A Darlington man has told of his fury after a travel company who owe him hundreds of pounds for a cancelled flight did a ‘disappearing trick’.
Peter Greenwood from Darlington planned to take a trip to Belfast on June 24 but his flight from Teesside Airport was cancelled at the last minute but says he has been left struggling ever since to get a refund for his trip.
He booked the getaway using online travel agent Opodo but says they have become unreachable since the trip was cancelled and he has been wrangling with them to get a refund.
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Peter, 72, told The Northern Echo: “I was going to a weekend conference in Belfast but my flight from Teesside was cancelled at the last minute while we were waiting to board so I was forced to cancel.
“Loganair gave us compensation but said I needed to contact Opodo to get my money back and I’ve been trying ever since. It’s impossible to get in touch with them.
“I had used Opodo before to search for flights but I won’t be again - they do a disappearing trick when things go wrong.”
A Northern Echo search found no email address or phone number anywhere on Opodo’s website, with a phone number only being given through a live chat function.
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Mr Greenwood also says he has since been billed £59.99 by Opodo for the company’s ‘exclusive’ prime service which provides discounts on flights for an annual fee, despite not signing up for the service.
He added: “While I was trying to contact them for a refund they took £59.99 from my bank for Opodo Prime which I didn’t sign up for. I contacted my bank and they said there was nothing they could do.
“I’m owed about £230 for the flights and £59.99 for the Opodo Prime I didn’t sign up for.”
The Northern Echo was only able to contact Opodo for a statement through the firm’s parent company.
A spokesperson for Opodo said: “We want all of our customers to have an excellent experience through Opodo and the feedback we get is that this is the case the vast majority of the time.
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“We are naturally concerned to hear Mr Greenwood say that he did not have a good experience on this occasion.
“While we have had limited time to review the case fully, we will investigate in more detail to see if improvements could have been made and we offer our apologies to Mr Greenwood for any frustrations he has experience booking with Opodo on this occasion.
“With regards to our Prime subscription service, to subscribe, customers have to confirm they have read terms and conditions and click to opt in before they are registered. If customers decide they no longer wish to subscribe, they can easily cancel their membership in a few clicks by accessing their online account or contacting agents via dedicated phone lines or email addresses
Since The Northern Echo contacted Opodo Mr Greenwood has been offered a full refund of £235 for his flights.
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