Agent uproar forces tour operator into pricing u-turn

Mercury Holidays has promised to honour eight holidays booked at the wrong price after agents took to social media to complain following the company’s attempt to surcharge their customers.

National sales manager Richard Greenaway said the move would cost Mercury over £22,000, which is ‘a loss which we have incurred to show our goodwill to our partners and clients alike’.

He said the cmpany is still in discussions to find an ‘appropriate outcome’ for another booking, which was cancelled due to minimum numbers not being reached on an escorted tour.

The issues came to light when one agent reported on Travel Gossip that Mercury had tried to charge her clients an additional £859 per passenger for a wedding anniversary trip to Mauritius.

Her post prompted other agents to complain they’d also experienced surcharges or last-minute cancellations by Mercury.

One agent, Becky Griffiths, said the company had cancelled a big group booking to Antigua over Christmas after the deposits had been taken and the reservation confirmed. She said the company had offered to knock £50 off a future booking but the customers had lost their holiday.

Greenaway said the problem had occured because pricing errors were made with regard to the flights when the packages were put together, which meant some went on sale at an incorrect price.

"These pricing issues were realised approximately 4-5 months after the bookings were made and as soon as they came to light, the issue was rectified so no further bookings with this error would be made," he said.

"We understand that we have deeply disappointed the customers who have been affected and we initially ensured that we refunded the entire holiday cost, any related holiday costs (visas, credit card charges, car parking etc) and offered a discount off a future holiday with us.

"Further to this we are now currently speaking to the eight travel agents whose bookings were initially cancelled to honour these flights and reach a satisfactory resolution for our mutual clients."

Griffiths said her reservation to Antigua had been confirmed and that Mercury had ‘come back with the best response possible’.

However, some agents who had complained of price hikes and cancellations said they hadn’t been contacted by the firm. One had booked clients on a tour to Vietnam in May, which was cancelled 17 days before departure, and another had booked a trip to Mauritius for Christmas in February and was subsequently asked for another £1000 last month.

Greenaway added: "We would like to reassure all travel agents that a series of safeguards have been put in place to ensure that an issue of this nature does not occur again, and that customers can be certain that the price they pay at the time of booking is the final price. 

"We are committed to providing all our travel agents and clients with a superior level of customer service and we would like to once again apologise as this expectation has not been met on this occasion.

"We are working hard to restore their faith in our company and hope that we will be given the chance to prove our integrity once again. Our team of Field Sales Agents will be out and about shortly visiting branches of travel agents that we work with.

"They will be discussing ways in which the trade can get involved in our forthcoming winter campaign and how travel agents can benefit their business through us providing additional support and marketing opportunities."

Greenaway said Mercury had been discussing the matter with ABTA and it was satisfied with its resolution, although an ABTA spokesman said he was unaware of any complaints about the company.