I would get in touch with any Associations that they were in.There has been fraud going on over the years in that genuine Travel Agency were being bought out only to find they were the victims of fraud get hold of Thomsons head office and send any letters by registered post.Donot pay any final balances until you know that what you've booked has been booked and the deposit passed to the supplier get your booking reference and checkout with the Caa or go to http://www.atol.org.uk make a complaint to them.Good luck.

Thank you for your reply,we have recived from Thomson Holidays the usual paperwork and that tells us deposit payed and our Final balance,what is our concern the time it is taking for the new agent to get confirmation from Thomsons that they are the company to pay the final balance to.And as you advise no final payment will be made untill we have something in writing.As I work in the Middle East my wife as the lead on the holiday has been trying to get some answers,I will call them myself when I get back to Qatar from Dubai this afternoon.

How do we stand on cancelling our holiday in march me and O/H are now unemployed would we be able to cancel without losing any monies we have paid the full balnce up front..

Are you insured. If you've been made redundant and you have insurance you maybe covered.

Sarah

We have'nt took any insurance out yet..And theres only one of us redundent

I shouldn't think you would have much chance of getting your money back. How long before you are due to travel.

Sarah

We have'nt took any insurance out yet..And theres only one of us redundent

Not wishing to go off topic but I am disturbed that yet again someone has been able to book a holiday without insurance. It is a booking condition of all the TOs as far as I am aware that you must have insurance when traveling.

Taking a booking based on the customer saying they will take take out insurance prior to the holiday really is wrong in my opinion. There is so much rubbish we get about how concerned they are about customer care yet they are more interested in taking your money rather than ensure you are covered - just in case.

fwh

Sarah we are due to fly out on the 5th march 09

Fwh we booked our hols with T/C at their shop not online and they asked us if we had ins cover and we said then no we will be getting cover.

FWH

I am a travel agent and we NEVER accept a booking on the say so that the customer has insurance. All travel agents (or most)have access to an Insurance indemnity form which we insist that our customers sign at the time of booking to say that they A) They already have insurance and we like to see a copy or a name of the insurance company they are using or B) They are going to get insurance at a later date and they will let us know the name of the company or C) we sell them the insurance we use in our agency

so it is not about taking money off customers and lack of customer care .

In relation to the original question look in the back of the brochure for the section of the costs of cancellation by the customer (or similiar wording), it is usually a tiered rating ie you may be entitled to a part refund depending on how close you cancel your holiday to the original departure date

We have been and cancelled our hols now..We can get the money refunded through our credit card insurance which i knew nothing about till a visit to the bank they were very helpful(lloyds)there was a cancellation fee of £240 but in the long run it's saved us alot more...Thanx everyone for your help in the matter.. Its out of the way now..