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A few weeks ago my wife made a group booking for herself and group of friends to the USA (on the 10th anniversary of the bloody awful day too).
She did the same last year and found out before the flights that a name had been spelt wrongly and it cost her £40 to change it as Expedia just passed the airline charge to her.
This time, despite several phonetically spelt name checks by her they've spelt two names wrongly. I was with her while she did this and listened very carefully as the operator at the other end didn't appear to have English as his first language. Anyway, even while he was on the phone, he sent out the email with the details of the names etc and we could see that despite only being told less than 2 minutes beforehand that the names were wrongly spelt they still appeared wrongly spelt.
He was advised of this immediately and he said this would be taken care of.
After a few weeks it became obvious that nothing had been, or was likely to be, done to rectify this.
She contacted Expedia and asked them what they were doing about it and they acted surprised at the mistakes. They said they would listen to the recording and give us an answer on whose fault it was. We knew all along that it was theirs but gave them leave to confirm it.
Naturally we got a denial of their liability. We objected again and told them we just knew we did this correctly and they went off to listen to the recording again as if they hadn't listened properly, or at all in the first place.
Then they came back and admitted to a single name error. Now we know that both names were spelled out one after the other, not once or twice but several times.
In any case they told us they would pay for one name change if we agreed to pay for the other.
I certainly don't agree. The mistakes were theirs pure and simple so I asked for a copy of the recording. they asked for a tenner to have it sent out.
I thought better of this as it still wouldn't necessarily get them to change their mind even if we found the evidence that we know exists.
So, thinking of the Data Protect Act would I be correct in assuming they have a legal obligation to rectify any data held in this situation. They are certainly in breach of the need to keep accurate and up to date information. and as far as I can see they are also demanding payment to change a second name before they'll change the other although they've already admitted liability for that mistake.
I accept they can charge to release the recording but doubt as to whether they can demand payment to correct their records, and subsequently the data sent to the airlines.
I have placed on them a formal notice to make the changes to comply with the DPA telling them I will be happy to take this to tribunal where a commissioner can listen to the full recording but in the meantime they are obliged to make the changes and if they canprove that it was my wife who was in the wrong they could pursue us in a civil court to reimburse the amount they have lost as a result. I know that we didn't make a mistake though so am not at all worried about that.
So what's the full legal situation here. Are my assumptions and actions correct and is there any case history of a similar nature that anyone knows of.
She did the same last year and found out before the flights that a name had been spelt wrongly and it cost her £40 to change it as Expedia just passed the airline charge to her.
This time, despite several phonetically spelt name checks by her they've spelt two names wrongly. I was with her while she did this and listened very carefully as the operator at the other end didn't appear to have English as his first language. Anyway, even while he was on the phone, he sent out the email with the details of the names etc and we could see that despite only being told less than 2 minutes beforehand that the names were wrongly spelt they still appeared wrongly spelt.
He was advised of this immediately and he said this would be taken care of.
After a few weeks it became obvious that nothing had been, or was likely to be, done to rectify this.
She contacted Expedia and asked them what they were doing about it and they acted surprised at the mistakes. They said they would listen to the recording and give us an answer on whose fault it was. We knew all along that it was theirs but gave them leave to confirm it.
Naturally we got a denial of their liability. We objected again and told them we just knew we did this correctly and they went off to listen to the recording again as if they hadn't listened properly, or at all in the first place.
Then they came back and admitted to a single name error. Now we know that both names were spelled out one after the other, not once or twice but several times.
In any case they told us they would pay for one name change if we agreed to pay for the other.
I certainly don't agree. The mistakes were theirs pure and simple so I asked for a copy of the recording. they asked for a tenner to have it sent out.
I thought better of this as it still wouldn't necessarily get them to change their mind even if we found the evidence that we know exists.
So, thinking of the Data Protect Act would I be correct in assuming they have a legal obligation to rectify any data held in this situation. They are certainly in breach of the need to keep accurate and up to date information. and as far as I can see they are also demanding payment to change a second name before they'll change the other although they've already admitted liability for that mistake.
I accept they can charge to release the recording but doubt as to whether they can demand payment to correct their records, and subsequently the data sent to the airlines.
I have placed on them a formal notice to make the changes to comply with the DPA telling them I will be happy to take this to tribunal where a commissioner can listen to the full recording but in the meantime they are obliged to make the changes and if they canprove that it was my wife who was in the wrong they could pursue us in a civil court to reimburse the amount they have lost as a result. I know that we didn't make a mistake though so am not at all worried about that.
So what's the full legal situation here. Are my assumptions and actions correct and is there any case history of a similar nature that anyone knows of.
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