Clients will get money back, says travel agent

Oct 8 2009 by Marjorie Kerr, West Lothian Courier

Clients will get money back, says travel agent

TRAVEL agent Douglas McCarthy has stated he is still doing all he can to help his customers following the closure of his Bathgate business.

Douglas spoke out following the decision to cease trading at his firm, Bill McCarthy Travel.

However, he said that he and his staff are working round-the-clock to ensure that everyone who has booked a holiday with his firm, will not lose out.

“Me and my staff are working until 3am and 4am to try to sort things out,” said Douglas.

“The problem has been that when we ceased trading, we were denied access to our back office systems which contain all the data on our clients and which holidays they have booked.

“That means that we can’t inform people about any issues with their bookings, because we simply can’t see who is travelling when.

“I have been in touch with the companies concerned with the systems because this is my data and I need access to it to help the clients concerned.”

Douglas says he took the decision to close his business after 22 years and make his eight staff redundant, due to his bank refusing to grant him an overdraft.

He said: “We were unable to secure a small working overdraft to see us through the winter, after I had sold a property and put the money from its sale into the business.

“At that point I didn’t feel I could sit across a table from someone and take their money for a holiday while thinking there could possibly be a problem.

“I called a staff meeting on September 21 and we decided it would be immoral to continue trading on that basis.

“At that point I contact ABTA to say we were going to cease trading.

“We did that on the understanding that our clients’ holidays would be protected and their monies secured.”

And Douglas said all his clients will be fully covered by the safeguards his company put in place to protect their bookings.

He said: “We were in business for 22 years to provide a good service to the people of West Lothian.

“We were one of the first companies in the UK to offer Supplier Failure Cover, which covers each part of a holiday to make sure they are protected in the event of something like the collapse of an airline.

“We were also fully bonded with ABTA, ATOL and IATA – everything was about fully protecting our clients.

“So everyone who has booked with us will get back any money that they are due.”