SALLY SORTS IT: My wife’s Dolly Parton tribute act costs £1,380 out of pocket after BA stopped them from boarding

My wife, Kelly O’Brien, leads a tribute to Dolly Parton. On August 4, she and her band were due to fly from Heathrow to Dublin to perform at the All Together Now Festival near Waterford.

The barcodes on the boarding passes of two band members worked, but those of the other four members did not. BA reprinted the passes five times, but the barcodes still didn’t work.

As a result, BA did not allow these four to board the flight and was unable to find seats on other flights that would arrive on time. So the stranded members booked an Aer Lingus flight to Cork – and from there an expensive taxi to Waterford.

BA refuses to even reimburse the costs, even though the band had to wait six hours for the flight to Cork and were offered nothing in the way of food and drink. They arrived on time and the performance was a success, but we would appreciate it if you helped BA understand the value of it.

BV, Hertfordshire.

Sally Hamilton replies: “It’s enough to drive you crazy if you let it,” as Dolly Parton’s hit Nine-To-Five laments.

Your wife seems as feisty as the real Dolly Parton. The replacement tickets and other costs amounted to £1,380 and she had no intention of letting BA ignore her claim.

She tried customer service and was told that her team had been denied boarding due to their lack of documentation and that nothing more could be done. She told the airline this was not true as they had all their travel documents with them and the boarding passes had been printed numerous times – the barcodes simply did not work when presented.

She was later told the flight was overbooked, but she didn’t believe it because she took a photo of four empty seats on the flight.

Kelly escalated her complaint to BA’s executive level, but matters were still not resolved.

Over a month later I joined the fray. Customer service then offered her a £300 voucher as compensation for a late departure. She rejected this.

Days after my intervention, BA finally agreed to pay £1,380 for replacement flights and taxi fares from Cork to Waterford.

It also added £880 statutory compensation – £220 for each band member refused entry. According to regulation UK261 (formerly EU261), this must be paid if someone is bumped off a flight through no fault of their own and a subsequent flight takes them to their destination with a delay of more than three hours. Longer flights provide more compensation.

At the end of July I received my new TV license, in my husband’s name. He died last December and when I changed the account from his name to mine I didn’t think about the TV license, especially as payments were still being made from our joint bank account, which changed to my single name in January.

When I notified TV Licensing at renewal, I was told the license would be revoked and a new one issued with a new payment mandate. My reading of the confusing new arrangement is that payments must already be made for six months. I inquired about this but was told that I could not claim a refund for the six months after my husband died as I had not informed them. Please help.

CF, Ormskirk, Lancashire.

Sally Hamilton replies: When you described your new payment arrangement to me, I was so surprised that I needed the same analytical skills as BBC TV’s newest sleuth, Ludwig.

You’ve been told that from October 1 this year you’ll have to pay £42.39 for the first month, £42.37 for each of the next three months, and £14.18 per month for six months from February 2025. From August 25, it would work out at £14.12 per month.

I contacted TV Licensing, part of the BBC, for a clear English explanation of the calculations so that you and I could be assured that the amounts requested were correct.

TV Licensing explained that unlike most utility bills, which are typically paid in arrears, the license fee is a fixed amount charged annually in advance. If a viewer chooses to pay upfront, the cost is £169.50 for a color license, which allows them to watch live TV programs for a year, access services such as ITVX or use iPlayer.

But those who take out a license for the first time and want to pay by monthly direct debit will see their payments start higher and then drop later. This happens because the rules state that the cost of the first license must be paid within six months or less. After six months, licensees will have paid for a full year’s license and will begin paying for next year’s license in 12 monthly installments of £14.12.

It seemed like they were asking you to make up for a fee that you thought had already been paid. However, it turns out that your late husband, who died aged 83, had a free permit for over 75s until 2020, when it was withdrawn for anyone who didn’t have pension credits.

He had a special payment plan for those who previously had a free license, allowing him to pay monthly instead of upfront, and the plan died with him – or when that year’s license expired in July.

Your schedule was set to pay for the new license all over again in four months, which is why the initial amounts were so high.

You were not asked to pay extra for the six months since your husband’s death, you were asked to pay as a first time permit holder who wanted to pay monthly.

TV Licensing admits customer service made a mistake by saying you can’t get a refund if you didn’t inform them of your husband’s death – that was irrelevant.

If a licensee dies and the license needs to be transferred, please call the bereavement line on 0300 131 1261. For more information, visit tvlicenses.co.uk. Your confusion is understandable, it is arguably more complex than necessary.

But as with cases investigated by TV’s Ludwig, there is usually an answer to the puzzle in the end.

Straight to the point

Wizz Air overbooked my flight to London in August and I had to fly to Liverpool the next day – a lot of extra time and money was spent. The airline promised me compensation of 400 euros, but I received nothing.

MH, via email.

Wizz Air apologizes and says the claim has been processed. Due to a technical error there has been a delay in receiving a refund.

More than two years ago, Thames Water came to install a water meter. A few months ago I thought my charges were still too high, so-called Thames Water told me that I was not on one meter. I want compensation for the overpayments.

ME, London.

Thames Water apologises. While there was a meter in your home, it was not activated. An engineer has now activated it and you have received £387.31 as a goodwill gesture.

I went to Rotterdam last November, but left a jewelry box in our ferry cabin. DPD collected the suitcase from the ferry company, but it has now disappeared. We thought our package was insured for £15,000 but later found out they don’t insure jewelery – but no one told us that.

JN, via email.

DPD says it believes the package was delivered incorrectly, but a ‘potentially relevant recipient’ denies being in possession of the package. It apologizes, but there is no reason for compensation as the content is on the banned list.

In April I had a stroke, but I remembered that I had taken out a critical illness policy almost 25 years ago and was still paying the premiums, so I filed a claim. But six months later I still don’t have the money. My husband and I support two children on one income. The policy payout is £65,000.

ZC, Bedfordshire.

The insurance company apologizes and has now paid out in full

• Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY or email sally@dailymail.co.uk – include telephone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organization giving permission get to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send any original documents as we cannot take responsibility for this. The Ny Breaking cannot accept any legal liability for any answers given.