Edreams Holidays
Accepted a booking and made an authorisation charge to credit card but could not issue the ticket in time for the flight

This company should be called Enightmares!
While attempting to make an urgent flight booking to Australia to see my dying mother the following scam went down.
I made the booking online with what seemed to be a reputable company. When the final stage of confirmation was reached the following message appeared.
"Thank you for having reserved your ticket with eDreams. Important! We apologise for the inconvenience, but in order to issue tickets booking conditions require that payment must be completed by Bank Transfer. Please make a bank transfer in the sum of AU$ 2,809.63 to the following account: IBAN: ES06-2100-3006-93-2200779686 SWIFT: CAIXESBB Account's holder: Vacaciones eDreams S. L Bank dаta: La Caixa - oficina 3006, c/Pelai 11,08001 Barcelona, Spain Reason: XXXXXX Fax proof of transfer to 0034 93 508 85 82 For the attention of: Flight Reservations. Reason: XXXXXX (Your reservation number) Send us your comments. If you pay by bank transfer, you must allow three (3) working days from receipt of faxed proof of transfer for the payment to reach our account. We therefore cannot accept payment by bank transfer unless there is a period of at least six (6) working days between the date of reservation and the date of your departure."
This looked highly suspicious as I'm sure you would agree.
I immediately called the credit card company to see if in fact my card had been charged. They confirmed that an authorisation charge had been made against my card. As you can see above, Edreams requested a bank transfer after already making the authorisation charge against my card. I'm pretty sure this is ILLEGAL! They also state that;
"you must allow three (3) working days from receipt of faxed proof of transfer for the payment to reach our account. We therefore cannot accept payment by bank transfer unless there is a period of at least six (6) working days between the date of reservation and the date of your departure."
As I was making the booking only two (2) days before the flight it was clearly impossible for them to issue the ticket under such conditions. So they made the booking (I confirmed that with the airline), made a charge against my credit card and then demanded a bank transfer for a ticket they could not issue in time for the flight.
It doesn't get any dodgier than that!
I suppose if it hadn't been so urgent I would have just waited until the charges had been removed from my card (up to 3 working days Edreams informed me) and then made a new booking with a reputable company. Sadly I had no time and as my Visa card was now maxed out I couldn't use it for another booking.
And yes, I did indeed call Edreams. They confirmed that the authorisation charge had been made against my card, but that they couldn't issue the ticket unless I made the bank transfer. When I pointed out that I was not a moron and that even if I did that it would be too late for the flight in question, the sales assistant pretended that our phone connection had been cut saying, "I'm sorry but I can't hear you". At this point my usual calmness abandoned me and I became extremely angry insisting on speaking to a manager unless she immediately cancel the booking and the Visa card authorisation charge. She said she would but that the funds would not reappear in my account for three working days.
Basically what i'm saying here is
be warned. Do not use this service under any circumstances. Tell anyone and everyone that this is not a reputable company. Their actions and responses are inexcusable.
A brief search of the internet will confirm that many people have had bad experiences with this company. If I had not been so distraught at the news of my mother's illness and been as careful as usual when dealing with companies over the internet, I would not have become another victim of this EXTREMELY DISREPUTABLE company.
Even if this situation is resolved by the company, it is unlikely that I will be able to make another flight booking in time to see my mother.

Company: Edreams Holidays
Country: USA
Site: edreams.com

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