FOR one family their first holiday together should have been an exciting time.
After being delighted by the news that they had won a break away to either Tenerife, Malaga or Portugal, the Solihull couple booked the time off work and arranged the dates around their two children's school time.
But now almost two and a half years after hearing that they had won a holiday, the vacation has still not arrived for Harkamal Ubhi and his family and instead they have been left almost £400 out of pocket.
In late 2002 Harkamal's wife, Jasvinder, was approached on Solihull High Street and asked to enter a free holiday draw. Weeks later they were telephoned, told they had won and were asked to collect an information pack.
After picking up the pack the couple, who have lived in Solihull for eight years, carefully selected their dates and chose four departure times before sending a cheque of £158 for registration fees.
Over the course of the next few months they discovered that they could only take up their third choice, but still excited they paid another £215.80 for air passenger duty and travel insurance.
However problems started to develop when the holiday company told the Ubhis that all their dates were oversubscribed and they would have to choose another four departure dates.
After being messed around so much, 36-year-old Harkamal thought it was only fair to ask for his money back but much to his horror, the company refused saying that they needed to cancel within 14 days of the original offer to get cash back.
"I would warn people to not accept these offers because they promise all sorts of things but nothing comes off it," said the Transco worker.
The Solihull News contacted Promo World Travel, the company dealing with Mr Ubhi's situation and were told the he would receive a refund but difficulties had led to a delay. A chief executive of the company was also due to get in contact with the Solihull News but failed to do so before we went to print.
