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Let down by Tapestry Holidays (now in liquidation)

Let down by Tapestry Holidays (now in liquidation)

Old Aug 11th, 2006, 02:23 PM
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Let down by Tapestry Holidays (now in liquidation)

Has anyone got a holiday booked with Tapestry Holidays and if so what are they doing about it.

Wednesday, 9th August we decided to book a holiday in Turkey for next year. We rang Tapestry Holidays who were doing really good deals if you paid up front but would only accept my debit card (previously they would also take a credit card or cheque). Anyway I decided to do it on a six month interest free credit so only left a deposit of £200.

The next day (Thursday, 10th August) I got a phone call from the credit company saying they couldn't arrange this as Tapestry had gone into liquidation that day. Obviously Tapestry knew what was about to happen but still took my money.

They have no explanation on their website other than

"It is with real regret that we have to advise you that Tapestry Holidays Ltd, has ceased trading as of 10 August.

Unfortunately, anyone due to travel will not be able to as all Tapestry Holidays flights departing from the UK have been cancelled.

You should, however, be able to receive a full refund of the money you paid to Tapestry Holidays through the CAA.

More detailed advice can be found on www.atol.org.uk"

We have travelled with Tapestry for many years and cannot believe how they treated us. We now feel very let down.
larrainebp is offline  
Old Aug 11th, 2006, 06:00 PM
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Hey - that's life. Stuff happens. At least they didn;t leave you stranded in Turkey in the middle of a trip.

It sounds like they're trying to do something - otherwise there would be no message on the web site.

I think you need to put this into perspective in terms of everyting else that's going on.
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Old Aug 12th, 2006, 09:37 AM
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larrainebp - I'm no lawyer but from what you have said I think Tapestry Holidays committed a criminal offence by taking your money knowing full well they were about to go belly-up.
Maybe you could find out.
Their Accountants have to submit all the facts and reasons they have "expired"?
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Old Aug 17th, 2006, 06:15 AM
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What a lot of nonsense. You had to use your debit card cos you took Interest Free Credit, that is a rule laid down by the Credit company not by Tapestry, you could have paid by cheque or credit card if you paid in full. With regards the collapse of the company on the day you booked your holiday a takeover deal was in place but it collapsed on the 10th August. The reason Tapestry has a bond with ATOL is so in a situation like that you are protected so please don't make out like Tapestry is the most evil company in the world, you have had a very minor inconvience and there was nothing dishonest or underhand in the way it was dealt with.
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Old Aug 17th, 2006, 11:36 AM
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Also, it's not likely that a customer service rep would know anything about financial happenings in the company. Very often, the workers find out when the announcement is ready to go public.
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Old Aug 17th, 2006, 11:55 PM
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I was very sorry to see Tapestry fail. We've had 3 holidays with them in the past and their standards were very high. Over the past couple of years they have seemed to try to diversify too much and I also heard that the bird flu scare hit their Turkish bookings quite badly.

You should be able to get your money back as they were fully bonded. The company "Exclusive Escapes" (an early break away from Tapestry) has taken on a lot of their Turkish properties and you may be able to rebook through them.

http://www.hiddenturkey.com/tapestry
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Old Aug 18th, 2006, 12:30 AM
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Regarding Tapestry to Kefalonia if anybody wants to rebook their holiday they can get flights through www.avro.com and accommodation is now being featured in the www.kefalonia-travel-guide.com with information about how to rebook the villas and hotels either direct with the owner or through their agent Kokolis Travel in Lassi - more info if you contact [email protected]
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Old Aug 18th, 2006, 12:45 AM
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I hope it all works out for you.

Never listen to people who start out their posts with "I'm not a laywer..." believe me, in this case, they aren't!
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Old Aug 18th, 2006, 02:41 AM
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No Dukey, Tod has a point. If indeed Tapestry took OP's money knowing they were about to go into liquidation then they may have committed a breach under Corporations law. If indeed they were subject to a takeover up until the day before then I'm sure they will have their opportunity to prove this in court. Where does this leave OP money wise? Probably nowhere. But you need to contact the liquidator to list as an unsecured creditor. You need to advise them and the relevant government investigators of the possible Corporations breach. Please note I'm no lawyer...
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Old Aug 18th, 2006, 03:38 AM
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A few years ago I booked a holiday with a company who went bust. I got my money back through ATOL but it took several months. Phone ATOL & ask them to send you a claim form.
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Old Aug 18th, 2006, 10:28 PM
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Worldinabag, you have absolutly no understanding of the bonding scheme. They are absolutley 100% guaranteed to get their money back, they do not have to list themselves as an unsecured creditor as they are completely covered by the ATOL scheme. All they have to do is follow the instructions on the ATOL website.
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Old Aug 18th, 2006, 11:35 PM
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Larrainebp and other Tapestry customers who had booked for Turkey, if you look at this link, you may be able to re-book the same holiday you wanted once you have your money back from ATOL -

http://www.hiddenturkey.co.uk/tapestry

I understand that this company was formed by the original founders of Tapestry when they left a few years ago.
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Old Aug 20th, 2006, 12:43 AM
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When Tapestry created a new company from their splitted partners it was kind of obvious something was cooking.... New company took the best venues, hotels and created new brochures. Built on Tapestry's fame and good contacts originally they had. Very clever. This was the signal of ending Tapestry era. Being one of the strongest tour operator to Kalkan in Turkey, they contract their hotels with guaranteed sales for 6 months and not allowing hotels to work with anyone else. Hotels being in the system did not need to promote themselves and got business provided. No sales, no marketing, some even had no brochures. After working with such company for so long you are only known in their catalog but nowhere else. Now the properties getting older but almost no real database, they needed to obey the rules given by either Tapestry or the Exclusive Escapes
Sorry guys business is slow so we will pay you less.... yes master we accept, what else they could do. Anyway almost every toursit came with tapestry have their own house there now and who would need more hotels ? Tourist properties are also open for the market. So play as you like.
However having said that its a nice gesture Exclusive is offering some help but with their prices....
As for people who booked a day earlier, its a pitty that they have not been informed that all their packages are full for example, to avoid disappoinments. Atoll would refund the money but what about to find a new package on the right moment! Its really a pitty
Hope you can find something suitable and enjoy Turkey.
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Old Aug 20th, 2006, 08:11 AM
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propertravel

So basically what you're saying is that Tapestry operated almost as a franchise operation: it handled marketing on behalf of its hotel 'members' and guaranteed sales in return for an exclusive and a fixed price contract.

If the affected hotels had worked with each other and formed a cooperative instead of dealing with Tapestry, they might have done better or maybe not. There are, obviously, disadvantages to working for a 'master' but there are also disadvantages to being one's own master. For one thing, one has only oneself to blame for failures. In the case here, there would still be the dilemma that when a hotel (or hotel cooperative) markets itself, it intrinsically also markets the area in which it is located, which can be of as much benefit to its competitors in the hotel business as to itself. In other words, once passengers saw Turkey, they could well return to either buy property, as you pointed out - OR to use hotels - different hotels, ones they saw whilst staying at one of the hotels that had paid for the initial marketing campaign.

Brochures are an expensive way to market tourism these days. Brochures are also generally handled by traditional land-based travel agencies which, as one soon comes to appreciate after spending time on this board, are being deserted by their former customers in droves.

The moral of this story is: tourism, especially package holiday tourism that depends on volume to cover the overhead, is a volatile business, and both buyer and vendor need to beware.
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