
night (instead of the quoted 110) which gives the 998 GBP (1260 EUR)
that they have (in their eyes, correctly) charged us and so we are
not going to get a refund.

Is this because they've added tax (of some sort) to the price?

No, not at all. We originally thought that there was some sort of technical
problem with whatever part of their website (Java? XML? whatever?) handled
the actual currency conversion. You can see quite clearly in this link
http://www.natureswayhealthandbeauty.co.uk/gta1a.jpg that their own website
had the room rate advertised at 110/night, 220 for the two-night stay, and
correctly calculated the grand total for the four rooms to be 880 GBP, but
right underneath that their software says that that is 1260 EUR, which is
incorrect and is the reason why we thought there was a problem with the
conversion software.

We were told at the time that there *was* in fact a technical fault with the
website, to go ahead and book (to secure the rooms) and that a refund would
be given later.

They are now saying that there was indeed a technical fault with the
website, but rather than the fault being in the conversion software, that
was working correctly, the figure of 1260 EUR is correct, and the fault was
with the room rate displayed on the site. They say that the room rate was
never meant to be (the quoted) 110 GBP but should always have been displayed
on the website as 124.75 GBP.

In that case you are clearly entitled to a refund of the difference.
They cannot rely on their own mistake, unless it is an obvious
mistake, like an item advertised at 0.00.

If you can find a prospective defendant in this country, Money Claim
Online is the way to go. If not, I suspect you might as well forget
it, but I'd try a formal letter before action anyway.

--
Don Aitken
Mail to the From: address is not read.
To email me, substitute "clara.co.uk" for "freeuk.com"

Don Aitken wrote:
On Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:25:09 +0000, "John" wrote:

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:35:04 on
Thu, 13 Nov 2008, John remarked:
They say that the room rate was supposed to be 124.75 GBP per
night (instead of the quoted 110) which gives the 998 GBP (1260
EUR) that they have (in their eyes, correctly) charged us and so
we are not going to get a refund.

Is this because they've added tax (of some sort) to the price?

No, not at all. We originally thought that there was some sort of
technical problem with whatever part of their website (Java? XML?
whatever?) handled the actual currency conversion. You can see quite
clearly in this link
http://www.natureswayhealthandbeauty.co.uk/gta1a.jpg that their own
website had the room rate advertised at 110/night, 220 for the
two-night stay, and correctly calculated the grand total for the
four rooms to be 880 GBP, but right underneath that their software
says that that is 1260 EUR, which is incorrect and is the reason why
we thought there was a problem with the conversion software.

We were told at the time that there *was* in fact a technical fault
with the website, to go ahead and book (to secure the rooms) and
that a refund would be given later.

They are now saying that there was indeed a technical fault with the
website, but rather than the fault being in the conversion software,
that was working correctly, the figure of 1260 EUR is correct, and
the fault was with the room rate displayed on the site. They say
that the room rate was never meant to be (the quoted) 110 GBP but
should always have been displayed on the website as 124.75 GBP.

In that case you are clearly entitled to a refund of the difference.
They cannot rely on their own mistake, unless it is an obvious
mistake, like an item advertised at 0.00.

If you can find a prospective defendant in this country, Money Claim
Online is the way to go. If not, I suspect you might as well forget
it, but I'd try a formal letter before action anyway.

Thanks very much Don, much appreciated.

John

On Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:35:04 +0000, "John" wrote:

snip


Are we stuck with paying the extra or is there something I can do to get the
rooms for the original quoted price?


I think you are stuck with paying the extra.

They quoted you ¤1260, and the fact that the sterling equivalent they
gave was wring is just an unfortunate fact of life, since they
actually charged what they quoted, namely ¤1260.

Any sterling equivalents can only be guesswork on their part anyhow,
since they don't know what conversion rate your card supplier will
apply.


You are looking at this the wrong way round - as if they quoted an
amount in £ then converted to ¤, but as you say, their base currency
is ¤.

It isn't a case (as you indicate on the .jpg) that they quoted £880
which should have meant ¤1112, but rather that they quoted ¤1260 which
should have meant an equivalent of £998
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
e's dead, Jim. Tell the Klingons that dinner is served
To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

Alex Heney wrote:
On Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:35:04 +0000, "John" wrote:

snip


Are we stuck with paying the extra or is there something I can do to
get the rooms for the original quoted price?


I think you are stuck with paying the extra.

They quoted you ¤1260, and the fact that the sterling equivalent they
gave was wring is just an unfortunate fact of life, since they
actually charged what they quoted, namely ¤1260.

Any sterling equivalents can only be guesswork on their part anyhow,
since they don't know what conversion rate your card supplier will
apply.


You are looking at this the wrong way round - as if they quoted an
amount in £ then converted to ¤, but as you say, their base currency
is ¤.

It isn't a case (as you indicate on the .jpg) that they quoted £880
which should have meant ¤1112, but rather that they quoted ¤1260 which
should have meant an equivalent of £998

Thanks for your reply Alex. We googled for hotels in London and one of the
listings returned was the gtahotels.com website. Having looked at about a
dozen hotels on that site before deciding on one, I can say that all room
rates (for all the hotels that we looked at anyway) were listed in GBP and
cost plays a very big part in the decision-making process - no good saying
"Ooh, that looks nice, we'll stay there" if it's a thousand-quid/night,
because we just couldn't afford it. When we saw rooms at 110 GBP at a hotel
we liked, we decided to book.

They drew us in on advertised GBP rates and it's only when you get to the
second stage of booking that any mention of EUR is made. In fact, the phone
numbers for the company are UK numbers and we thought we were dealing with a
UK company so we wondered why they converted to EUR anyway. It was only
during the call to their helpdesk that they stated that they work in a base
currency of EUR, so I'm not quite sure I agree with what you say above.

Anyway, I'm happy to say that it's all academic now as I've just got this
email from them:

Dear John,

We do value your business with us and we've decided to provide you the
refund of 148 EUR and it will be credited back to your account in
approximately 7-10 business days and will reflect back in your statement in
1-2 billing cycles.

The total sale cost of the reservation now will reflect as 1112 EUR. I
already sent you your revised Prepaid Accommodation Voucher, Please do check
on your email.
We hope that we are able to resolve your concern.

Best Regards,

GTAHOTELS

So a happy ending after all )
Thanks to everyone who replied,

John.

On Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:55:11 +0000, "John" wrote:

Alex Heney wrote:
On Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:35:04 +0000, "John" wrote:

snip


Are we stuck with paying the extra or is there something I can do to
get the rooms for the original quoted price?


I think you are stuck with paying the extra.

They quoted you ¤1260, and the fact that the sterling equivalent they
gave was wring is just an unfortunate fact of life, since they
actually charged what they quoted, namely ¤1260.

Any sterling equivalents can only be guesswork on their part anyhow,
since they don't know what conversion rate your card supplier will
apply.


You are looking at this the wrong way round - as if they quoted an
amount in £ then converted to ¤, but as you say, their base currency
is ¤.

It isn't a case (as you indicate on the .jpg) that they quoted £880
which should have meant ¤1112, but rather that they quoted ¤1260 which
should have meant an equivalent of £998

Thanks for your reply Alex. We googled for hotels in London and one of the
listings returned was the gtahotels.com website. Having looked at about a
dozen hotels on that site before deciding on one, I can say that all room
rates (for all the hotels that we looked at anyway) were listed in GBP and
cost plays a very big part in the decision-making process - no good saying
"Ooh, that looks nice, we'll stay there" if it's a thousand-quid/night,
because we just couldn't afford it. When we saw rooms at 110 GBP at a hotel
we liked, we decided to book.

They drew us in on advertised GBP rates and it's only when you get to the
second stage of booking that any mention of EUR is made. In fact, the phone
numbers for the company are UK numbers and we thought we were dealing with a
UK company so we wondered why they converted to EUR anyway. It was only
during the call to their helpdesk that they stated that they work in a base
currency of EUR, so I'm not quite sure I agree with what you say above.

Anyway, I'm happy to say that it's all academic now as I've just got this
email from them:

Dear John,

We do value your business with us and we've decided to provide you the
refund of 148 EUR and it will be credited back to your account in
approximately 7-10 business days and will reflect back in your statement in
1-2 billing cycles.

The total sale cost of the reservation now will reflect as 1112 EUR. I
already sent you your revised Prepaid Accommodation Voucher, Please do check
on your email.
We hope that we are able to resolve your concern.

Best Regards,

GTAHOTELS

So a happy ending after all )
Thanks to everyone who replied,


Very good result.

It seems they are a company who actually value their customers, and I
expect that is the type of response that will make you more likely to
use them again, so a good result for all.
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
Hackers have kernel knowledge.
To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom