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A good friend is stuck in a country which is on the red list. Visited Thailand for a wedding 3 weeks ago, country went on to the red list two weeks ago. Paid for the flights with his bank card.
He has to pay £2300 for a quarantine hotel.
The company that run this service for the UK, booking said hotels, are meant to put into place installment payment plans for people who do not have that much money that they can spend. They have a UK service address.
There is no information about the payment plans or anything like it online, only a contact email address and phone number.
Emails for last week have been ignored.
He tried to call with Skype, could not hear the other person.
Had to revert to using his UK phoneline.
Called three times last week, was on hold an hour each time, before someone in India answered and he could not hear them.
Called again and recorded that, as well as several calls this week. He got through to an Indian woman last week, in her house in India, dogs barking and kids screaming in the background. They could hardly hear each other. The line on their end was just terrible.
This lady had no details on the payment plan, so he arranged for her to email him.
No email sent since.
Three calls, all over an hour, all unanswered, made this week.
He has spent over £300 on calls.
I tried calling today, on hold 90 minutes with nobody coming to the phone.
Their operation is clearly not fit for purpose.
It is quite obviously going to be a case that they know people are calling from abroad, that's the purpose of what they arrange.
How can my friend get his call costs back from this useless company that the Government has put in charge of helping the public in situations like this? What would be the legal basis? Intention to form a contract? Negligent misstatement?
He has to pay £2300 for a quarantine hotel.
The company that run this service for the UK, booking said hotels, are meant to put into place installment payment plans for people who do not have that much money that they can spend. They have a UK service address.
There is no information about the payment plans or anything like it online, only a contact email address and phone number.
Emails for last week have been ignored.
He tried to call with Skype, could not hear the other person.
Had to revert to using his UK phoneline.
Called three times last week, was on hold an hour each time, before someone in India answered and he could not hear them.
Called again and recorded that, as well as several calls this week. He got through to an Indian woman last week, in her house in India, dogs barking and kids screaming in the background. They could hardly hear each other. The line on their end was just terrible.
This lady had no details on the payment plan, so he arranged for her to email him.
No email sent since.
Three calls, all over an hour, all unanswered, made this week.
He has spent over £300 on calls.
I tried calling today, on hold 90 minutes with nobody coming to the phone.
Their operation is clearly not fit for purpose.
It is quite obviously going to be a case that they know people are calling from abroad, that's the purpose of what they arrange.
How can my friend get his call costs back from this useless company that the Government has put in charge of helping the public in situations like this? What would be the legal basis? Intention to form a contract? Negligent misstatement?
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