Merel Peetersem unintentionally booked a trip with Sunweb when she went through the booking process on the site to find out how much a trip would cost. She went one mouse click too far. When she clicked on the ‘Book and pay’ button, she was stuck with a trip of 900 euros.
“I have a similar situation,” says Juul Steyaert from Diest. “I thought I would book a trip via Sunweb. But when I saw that you had to pay less if you booked directly with the accommodation, I canceled my trip with Sunweb. According to the information I found on the Sunweb website, cancellation should be free of charge. But when I canceled the trip, I still received an invoice for 960 euros.”
Juul tried to contact Sunweb before canceling. “But when I was on hold for a few hours at a time, I gave up. If I had gotten someone on the phone sooner who had clearly explained to me that I would have to pay for the cancellation, I would never have done that.”
Also read: “I feel robbed”: Merel from Bilzen has to pay 900 euros for a trip she didn’t want
“When I finally got through to an employee, all he could say was that nothing could be done. Because I pressed the cancel button, I had to pay. When I asked to speak to someone from Sunweb’s legal department, that was not possible.”
According to Juul, the site is a big trap. “Aimed to incur costs for customers. The strange thing is that customer service suddenly reduced the costs from 960 euros to 460 euros, without properly explaining why. I have now paid the 460 euros, because Sunweb threatened with extra costs. But I also contacted the Travel Disputes Committee. However, Sunweb does not want to respond to the Disputes Committee’s request for reconciliation.”
Dissolved
When we contacted Sunweb a few weeks ago about Merel’s problem, the online tour operator did not want to hear about compensation. “It is impossible to ‘accidentally’ book a trip on our site,” it said at the time.
We asked whether it would be possible to add a pop-up to the website that warns customers of the consequences if they click on the ‘book and pay’ button. We received no answer to that.
Now that Juul is confronted with approximately the same problem, we ask Sunweb again. And look: Sunweb has already made some adjustments. “We tested a new feature in the booking process in March to optimize it. Of course, this feature is completely legally compliant. We have analyzed the results and from now on, customers who have booked a non-flexible flight will see a pop-up stating that canceling the booking is not possible without costs and that the three-day cooling-off period does not apply. If a customer wants to book a holiday with flexible flights, this pop-up will not appear when they click on the red button with the text ‘Book and pay’ and the three-day reflection period does apply.”
“The readers who have contacted Voor U Solved will be fully compensated,” it concludes.
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