Hopefully this is not too late to help some people who have booked their holiday through the now defunct Xcapewithus and are struggling to get their money back.

Xcape seems not to have bothered informing half of their clientele who unfortunately arrived at various foreign destinations unaware that  paid holiday bookings made through Xcape had been cancelled. Those who found themselves on foreign soil were forced to pay the full rate for their hotels again.  To make matters worse, Xcape continued to collect money via their website until the last second.

Given the activity on the Xcapewithus threads on Tenerife Tattle a lot of people were affected and visitors are still landing on the blog using search terms related to the whole Xcape debacle.

If the Xcape situation has affected you then this long and informative thread on Money Saving Expert on Xcapewithus should be of interest. It includes links to authoritative articles from newsapers and seems to have led to quite a few people recovering money they had thought was gone for good whether they paid for their holiday with credit or debit card.

Costa Del Silencio is only 10 minutes from Reina Sofia airport in Tenerife South, sitting together with Las Galletas on the coastal corner of on the island before it tips up towards Los Cristianos and Las Americas and on to Los Gigantes on the southwest.

The whole small town has been receiving a bit of a face lift recently with footpaths widened and upgraded and a new one way road system. The new pavements are roomy and pleasant – a vast improvement on the narrow and bumpy kerbside trails that made walking from the Hermusa supermarket down to Las Galletas an ankle-breaking adventure rather than a gentle promenade.

Work has been completed in the stretch of Avenida Jose Antonio Tavio much to the relief of shop and bar-owners in the Chapparal and Tre Bol complexes and also from Ten Bel up Calle Diana as far as Maravilla and Desimar while it has just begun in the area of De La Te just past Club Marino and on past Alondras Park to Coral Mar.

Over the next few months I’d be recommending holiday makers look towards the self catering and hotel complexes of Palia Don Jose and Palia Don Pedro as well as Eureka and Maravilla as these properties are in locations where work is completed or not likely to start for the forseeable future.

Alborada is no longer a tourist option as it has turned 100% residential and discourages holiday letting.

There have been quite a few comments and questions from people who have booked their holidays through Xcapewithus. Xcape themselves have made the following announcement:

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Please contact your accommodation provider directly to check that your booking will still be honoured by sending an email to customersupport@xcapewithus.com

PAYMENT BY CREDIT CARD or VISA DEBIT:
If the provider confirms that the booking will not be honoured, and your booking was made with a Mastercard or Visa credit card or a Visa Debit card, you will need to contact your card issuer for a refund. Please note that your card issuer will require proof that the booking will not be honoured.

PAYMENT BY DEBIT CARD or BANK TRANSFER:
If you have paid by Maestro, Switch, Solo or bank transfer we suggest that you check your travel insurance policy to see if you can make a claim.

If you are unable to reclaim your money through your travel insurance then please send an email to claims@xcapewithus.com (with the subject line: ‘Xcape With Us Claim’), please include your reference number. There is little likelihood of there being sufficient funds to enable these claims to be met.

In addition to the above, the comment copied below was posted by Jenny in the Xcape Goes Bust thread:

A word of advice – Xcape used various agencies (in Mallorca at any rate) to make their hotel bookings (such as Serhs and Hotelbeds) and they cancel direct with the hotel. Therefore the hotel cancel the booking, so please use the channels on the Xcape website, as otherwise you may turn up at your hotel to find there is no room. The hotels DO NOT get paid in advance (only after the holiday, sometimes as much as 3 months after) by the agents, and therefore they have no obligation to honour your booking. Sorry to disappoint but I work in reservations in a hotel, and know that we have had direct cancellations from agencies for bookings made originally with Xcape, and we have no way of informing a client as we don’t have their details.  CHECK FIRST is all the advice I can offer

Read the rest of the comments in the thread – Xcape Goes Bust

There are  only two things that you really, really need to bring with you in order to enjoy an unforgettable holiday in Tenerife.

Forget the Factor 25 and you may very well end up with a sunburn that you’ll never forget but leave behind your common sense and you may get burned in another way entirely.

I’ve posted before about Tenerife Timeshare Touts and there are articles on eTenerife both about Cockroaches (no, they don’t bite!) and Tenerife Con Men but an email I received the other day from Sinead Cleary prompted me to bring the subject of Tenerife Rip Off Merchants and Other Insects up again.

Sinead had a fabulous holiday. She thinks Tenerife is a ’smashing’ place and was particularly  pleased to find so many things to do here over and above the typical sun/sand/beach holiday. She should have left Tenerife ready to go home and tell all her mates what a brilliant time she had. Instead, while she made sure to include her positive experiences of the island in her email, the overall impression she’ll be talking about back home is getting ripped off by the camera cowboys.

I asked Sinead’s permission to reprint her email both here and on eTenerife and I couldn’t agree more with her answer. She told me to go right ahead because “…the sooner these feckers stop getting away with making a fool out of us tourists the better!”

Just back from holiday in Tenerife and first off have to say what a smashing place it is…..  Not just a sun/beach holiday like many think, but lots of activities and fun things to do also!  However, to get to the point, I think people should really be made very aware of the con-men in the electronic shops, not all, but fair to say, the majority!

Every second shop is an electrical shop and they all sell mainly the same things with really really cheap prices ie. less than 100 euro for really good cameras and camcorders that are on display.  THESE PRICES MEAN NOTHING!!!!

They will get you into the shop, give you a seat, a drink, fill you with bull-sh*t and crap and try sell you another really expensive and “better” camera.  They will blatently straight out tell you the one that you want is crap and talk you into giving them way more money for something you don’t want.  When calling their bluff once you know their scam and insist on having the original camera at the price quoted, you will hear lines like, “the boss is out”, “call back tomorrow or monday and I’ll have it”, “we’re out of stock at the moment”, “Will have to get it from another shop, but for 50 euro extra!!”, and last but not least, “are you SURE you don’t want this way more expensive one???!!!”

If you’re sucker enough to fall for it, which in fairness they’re so good many would, you’re probably better off buying at home, as you end up paying not only the tax which is supposed to be tax free but you end up paying maybe double what you would at home!  TELL THEM WHERE TO GO!

One guy that was honest, owns a shop called Boots and is called Ricky.  Next beach to Fanabe.  He Rocks!

I should say I have no idea who Ricky from BOOTS is, I’ve never met him or done business with that shop, but after her bad experiences if Ricky’s honesty impressed Sinead enough for her to give him a special mention then I reckon he deserves to be included here as proof that there are good and trustworthy camera shops in Tenerife.

Moving anywhere is stressful enough even if it is just from one town to another. Taking your savings in hand and moving to a new country is not only stressful, it is often seen as being a sure symptom of madness.

“I always knew there was something funny about her!’, your cousin might whisper while plotting what to bring with her when she pops over for a visit next summer. It’s all the more important then that you make damn sure that she finds no reason to justify her doubts about your sanity when she parks herself like a sweaty and unwanted lobster in your favourite balcony chair.

But what are you supposed to do when the gas bottle runs out or the landlord has decided to sell the apartment? Who can you turn to when you can’t work out how to sign on with the social services?

Well, if you had a friendly big brother who had lived here for years and knew all the ins and outs of expat life on the island you could possibly bribe him to share some of his knowledge with you over some a home-cooked paella. Failing that, you could buy Leslie Beeson’s Tenerife Lifeline book which is stuffed full of practical information about living in Tenerife and advice to help you deal with the unexpected.

Not quite as much fun as a big brother maybe but at a measly €9.95 it is worth every penny and will quite possible get you out of a scrape or two just the same.

The OFT is taking part in a Europe-wide day of action to warn holidaymakers about Spanish bogus holiday clubs that cost tourists millions of pounds every year.

The OFT Scambusters Team are handing out information and fake holiday club scratchcards at airports including Belfast International, Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Gatwick, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle and Stansted in an effort to warn holiday makers about bogus Spanish holiday clubs.

Cunningly designed to look just like those handed out by the timeshare touts that leap on the unsuspecting on the fringes of the Sunday Market the OFT scratchcards carry the teasing question, ‘Have you won a luxury holiday?’

The European Consumer Centre in Spain are supporting this initiative with representatives at the arrivals area of Tenerife South Airport and advertisements have been placed in the baggage hall of the airport as well as in the Thomas Cook and FlyBe in- flight magazines, which will be seen by thousands of holidaymakers.

The timing of this scheme is spot on as November is apparently peak hunting season for the holiday club predators. One can just imagine them rubbing their hands together as the incoming flights fly overhead and they think, ‘Hey up, another load of lambs to the slaughter!’

In these days of international press and internet access to consumer websites it is surprising that so many people still fall for these hoary old schemes. But fall they do and the average amount of money they lose per victim is over three thousands pounds. €3,500! Worse, once they’ve got in that deep, they are likely added to a suckers list and they’re contact details sold on to other scam artists.

The OFT Scambusters Team would like every holidaymaker to consider:

Holidaymakers who are approached by a scratchcard tout or who attend a presentation should consider:

• Do you have the time to sit through a lengthy sales pitch?
• Will the promises made by the salesman be in the contract and can you rely on them?
• Can you take away the contract to consider at your leisure or cancel later?
• Do you know exactly what you are getting for your money?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’, then the OFT advises to simply walk away.

To that list of mild posers I’d like to add one.

• Can you afford to lose over GBP3,000 of your hard earned cash should your new friend turn out to be a scratchcard vampire instead of the chirpy lad from Essex that he makes out to be?

See a previous post on Timeshare in Tenerife and Tenerife Timeshare – Know Before You Go – an article which outlines your rights, protections and places to seek assistance should you fall prey to these unscrupulous conmen.