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TRAVEL COMPANY SELFCATERING.IE has announced that it has ceased trading with immediate effect, leaving thousands of families who have pre-paid for holidays at risk of being left out of pocket.
The agency, based in Co Wexford, emailed customers last night informing them that it had ceased trading as of Thursday and advising them to contact the relevant caretakers or property owners directly. All content on the company’s website has now been taken down.
In a statement seen by RTÉ, the company apologised “unreservedly” to customers, which it admitted will be financially impacted. It added that every effort had been made to avoid the situation that has now arisen.
Commenting on the news, Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley called on the the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Trade Leo Varadkar to intervene.
“We have seen a growing trend of online trading companies going bust over the last number of months, but the problem is there seems to be no recourse for clients,” he said.
“I am calling on Minister Varadkar to regulate the on-line booking business because some companies appear to operate in a haphazard fashion… New legislation is needed in this area with compulsory insurance and a bonding mechanism to give some form of security to customers.”
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And Fianna Fail were in Government for how long?
Just make sure at the next election that either ff or fg DO NOT get voted in again.
And Timmy Dooley wants Leo Varadkar to intervene in what way exactly? I case you’ve forgotten already Timmy your party bankrupted the country, we are a depending on others to finance the country at the moment.
Of course ff made a mess of things but he is right we need to regulate online booking. In this case it was made worse by the company insisting in recent weeks on drafts and money transfers rather than credit card payment so people caught on the double. I was caught out when 1800 hotels went bust but likely I paid by credit card and had it refunded by them. Travel agents have to be bonded so should any online traders
Well said Ben! It was all good when they where in power!
The only misdeed of FF as far as many misguided Irish people are concerned as that they failed to deliver the gravy train, no amount of lies and corruption, nepotism, local interests served for votes had any effect on their electability until the Gravy train stopped. Now the same people are all critical of such deceit and exploitation but in 2007 they elected a man who “won it on the horse”. our politicians are no more than a mirror of ourselves as a nation.
Very true economicopoly. All of the comments towards the likes of Bertie and the Quinns are informed by begrudgery and a “if I can’t have it , neither can they.” The soapboxing and high-horsery that goes on today is a new phenomenon, pre 2008 nobody gave a shite as long as they could go for a loaf of bread and pick up a new plasma tv on the way back.
Does Timmy Dooley even know what self catering is. The man who called the last treaty the Fiscal sterility pact for flip sake.
Hmmmm, I noticed one of the directors of selfcatering.ie is none other than TV3′s so called travel expert, indeed she had the brass neck to be on tv3 the day prior to this companies collapse advising one and all about travel tips etc, pity she did not use the opportunity to warn her companies customers to cancel their bookings and get their money back. Not surprisingly she and her hubby have since gone all quite. Absolutely disgraceful. One wonders will she be featuring again on TV3?
It seems many in Ireland succeed on the basis of complete disrespect for anyone else’s interests but their own and then exhibit a brass neck, what was she doing saying anything at all about holidays on TV3 knowing many who paid her company good money would be denied the holiday they had paid for. Investigate every last cent and see what the facts reveal. The people affected should in the least get this.
No way never knew that! Thats a bit of useless interesting information. Bet she’ll never be on again. I hope.
“The Irish Times has learned that selfcatering.ie had been asking customers to pay using cash transfers in recent weeks because it claimed it was unable to process credit-card payments. This policy will make it very difficult for people to seek redress”. If they were asking people to pay cash because of issues in taking credit cards related to the companies insolvency they were specifically requesting people to pay them without having any recourse in the event of the insolvency as they would have had , had they paid by Credit Card, it all clearly needs to be investigated and clearly this woman was in no position to advise anyone of booking travel services.
Tv3 is a complete Joke anyway, it seems to have virtually no respect for its audience and any appreciation for the existence of intelligence, the stodgy tabloid crime docs, the late night Psychic that TV3 adamantly says has nothing to do with them apart from the fact they get a cut of it!
If the sheep didn’t tune in to watch exposé show us the wonderful world of the TV3/Herald “celebrity” then they wouldn’t exist. They survive on advertising so if no one watches then they’ll go away. TV3 provide the masses with what they want and they lapped up talifornia when it was spewed out. Of course no one who reads the journal ever watches TV3 do they?
I feel sorry for anybody who lost money. But you should never pay for anything up front without a credit card thats your insurance. Now a lot of people dont have a credit card.so go to creit union and they will let you use a card if your a member.
This type of crap being going on for years . Simple solution is to make every company pay annually into a fund whereby it covers each and every customer for situations like this . It is a form of insurance and the laws regarding sole traders and ltd companies should be altered to facilitate this! Baboons running the country.
Regretably, Neil, you can only regulate businesses in your own jurisdiction. The buyer as to look after themselves. Before parting with money check to see if the business you are dealing with is covered by IATA or ABTA and ALWAYS pay by credit card. nnIt amazes me that people are more careful about wat they buy in a supermarket than they are about buying over the internet.
The law can pierce the corporate veil if there was reckless trading, that is make the individual liable for the corporates debts, in the least there obviously should be a complete audit of how this company went bust and in the event the individuals enriched themselves or acted recklessly against the interests of the viability of the business make them liable to the poor families that paid for but now not getting a holiday, its shameful in any event, they were no more than an intermediary between the accomodation and the family apart from money to advertise and promote the site what other major costs could they have incurred to go bust, they weren’t leasing jets like some of the travel companies like XL that went bust before, an investigation in the least.
We booked a Holiday Home in Cork for €650 we paid the deposit by credit card €150 but when we tried to pay the remainder they said there was a problem with the credit card could we pay by Laser!!!!!! So we did we should have smelt a rat but we used this company last year for the same house. We have lost €500 on the booking and have to pay €499 for the house now!!! The children are 9,8 and 6 years old and this is their only holiday this year so we will go but with less spending money!!! Lets hope the weather is good…
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