A family has been left "stranded" in Tunisia after a pre-booked taxi driver showed up an hour late meaning they missed their flight. Forty-one-year-old mum Virginia Hobson said her daughter has missed GCSE resits and her son has missed university lectures. According to LincolnshireLive, the mum-of-four has had to fork out an eye-watering £2,500 on new flights and hotel rooms due to a simple case of bad timekeeping.
Mrs Hobson, who lives near Bourne, Lincolnshire, travelled to Hammamet in Tunisia with her husband and children on a package deal arranged with travel company Love Holidays. After the taxi showed up late, however, the week away for half-term turned into a nine-day ordeal that left her tearful and homesick.
She said: "I haven't eaten, I hate it. I just want to get home. When I get on the plane, then I'll be happy again."
On Friday, October 28, the day before they were set to fly back, Mrs Hobson went down to double-check with the reception desk at the Dar Khayam Hotel when they were getting picked up. She was told 12.30pm, which would have given them plenty of time to make their 3.45pm flight.
The next morning, it was pushed back to 1pm. Mrs Hobson thought that was "leaving it a bit fine" and worry started to set in when the driver was still nowhere to be seen at 1.15pm.
She added: "We went to reception and gave them the emergency number we were given by Love Holidays, but they told us not to worry because the driver was on their way. This happened several times, and in the end, they turned up an hour late - at 2pm.
"The drive was an hour, so by the time we got there, the check-in desk had closed."
Love Holidays' customer service line was closed until Monday, so the recruitment consultant then decided to get in touch with them through their live virtual chatrooms. "They said that because we'd missed the flight, there was nothing they could do about it," Mrs Hobson said.
"They just said 'bye-bye' and hung up the chat, leaving us high and dry in a Tunisian airport. We were following their instructions and there was no way we could have contacted them directly as we didn't have WiFi.
"You book a holiday through a company and you think you're going to be protected. To be dumped at the airport and basically told you're on your own is just awful."
The family of six then went to every kiosk in the airport, and the earliest flight home they could get was in three days' time on Tuesday, November 1. This meant the new flights cost more than £1,500, and a last-minute room in another hotel near the airport, which set them back a further £700.
She said: "But that £2,500 is just the beginning. We've left our car at the airport and Love Holidays were the only one who could amend the parking times, but because our booking was 'over,' they said they couldn't do anything.
"So we have no idea if when we get back, our car will have been clamped. We have dogs in kennels that will now be staying there for longer, meaning more in fees."
She added: "What makes you feel a bit sick is that the entire week's holiday only cost around £2,000 and for another couple of days, we've more than doubled that. We could have taken the kids to America for this.
"And it's money we don't have - we've had to dip into savings, which we really didn't want to do." A spokesperson for Love Holidays said they were "sorry" to hear what Mrs Hobson had been through and would be reimbursing her for "any additional expenses".
She said in full: "We are very sorry to hear of Ms Hobson's experience. We are in touch with her and will be reimbursing her for any additional expenses she has incurred."
The financial element to the ordeal has been horrendous but there will also be significant knock-on effects on the lives of her children. Her daughter, Aaliyah Brand, 17, was meant to be resitting two of her GCSE exams on Monday, but now she's missed this chance, it will all come down to the final opportunity for resits in May.
Similarly, her son, Rhys Brand, 18, has missed three of his finance and accountancy lectures at university and "doesn't know what he's going to go back to".
