Opodo taking prime subscription in scammy way

donglefan · 26 April at 10:22PM

My friend who is not the most switched-on person regarding internet use, booked a flight through opodo last month. He told me he got an email from Opodo saying they had taken his prime subscription payment. He does not even have an Opodo account as far as he was aware. He had no idea what it was about so I phoned them for him and they said he had ticked something when he bought his ticket that signed him up to a subscription. I asked when the payment had been taken and was told, that very day. I asked for a full refund of his payment which they said was £59. They refused and offered £25 plus a voucher for £90 on a future booking. At this point my friend never wants to use them again, so declined and said he wanted to cancel the prime and take the appeal via his bank. So (with permission) I logged into his bank account and filed a visa claim for what had been taken.
Given how he seems to have been trapped into this scammy situation, whereby they refuse a refund even though cancellation was requested the day they took the payment, I wondered if others have fallen into this trap and what is the best way to tackle it?

DullGreyGuy · 26 April at 10:32PM

Best way to tackle it is to read what you click before you click it. The reality is that people dont, our "important information and key declarations" is 2 pages of text and people spend an average of 6 seconds on it including load time. But they click to agree to everything on the page, clearly other companies have vastly more information that people dont even click to be able to read it.

These things are often not complex, they offer a rebate or such if you agree to sign up to XXX with a link to read the terms. 99% click to sign up and never read what they are agreeing to.

Opodo from memory is a Spanish company so if you want to fight them you need to learn about Spanish consumer law on distance service contracts and review their process to ensure if they follow it or not.

Caz3121 · 27 April at 6:25AM

It appears your friend selected a discounted "Prime Fare" that came with 30 days free trial of Prime membership and failed to cancel within the 30 days. Opodo also offer more expensive "non-discounted fares" that come without Prime.
I suspect the bank claim will fail as Opodo will be able to show your friend selected the Prime fare, accepted the terms and conditions of that fare and did not cancel the membership.
Other third party booking sites also use the same model so need to be aware and read what they are agreeing to.

Westin · 27 April at 7:07AM

I agree with the two previous posts.

Your friend selected the discounted Prime Fare, which would have been cheaper but also joined him up with their Prime membership. He either had that on a trial period (and would have been told to cancel after the free trial period) or bought into an annual policy which has now renewed. There would have been disclosure on the Prime fare, Prime discounts and the fee.

You could always do a dummy search/booking on the Opodo site to see how it works and the warnings missed.

I suspect a bank reclaim will fail. Opodo will likely show the bank the terms of the Prime scheme and your friend booking a discounted Prime fare with them.

Get your friend to follow the instructions on Opodo’s site to cancel his membership for the up coming year so he is not charged again in 12 months.

Pollycat · 27 April at 7:39AM

I agree with the above 3 comments.

I've just looked at the opodo website and done a dummy booking.
It clearly shows a Prime price and clearly says

Prime price

30-day free trial

£296

£234

Prime fare per passenger

And whilst your selected flights are loading, you get this message:

Save on 100% of flights, accommodation and car rentals

Add Prime to your booking to get our lowest prices. No surprises. Try FREE for 30 days.

Unfortunately for your friend, the information was there to read.

I too doubt that the claim with their bank will succeed (and I don't think it should).

donglefan said:
Given how he seems to have been trapped into this scammy situation, whereby they refuse a refund even though cancellation was requested the day they took the payment, I wondered if others have fallen into this trap and what is the best way to tackle it?

Your friend left it too late to cancel within the free trial period.
You said yourself that he booked the flights last month.
The free trial period lasts for 30 days and opodo would not have refused to refund if the request to cancel was made within that timescale.

I don't agree that it is a 'scammy situation.

There have been many threads on different boards about issues with 'free trials' and 'membership prices' for all sorts of products/services.
Best way ti help your fried is to explain all this and the need to be extra careful when they see the words 'free trial' and 'membership price'.

Big_Onion · 11 July at 12:54PM

Hi,

I think it's a scam. I am victim of this myself. Let me explain my situation

I booked a flight for mother-in-law in June 2022 via opodo. I also did not notice any prime membership etc.

After that i never looked back to opodo or did not book any flight or services via them.

Today i got a renewal email from opodo stating that my membership has been renewed for 1 more year. I started checking on this and called Opodo service desk and to my surprise, i am being charged from last 3 year £69.99/yr in my credit card for annual prime membership which i was not aware of and never used any services from Opodo.

I checked my email from last 3 years and i don't even see the renewal email for membership. Means they were charging me from last 3 years without even sending me a renewal email.

Also funny part is that they activated the prime membership on my mother-in-law's name!

I believe this is designed for a scam. charging people for something which they even don't know falls in scam category.

I am going to raise the credit card dispute with my bank but wanted to check if any points to add in the claim.

Westin · 11 July at 7:05PM

Before you raise the credit card dispute and possibly waste your banks time, check the terms and conditions of the Opodo Prime membership.

I suspect you selected the discounted Opodo Prime fare and signed up for their 14-day free membership trial. You did not cancel this within the 14-days and have renewed your membership by default for the past three years.

Try and replicate a new booking - follow the path and importantly read as you go along.

basill · 11 July at 7:20PM

Had not seen this offer before, a quick check shows a flight I have already booked on the Easyjet website at £38. Opodo price £66 discounted to £33 with a prime fare. It's probably worth paying the £5 to book direct.

Becred1 · 18 July at 12:13PM

Opodo definitely have not set this up to make it easy to cancel during the trial period - I was in a loop trying multiple times to cancel a membership that did not seem to exist on their website. I had a couple of texts inviting me to call several numbers - including my bank's (though the text came from Opodo) which I know is a scam thing to do. I raised a case with my bank and the money seems to have been refunded. Now I'm receiving emails from an "xpendy" offering to get my money back. Totally dodgy and I won't book with Opodo again.

Pollycat · 18 July at 12:38PM

Just curious...
do people use a 3rd party agent to book flights instead of direct with the airline?

Opodo taking prime subscription in scammy way

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