Two of our group refused BA refund for delayed flight: SALLY SORTS IT
I organised a visit to Venice for members of our operating membership in October final 12 months. Twenty-one of the group had been flying again with BA to Gatwick on October 23, however the flight was delayed greater than three hours, thus entitling them to statutory compensation of £220 every.
Bizarrely, whereas 19 of the group have obtained their cost, two have repeatedly been informed they aren’t entitled to it. Can you assist resolve this?
M.G., Olney, Bucks.
A reader was confused when 19 of their group obtained £220 for the delay however two of the did not
Sally Hamilton replies: What ought to have been a fast and easy declare for compensation turned a dash right into a marathon for 2 of your membership members.
You described your great four-night go to to town which concerned some members participating in a 10k run and others a half marathon, with all of them doing loads of sightseeing and procuring in between.
Despite the profitable journey, the pair ignored for compensation felt a bit miffed by BA’s high-handed strategy. I completely perceive. It made no sense that BA handed over £220 every to 19 of your group however rejected the claims of the remaining two.
European Union guidelines say flights of lower than 1,500 km coming into the UK from a European nation which are delayed for 3 hours or extra imply passengers are entitled to compensation of £220 every.
Airlines can escape paying if a delay is due to ‘extraordinary circumstances’, corresponding to unhealthy climate, industrial motion, or site visitors management restrictions.
In its response to your fellow runners’ attraction, BA mentioned that on the day of the group’s return from Venice the flight was delayed as a consequence of Greek navy workouts inflicting air site visitors management restrictions over the continent — one thing out of its management. This had affected the arrival time of incoming flights and the knock-on impact of delaying your group.
If this was the case, then why did 19 of your co-travellers obtain compensation, I requested BA, stating the apparent contradiction.
After a number of days investigating, the airline got here again and repeated the reason that the cost was not as a result of two ladies due to the Greek navy manoeuvres.
Its justification was that the details about the air site visitors management delay had not been loaded onto the BA laptop system by the point the primary cohort of your group had utilized for his or her compensation, permitting their claims to get throughout the road.
It would appear the remaining members had been slower off the mark with their purposes, by which period the knowledge had been up to date and prompted the pc to say ‘no’.
After some persuasion by me in regards to the unfairness of this situation, BA agreed that as a goodwill gesture it might pay the cash to the excluded members — a complete of £440 — on receipt of their reserving particulars. Quite proper.
Water agency says my spouse’s cafe owes it £2,700
My spouse runs a small cafe in South London. It has two water suppliers — on the bottom ground it’s Clear Business and on the primary ground, Castle Water, which took over enterprise water provides from Thames Water in 2017.
The invoice for downstairs, which is essentially for espresso making and washing up, is about £700 a 12 months, paid by direct debit.
Upstairs was, till 2018, solely a bathroom that value £70 a 12 months. When a water heater, sink and kitchen had been added to enhance the meals providing within the cafe the invoice rose to £280 a 12 months, paid by direct debit at £24 a month. The final time Castle Water took a meter studying was spring 2019.
A invoice dated May 22, final 12 months, reveals consumption and funds had been aligned, with a small credit score surplus. It additionally mentioned Castle would proceed to take £23.92 by direct debit each month. But additional down this invoice appeared a scary sum suggesting she owed virtually £2,700 in water provide, sewage companies and standing expenses, plus VAT and, on August, 30, with none warning, Castle took £700. Please Help.
R.W., London
Sally Hamilton replies: You informed me your spouse panicked when she noticed the £700 drain out of her account and instantly recalled the direct debit. Had she not executed so she would have had no cash to pay employees wages.
She was confused by the dimensions of the sum, and skim the water meter that day, and once more about three weeks later, with the figures taken suggesting the cafe’s water utilization was round £1 a day.
She felt, that even when the water consumption had been underestimated over the earlier 4 years, that the collected debt could be half what Castle Water was claiming.
During Covid, the cafe didn’t even function for 3 months, so there was no consumption in any respect .
A couple of weeks after your spouse recalled the direct debit, Castle Water knowledgeable her the difficulty had been handed to the disconnection crew, with the ‘debt’ handed over to assortment firm Marston.
This was regardless of you and your spouse contacting Castle Water along with your defence that the consumption couldn’t be as excessive because it had calculated. The firm refused to just accept it had failed to hold out common readings or ship alerts that this debt was accruing.
When you and your spouse challenged the invoice, suggesting inaccuracies with the sums, it stood agency and insisted you should pay half the stability owed instantly and unfold the price of the opposite half over a number of months.
Since you appeared to be swimming towards the tide with Castle Water’s customer support and informed me you had been in no place to pay virtually £1,350 on the drop of a hat, I stepped in to ask the agency to verify whether or not one thing had gone severely unsuitable.
Castle Water agreed to research instantly and only a few days later it got here again and admitted there had been a difficulty with an historic meter studying made by its predecessor, Thames Water, in 2019, that had not made its manner into your invoice calculations.
The agency agreed to cancel the unique £2,700 invoice, name off the debt collectors and situation an up to date calculation of prices, which it mentioned could be ‘significantly lower’.
The firm mentioned it had made makes an attempt to learn your meter previously, however admitted it struggled to seek out the system and had requested Thames Water to go the cafe premises to find it and replace Castle Water with the placement data.
This it will definitely did.
The agency says it typically goals to rearrange twice a 12 months in-person meter checks however mentioned that since it’s contained in the property it ‘encourages’ you and your spouse to supply your individual readings. Castle Water lastly produced a extra real looking and manageable complete of £1,000, which you might have mutually agreed to repay, on the charge of £180 a month by standing order.
