A YORK woman claims her Global Vacations holiday in France turned into an utter fiasco.

She says she turned up with her husband at the apartment in southern France only to be told: "Sorry, no booking has been made."

The woman, who wishes only to be identified as Mrs C, said she had paid £4,845 to join the holiday firm's Global Discovery Club after attending a presentation at its offices off Walmgate, York, in May.

"We were going on a caravan holiday to the Dordogne and decided to book an apartment for a week in the south of France through Global," she said.

She received a faxed letter from Global employee Lee Warde on June 7, confirming that the booking had been made for the Villa Sevigne at Greoux les Bains, 50 miles from Marseilles, and ending: "I hope you have a pleasant holiday."

She said they left their caravan in the Dordogne and drove 500 miles across France to the apartment. "We got there at 6pm on a Saturday night and said who we were. But they said that while they had received an inquiry about availability from Global, nothing had ever been confirmed.

"We said: "What do we do now?" They said we could stay for tonight and tomorrow night until we could get hold of Global on the Monday morning.

"On Monday, we called Global and a young girl said she had no authority to say what we should do, and there was no one we could talk to." She said she was allowed to stay for a reduced fee of £60 for the two nights, and they then drove 500 miles back to the Dordogne.

On complaining to Global again after returning to England, she said the firm insisted the booking had been made. She claimed a member of staff was also abusive to her husband.

She said she and her husband had subsequently decided to take direct action over the firm by mounting a type of picket outside the firm's offices in Barleycorn Yard, off Walmgate, last Thursday night. She said they wanted to warn other people turning up to presentations about what had happened in her case, and also showed them a previous Evening Press article about a couple who had paid Global £3,200 in February but who were still waiting for their membership pack.

The woman's complaints were put by the Evening Press by fax to Global's offices in Manchester at 10am yesterday, but we had still not received any response from the firm by 10am today.