Hi there, Could anyone advise.. Booked hotel/flights with On The Beach for full board 4 star City centre Barcelona hotel leaving in 5 weeks for ten days. Holiday all paid off and today received an email stating: I am today contacting you with regards to an issue we have with all bookings booked for the*Espana. I am afraid that it has been brought to our attention that due to a system error, all bookings made to this hotel have been confirmed Espanya in Callela. * Having checked with all our suppliers, we can not get availability through any of them for the*Espana in Barcelona*and are therefore unable to book the correct hotel. * Please accept our apologies for this error and any inconvenience this may cause you however please see below the options available in order to resolve the situation: * - Change your hotel to a suitable alternative in Barcelona (should you want to do this, we would ask that you have a look on our site for any hotels you would like to change us and let us know the details of maybe a few, we can then see if this can be changed for you). * - A refund on the hotel element of the booking as you may be able to book the Espana through another agent. * - To keep the hotel booked which is the Espanya in Calella. * We of course appreciate the hotel you wanted was the one booked, the Espana and we do sincerely apologise that we are not able to offer this to you. Can anyone advise if we can demand another hotel of same standard and quality without paying more and not having to cancel our holiday? Thank you so much in advance

Ok this is a bit of a looong story but hopefully someone can offer some advice, I was employed by a company called Onboard Spa as a beauty therapist on a cruise ship now I worked tax free and was paid cash in hand (in dollars) on the ship, I left on 3rd August and as of yet have still not been paid (apparently this happens to everyone however I am now fighting it as I believe this is ridiculous). I believed I was employed by Onboard Spa based in Southampton, however we were paid by a company called Multitrax based in London (owned by the Director of Onboard Spa) however my contract I signed was between Harding Brothers and myself. I left contract on 3rd Aug and emailed Onboard Spa HR who told me all salary is dealt with Multitrax, I emailed them who advised "if an employee leaves beginning of month they wait 4-8 wks for payment, however if you leave near end of month there is every chance accounts will be reconciled and payment 10 days later, this is per Director's of Onboard Spa instructions" - go figure As of yet I have not been paid, I emailed Multitrax HR who told me they still have people from JUly who haven't been paid and I will need to wait another 4 weeks, I may add it took a hell of a lot of phone calls and email before I got this reply, there is nothing in any contract which states the time it will take to be paid final salary however I think now they are having a laugh. it was different working on ships as you were paid comissions cash in hand because the purser sent the accounts to multitrax who then raised a purchase order number back to the ship who released money, this final salary amount was calculated before I left and sent to the Multitrax HR who then pay you via your bank account. So what do I do now to get my money? Do I call Harding Brothers as my contract is with them? Do I keep hassling Multitrax even though they never get back to me despite requests now for the Director's contact or contact the managers of Onboard Spa who are much less working alongside Multitrax. I'm really at my wits end now and could be doing with cash in my pocket rather than theirs! Thanks in advance!

I am not too sure they did though, as they first offered us £1050 minus £600 for excess and told us a cheque would be issued for £650, then once he admitted liability they told us excess would be waived and we received a cheque for £1050 however we did contest the amount for the car and a new cheque for a bit more money was raised, so I don't want to go ahead and tell my mum to cash the cheque for £600 from TP insurance, it would be great if it was for us mind u! lol but I have a feeling we need to forward it on to them?? Especially if we receive a new cheque for full amount again

Just an update, the guy admitted liability and my mum and me got provided with a courtsey car, I am really off driving the now though as I got a fright. Mum is waiting on a cheque coming from DL for car, I must admit the company dealing with it have been very good, think its the legal cover company AI solutions. Anyway, another question hopefully someone can answer!! I receved a letter from 3rd party with a cheque for £600 to cover my excess however I don;t need to pay this now so do I rip it up or do I forward to it to direct line? It says this is to cover my payment of excess.

Voluntary excess must have been in the small print!! Garage never called me back so will need to speak to them tomorrow, I was hoping the police took a report because the man who ran into me still hasn't admited he is at fault and if he did then I wouldn't need to worry about excess but police never took a report, the woman my car got pushed into did call me today to say she hasnt heard anything either but she will be a witness that I was stationary behind her, but I still don't think that makes a difference. Kinda put me off driving now when you go through this, I thought it would all be sorted quite quickly.

I will need to investigate a breakdown of where £600 comes from as thats pretty steep excess. Well no one has admited fault yet so not sure how long this will take, I am just phoning DL again as someone was supposed to call me to let me know status of car and they haven't8)

Hi, thanks for many answers regarding this, just to clarify I didn't put my mum down as main driver to get the cheap insurance because I would be driving it all the time, I did it because me as main driver was returning an obsene premium yet I knew my mum would be in car mon-fri to work while I am at uni and me at weekends. On another note, I am still annoyed at the guy who ran into me still hasn't admited he was at fault, direct line say that if the car is written off our excess is £600 which I don't know why cause I was sure I chose an excess of £350, and this would be deducted from cheque they issue and then wait till he admits fault, just thinking, even though he was the one going far too fast and crashed into me, someone else crashed into him so I wonder if he is trying to blame them, but I am 100% it was the driver behind me at fault, he was going far too fast while the 2 cars and myself were all stopped and I knew he was going to crash into me. Is it worth phoning the other people involved to ask how they are getting on or the man himself to ask what is the hold up?

Oh can I ask do you know the procedure from here? Girl said garage would call me to let me know the status of the car (which is probably written off) Will we get issued with cheque to get a new car this week or does he need to go through admitting the liability and that?

Yes, fair point, but at end of day we are both insured to drive vehicle as much as we like, with no higher or lower risk if my mother was the registered owner. You are right in what you are saying, and thank you for replying, but I wasn't going on as a named driver with a premium of £1000 when I can only use car Sat & Sun. This has been my first knowlege of fronting and I wasn;t deliberatly lying or trying to get round.

To be honest I know insurance companies are always looking for a way to get out of paying and if they are intent on being so strong about cracking down on people trying to get cheaper insurance if they have just passed then they should be more stringent and when someone younger is going on a policy with someone older or someone who has just passed test etc then they should refuse or have something else in place rather than accepting the custom.

Thank you both for replying, I guess I will need to wait and see what they say, spoke to them this afternoon about courtsey cars but she said at moment the guy who ran into me hasn't admited liability, I am quite surprised by this as he made me go into someone who then went into someone else and we were all stationary, she said garage will prob phone tomorrow to tell me it has been wrote off and then hopefully they will be quick in issuing a cheque without any delays, just a nightmare, truly horrible experience

But surly then I can tell the insurance that my mum is the owner because techinically the V5 says registered keeper, not registered owner??

Hi, well I passed my test last May and I was out looking and I bought it on my credit card so the V5 was is in my name,howver I have always used the car at weekends and my mum uses it during week for her work so as she got a discount for taking out another car with direct line (she is a named driver on my sisters car) we did it that way, as I wasn't going to pay a huge amount for insurance when I was only using it two days a week but the V5 is still in my name as we never bothered gettng it changed. We don't have legal cover on the plan, so sadly that will be out then! And do I just send in whatever the doctor writes or do I need to contact insurance company to tell them?

Hi there, I am hoping someone can help me with some questions, yesterday I was involved in an accident, I was stopped on the motorway when a car was going too fast crashed right into the back of me, pushing me into the van in front, the recovery guy who picked my vehicle up said it prob will be written off due to its age. My questions are: a - I am an additional named driver on the policy with direct line, the policy holder in my mum, we didn't select for courtsey car, and my friend seems to think that the person who crashed into me, his insurance company should provide me with one? And if so how do I go about this? b - some people have said the insurance people call and offer you a quote for your car, but its stupid amount, I have checked on parkers and the value is £1500 and I paid £1400 last year, so should I advise them I want the price I paid for it? c - I think I may have whiplash, my neck is extremley sore and I can't look to right and left without turining my whole body, I am going to doctor's tomorrow, do I get compensation for this as it said online you can claim loss of earnings but at the moment I am unemployed. I spoke to Direct Line who advised providing the man admits it was his fault (I can't see him not as it clearly was) then my mum won't loose her no claims. Thanks very much in advance!