www.barrheadtravel.co.uk Anmeldelser 60

Booked a once in a lifetime holiday (departing Nov 2020) with Barrhead Travel Glasgow Fort on 14th January 2020 and paid a deposit of £1400. Was advised by Ryan in mid-July 2020 that our return flight in December was cancelled and that we wouldn't return until the following day. Furthermore he stated that the ship on the cruise had also changed. We were advised that if this was not suitable then we could cancel the holiday and receive a full refund. As the changes were not suitable we cancelled.
It is now over 12 months since we paid the deposit and approx 6 months since cancellation. According to Barrhead Travel they have claimed the cancellation through their insurers and are waiting on settlement.
I understand that claims are taking longer due to the pandemic however I believe that 6 months is more than adequate to refund our deposit.
I contacted ABTA on 3rd December 2020 and asked them to expidite this matter. As of today they have yet to receive a response from Barrhead Travel.
I've asked ABTA how to progress this issue.

I recently needed to change our holiday booking because some members of our family are very poorly. I contacted Vanessa Rowley (Newcastle Branch) to discuss our dilemmas. She was absolutely amazing, compassionate, and very proactive in changing our holiday. She has been a wonderful help and extremely professional in recognising and solving our problems and shielding me from any worries. I would highly recommend Barrhead Travel and in particularly Vanessa who is a brilliant representative to this company.

Hi
We have booked our ( 6 senior citizens) Rocky mountaineer and Alaska cruise , Canada holiday in October 2019 with £650 each deposit. Further full payment done in February 2020 to go on holiday in May 2020. Because COVID-19 we can’t travel for restrictions by both governments. So many phone calls and e-mails still no refunds yet . Baarhead travel asked us for credit cards details in August 2020 , we provided but no refund or any sort of advice from them . We are now worried about our money . Very bed experience with company , we want be book any future holiday with Baarhead travel.
Vin Patel , Telford

Very poor customer sevice attitude problem not very happy to help out with a refund for cruise could never get though to anyone obviously Covid didnt help but it was the customer service that really let them down. Will not be using them again had to seek other ways of getting our refund back and when we did we got told stop sending us a email you got your refund via charge back so stop bothering us.

My wife & I have been on a number of trips organised by Barrhead Travel over the years & they have always been very helpful & efficient. We were due to go on two holidays this year organised by them which had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. One was to Tenerife and a second major one was to the USA & Canada. We did have to wait some time to have the first holiday refunded but we believe this was due to a delay by TUI. Lisa & the staff at the Aberdeen Branch pulled out all the stops with regard to the second holiday & we received the refund really quickly. We certainly will have no hesitation in going back once we are able to. Well done Barrhead.

A & M Reid, Aberdeen

After my previous review on barrhead travel with regards to my refund, I can now confirm, after 2 emails sent to the CEO (never received reply back) 2 bad reviews made one on here, a complaint raised with trading standards and ABTA, numerous emails, and messages through messenger, and a request that I wanted proof that jet 2 holidays had not paid barrhead travel, (which I still believe was incorrect) from the manager I was dealing with, at the braehead store, I finally have my refund, but it does not change my opinion that I will never book with them again.

Excellent customer service in a business is through treating their customers with fairness, respect and empathy. Barrhead Travel fell far short of the mark on this.
We had our holiday cancelled on 7th April by Barrhead Travel who strongly suggested we take a credit note and did not even mention a refund of the money paid for a holiday that was not going to happen. After stating that I wanted a full cash refund and not a credit note they then suggested I claim on my travel insurance instead – giving out incorrect information is not helpful!
I insisted on a full refund and was told by e-mail on 17th April – because they were not contactable by phone – that they would apply for a refund. They also advised it could take months. The holiday was with Jet2holidays who were refunding within 28 days, and as CEO was stating that Barrhead were refunding as soon as they received the refund from Jet2 , I’m not sure why this would take months.
Now I am, because Barrhead Travel did not apply for my refund on 17th April. I have had little to no communication from them, I have sent many e-mails looking for an update but no response.
I then resorted to Resolver and strangely I finally received a reply from someone, this is now 10th July to say they would apply for a refund with Jet2 but it could take months – heard this before. This was then passed onto yet another Barrhead employee who asked me to contact her if I had not received my refund in 2 weeks, I had provided bank details for this to be done on 10th July.
Finally, after submitting a complaint to ABTA, CMA and a chargeback request with my bank I got a call on 7th August. This was from the Dunfermline store and “can we take your card details to make the refund”. I finally received my payment on 12th August but no apology for appalling customer service.
I fully appreciate the difficulties we are all facing just now but it’s how we conduct ourselves that makes the difference. The companies that survive will be the ones who communicated with their customers in an honest and fair manner. This does not describe Barrhead Travel.

120 days after requesting my refund and still not received a penny, only correspondence was a phone call back in may asking for bank details as my refund was being processed, I’ve sent numerous emails and had no replies I phoned the Stirling branch where I booked my holiday and was told they would chase it up ASAP and still nothing, my sister booked her holiday thru TUI and received a full refund within 14 days I will never use this company again there customer service is shocking BARRHEAD TRAVEL you owe me £6460 plus interest !!!!!

Finally got my refund after 12 weeks. Emails were returned no contact till about week 10 . appalling customer service. I think I only got their attention because I lodged a complaint with resolver.com
I will Never use them again !

We have just rebooked our cancelled trip to Hawaii . Kieran O’Donnell ( Belfast Barrhead ) rang us to tell us our trip in September was cancelled and gave us some options . We decided to rebook next year . I would like to thank Kieran for the excellent service he gave us and helped us in making our decision . He is a really good guy and is an asset to Barrhead travel . He went the extra mile with us ensuring we were happy with the rescheduling of our trip to Canada /Hawaii contacting us on numerous occasions and keeping us up to date on the progress of the booking. Thanx Kieran 👍
Sharon & Mark

I agree with all the current reviews. I will NOT be using Barrhead ever again. No relies to numerous Emails and phone calls. We are due to go a Cruise leaving from America, both very scary. My balance is due beginning August and I wish to cancel or find other options. Very concerned.

My friend As a long standing customer of Barrhead travel couldn’t get hold of them as the shops all closed due to covid someone told her about Tina king of salt coats branch was great at helping as My friend Jeanette doesn’t have any form of social media she didn’t know where to start so I got in touch with Tina for her within 2 weeks she had her refund what wonderful service Tina gave also was like talking to a friend excellent service can’t thank her enough will be booking through Tina king in future

There is also a Trustpilot review site for Barrhead Travel. There are thousands of reviews there, split into two main types - people rate them highly if you're moving your holiday to sometime later (which doesn't involve you getting any money back) and those that give them one star because they want their money back for their cancelled holiday and can't get any sense let alone money out of the company.

For most people it doesn't matter too much if Barrhead goes into liquidation because they will have their money protected by ATOL or less likely ABTA. So your money is probably safe enough, but at the moment hundreds if not thousands of customers who need their money refunded are being frustrated by Barrhead holding onto it.

I booked a cruise for 2 people on 39 th August, I got a call from Barrhead Travel who told me the cruise was going ahead , I explained that due to Covid I didn’t want to go , I asked about my deposit £500 and was told the cruise line held my money ,, I wanted to speak to my partner about changing dates but the travel agent took it upon her self to change my dates for me ,, now I have emails from the cruise line who have told me they are not sailing nor do they have my deposit,, Barrhead Travel told me lies , they won’t answer emails, they are a disgrace to the travel industry,, please don’t book with Barrhead Travel,

Can't agree with previous reviewers. We booked a multi-site trip to Canada & U.S. including a cruise and rail journey last year for this August. The agent did a lot of work to meet our requirements and get us a good deal and we were happy with the way things were done. It was of course cancelled but quite late in the day and we then had an anxious wait to hear from Barrhead to see if we could move the booking to next year. It seemed like ages and there was no response to emails, but in actual fact it was only 2 weeks after the cruise company cancelled all cruises to Alaska. We should not have worried. Laura from Barrhead was both efficient and helpful and we were able to to 'lift and shift' our holiday to next year with a minimum of fuss or stress. It may be different if you are looking for refund but when they did respond, it was a very quick and professional service.

SUSPECT THEY ARE GOING UNDER
Have booked many many holidays with them and no communication on email, phone or on their website. No refunds for cancelled holidays. Been waiting since 14th May.
SUSPECT THEY ARE GOING UNDER !!!!!!

As with the previous review, we were meant to depart on the 10th April and have not had one response to my emails to Barrhead. Customer service is non existent. Now been over 70 days since I last heard from them.
Looks like they ignore all customers and hold on to the money.
Won't ever use them again and would advise everyone else to avoid them.

Worst Travel Company

Good Morning,

We booked our holiday in good faith, however the money that we paid is very much being held to ransom with zero contact at all!! Oh except automated emails. A serious of emails have been sent with no response, and there are no contact number for us to get in touch!

The holiday was meant to depart on the 9th of May, and I was informed that we would be contacted on a case by case basis in line with departure dates. I have had no contact from a business who I have used many times and assumed that they pride themselves on excellent customer service. If we had booked with Jet 2 this would have been sorted by now! (Has Barrhead Travel received a refund from Jet 2 and also holding our money)????

This looks like you have furloughed all of your staff, except new booking team members (who are working remotely) and are completely forgetting about the business that you already have! Do you want repeat business from your current database?????

I demand some form of contact other than an automated response! Please stop earning interest from our money which you are holding in your account.

We don't want to re-book another holiday and would like our money back as this was paid for in March!

Contact us ASAP

We booked a Greek islands cruise with Royal Caribbean through BARRHEAD TRAVEL in June 2019 for travel on 7 August 2020 and paid a deposit of nearly £500. Knowing that the balance of £3.5K was due on 16 May, we contacted BARRHEAD TRAVEL to try to ascertain if the cruise was likely to go ahead and what our options were. This was in light of UK Government’s policy on unnecessary travel, age of travellers, possible quarantine, and the likelihood of foreign ports and indeed countries being closed to tourists. Due to their neat little “incommunicado” deal this could only be done by e-mail which they said would be replied to within a minimum of 28 days as they were extremely busy. This was sent on 25 April. We are still waiting and are unlikely to receive a reply as there has been absolutely no contact from them since last June. BARRHEAD TRAVEL have complete control over any contact they may wish to have with customers. However they were not so busy to insist that the balance be paid as per their T&Cs or that the deposit would be forfeited. Thereby is the dilemma. Because of the complete lack of information do you forfeit the deposit on a cruise which is extremely unlikely to take place (and BARRHEAD TRAVEL keep the money) or pay the balance, again on a cruise which is unlikely to take place and wait until BARRHEAD TRAVEL deem to reimburse their customers (Note: THEIR customers). This would appear to be a nice little "rob Peter to pay Paul” scheme and other posts seem to suggest that monies repaid by tour operators or airlines are being retained by BARRHEAD TRAVEL. Due to the lack of information from BARRHEAD TRAVEL, the air-lines and cruise companies, who is going to hand over £4K just to see what might happen. BARRHEAD TRAVEL are quick to quote their terms and conditions regarding payments but are just as quick to hide behind the COVID19 pandemic for reasons not to support or contact their customers. Their behaviour at this time is at best sharp practice and at worst unethical. They appear to have forgotten that their customer is the person who books a holiday through them and NOT the tour operators. Their non-existent customer support and lack of information has been absolutely APPALING. They get one star as there is no mechanism to award zero stars
THINK REALLY HARD AND CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES BUT DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY TO BOOK A HOLIDAY OR MAKE TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS.

Barrhead travel agents at the shires Leicester .the young ladies who work there are the best .always smiling helpful nothing to much trouble like talking to friends sort out your holiday destination with as much detail as possible. .we book 2 holidays a years with these people brilliant