IGLU: What a chuffin' rip off!!!!!!

A snowHead

Just booked hol with IGLU today - saw the webprice, called up and booked for a group of 4 - got the receipt and we've got over £200 of extra charges including LATE BOOKING charges!!!!!!!!! Mad

No mention of this on the call. What a bloody cheek - I am so annoyed if they had explained up front I wouldn't be so cross. Can they do this without explaining all the charges beforehand??? Grrrr........

A snowHead

Parkyparcours, surely they should have told you the price before they charged you?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

They told me the total - but when I spoke tto them earlier they said there was someone else interested and so I booked in the 10 spare mins had at work today - should never have fallen for it!!! darn it!!! It was when I started letting the other travellers know what they owed that I thought "hang on this doesn't add up". Have never had this kind of milarkey with any other ski hol.....

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What were the other charges?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Surely it doesn't matter how the charges are made up - if the total is satisfactory, it is satisfactory?

Alternatively, if they added these charges on to what you had agreed to, then, yes, it does sound wrong.

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late payment charges , flight supplement, admin fees. Yellow Pyranha, hmm, don't think its very ethical not to tell people they aren't paying the web price. The price we are paying is fine even with the extra charges - the issue I have is that they didn't say anything. If only the Euro exchange rate would improve I'd go back to booking independantly...

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Parkyparcours, Sorry not quite with this. Before you clicked on payment were you not told what the total charge would be? So the website gave you the cost of the accommodation and flight then the supplements were added afterwards?

After all it is free

I think it's the case with most TO or travel agent websites that the headline price is not the final price you pay. However, I've never heard of a 'late payment supplement' only flight supplements and under-occupancy supplements, then extras such as lift pass and ski carriage or rental.

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queen bodecia, we've paid so-called "late booking" charges. I'm not surprised you don't know about it though. You always book early! snowHead

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I did book late back in 2006. I hadn't been skiing for getting on ten years and it was an impulse purchase. The free lift pass offer at the time swung it for me although I paid brochure price for everything else. No late booking supplement though. I thought the purpose of leaving it to the last minute and taking pot luck was to get a nice reduction. Is a 'late booking supplement' a way for TOs to claw back some of this 'loss'? What sort of cost are we talking about?

I don't book late any more, trying to get the same resort/hotel/week as my ski buddies requires careful early planning.

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Normally, if you pay for a product, you decide whether the price is right. If you buy a washing machine, you're not asking how much for the hose, how much for the motor, how much for delivery from the factory to the shop. If you buy a holiday, know the price in advance and decide it's a good deal, why does it matter how the charges are made up?

And I bet those extra charges WERE there on the website. If not screaming at you in headline sizes. We all tend to just skip those pages of small print and tick the "OK" box at the bottom. Caveat emptor.

From what i understand the issue îs not with the price but the way the price is made up. After all you could always cancal and iirc distance selling regs mean you don't pay a penalty.

As someone else wrote it feels like the late booking charge is a way of engineering a low sticker price to draw people in and then getting the profit through unavoidable charges. Hmmm budget airline pricing applied to everything we buy. Unfortunately this seems to work and makes buying almost anything a tiresome process. On top of that it makes you feel you have been ripped off even before you travel/use the product. Not good for long term customer satisfaction but works wonders for short-term bottom lines.

You know it makes sense.

Don't see what the fuss is about. If the total price you paid was the price you expected and you were happy with it, who gives a flying one how they make it up? Ryanair get loads of stick for charging for every little thing, and unavoidable 'extra' charges like for paying by a credit or debit card. but so what? If when you add up all the costs the price is right, you'll come on down, if it's not you wont.

Can't see the sense in accepting a price then bitching about how it was calculated Puzzled

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

I have a look at the website, find the holiday I want, then ring them up. Never had any hidden or additional charges on our trips, even after multiple changes of name, spellings of names, adding ski carriage (which was free!), taking off flights for some of the group, paying by debit card (they do charge the usual 2% or something for credit card, no surprise there) including 20 different payments for one holiday, and to be honest found them reasonable to deal with throughout. They were also the cheapest I could find, and prepared to match others prices for the same trips.

Last two trips I've found they were advertised for X amount, and that is exactly what I have paid, or better in a couple of cases.

It's not like it's hard to get hold of them, they are available into the evening for you to call, and their guys have always been very helpful to me. I've always got questions, and always need more than just the brief from the internet, and they have been honest about what to expect on different trips, and explained what is going on and availability etc straight up.

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

If you are booking late, always haggle and be prepared to walk away. If its a week to go or less and a TO still has the holiday on its books, they will take what they can get.

Make it clear that you are looking to purchase that day and that you have two or three other companies to ring if this holiday is not available at the price you can afford.

I have been haggling for everything I have bought in the past 6 months. That has included a car, a kitchen, lounge furniture and holidays. Discounts have ranged from a token 5% to over 30%, just for asking. Sometimes you get a 'no', it doesn't work every time. It may be that you have set your mind on hat product or that holiday and the convenience of closing the deal is worth paying the price stated. Your success will depend on how many other options you have. I certainly would not entertain extras for late booking though.

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I always make a call, just in case there is anything missing that I or they may have neglected. The upside of this, if you do find a good deal, you don't know how long it will last for, by relying on the website it might be there one minute gone the next. I've never been on a holiday where they've said "only 2 rooms left now", and found that the hotel isn't full when I arrived.

The person on the other end of the phone has access to the back end systems for the operators, and can sometimes find you a better deal. Or you could do an Omid Djallilli and actually barter with them a little, we've managed to get a little bit extra knocked off most of our holidays this way.

As long as they state the final price, and what I get for it, then all is fine.

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could I ask the OP to include the word 'Iglu' in the title please so that the TO becomes aware of the thread and comes on to tell their 'version of the truth'? Thanks Smile

After all it is free

He obviously did not feel ripped off! As he said the price was good! It does not matter how they make up the final "good" price, does it? €x = €x Puzzled

If he was quoted full price of €100 and the final price was €200, that is different. If he was quoted €200 and got a breakdown of the accommodation €25, flight €25, Transfer €25, food €25 and credit card booking fee €100 so what! It is still €200 which is cheap. And he did say that the price was good!!!! Puzzled

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oh and I'm a she NehNeh

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Parkyparcours, Embarassed

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If you're not happy, cancel and book with someone else.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Parkyparcours, So just for clarity did the total price come to what you expected (and were told beforehand) or was it 'inflated' by the extras?

A snowHead

Ok, went on the website & saw the prices. Called up Iglu and said I want to book 4 to go to this chalet for this date. He said - ok the total is £X, how would you like to pay. Obviously at this point, I should have pulled a calculator out of my pocket (whilst on the run) and realised that 4 x the quoted price did not equal the amount he said. At the end of the workday I sat down to work out who owed what and it was then that I realised the breakdown didn't add up to what I was expecting.

Should I have been more careful and waited till the following day and I had more time? Probably

Should Iglu be upfront about the costs on the website and disclose them during the booking process? Probably

BTW - even by their own calculations they had overcharged me - by £4!!!!! rolling eyes

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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Higs, Only in the cheaper resorts! Laughing

Parkyparcours, So forgive me, but you were given a price which you accepted (possibly without looking at the detail but that's not Iglu's fault), and that is what you paid. Leaving aside the £4 this doesn't strike me as a 'rip off'. More a case of buyer not paying attention. Their pricing structure (like many organisations) means that the final price is not the same as the website headline 'advertised' price, but come on, who doesn't know this?

IMHO your rant against them is unfounded.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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I hear you. I just don't think its very good customer service. Yes, am cross with myself and will take all of the flack but don't agree that just because TOs do it, it doesn't make it right. Good grief, if we stayed with the status quo we'd still be burning witches!!!! NehNeh

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Parkyparcours, It would have been far better for the TO to have explained the extras but to be fair to them, they asked if you wanted the holiday at price £XXXX and you said yes. That's not a rip off at all.

A rip off would be if you said you wanted it and they billed you at a figure above what you were expecting... without telling you.

If anything though, Iglu might have got some business out of this thread. I looked at their website and saw some very nice catered chalets, at very good prices. They have a potential customer in me for next year.

After all it is free

I think that the only unreasonable thing Parkyparcours has posted is her thread title - made worse by including the name of the company (assuming it's a widespread practice in the TO business.) It's an interesting point for discussion, it's a bit underhand, it's something to be wary of - but it's not a rip-off.

I think this is the first thread on snowHead

where everybody is right:

- Yes Parkyparcours, it is a bit underhand to advertise a price which is not, or unlikely to, the real price all charges included. I understand the frustration
- But as Axsman suggests this is unfortunately widespread practice these days when it comes to travelling..
- And therefore as Higs says you should have really had calculated the price you expected to pay before calling them..
- You said yes on the phone so as bar shaker and Dav you can't say it's a rip off
- Therefore Hurtle's assessment on the thread title is very true...

Happy days, world peace at last! Toofy Grin

Edit: any omission of other participants to this thread is pure laziness and should not be construed as personal antipathy...

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Kruisler, you are Kofi Annan and I claim my €5 Laughing

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IGLU: What a chuffin' rip off!!!!!!

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