Holiday mess up

Cathy80

Hi

I wonder if anyone can give me some advice please? Its quite complicated, so bear with me!

My brother is getting married in Turkey next year, and so me and my pensioner parents have all been trying to book holidays to the resort of his choice which he had found cheapest online through Thomas Cook

However, when my parents went to book online, the resort was not coming up as available, but one with a very similar name, also in Turkey and for more or less the exact same price did, and my mum mistakenly booked for this other resort.

Once the confirmation came through the post, they realised the mistake and my brother tried to ring and get it changed. Thomas Cook said there would be an admin charge to change it, but otherwise they faced loosing their deposit (aroung £300?). However, for some reason, they couldn't do it at the time (something I am now trying to get to the bottom of) - something to do with contracts being sorted out for that resort, which was also why it wasn't coming up on the internet. So we had to keep checking the website for the past few weeks and could only ring up to change it once it was there.

Once it was back on, my brother rang and got it changed for them. He said because of the admin they would just effectively loose the cashback they made from booking through Quidco (about £60) - so this was all ok.

But the confirmation has come through and the holiday is actually nearly £500 more expensive than originally!!! £140 'admin charge', plus because the new/correct holiday was booked on the phone instead of online it was around £150 more expensive per person! And the travel insurance they bought through them had also gone up by £40!!:mad:

Completely unexplainably, my brother says this is right to what he agreed to on the phone - but why he thought that was the equivalent to loosing the cashback is another problem all together.

Unsuprisingly, I am really cross about this - my parents don't have £500 to throw away, and whilst I know it was my mum's mistake booking the wrong one, I feel very annoyed that Thomas Cook have charged so much to change it! I want to ring them up and complain, but I wanted to get a few facts straight first:

In Martin's article it says that you have a right to cancel (with full refund) anything bought online within 7 days - does this apply to holidays?

If so, then this obviously would have been the best option for this situation - cancel the holiday within the 7 days and then book the right one. And even if they didn't suggest this, surely TC should have pointed out that it still would have been cheaper for my mum and dad to cancel, loose their deposit and then rebook at the internet price?

Any advice on where we stand with this one? Or anyone had any similar experiences in the past?

THANKS!

isplumm

Hi,

You could try reposting this up at https://www.holidaytruths.co.uk - they are used to dealing with issues like this ....

I am not sure that there is much you can do now ... as it was your mother who booked the wrong holiday, not TC.

Mark

wannaberichbtch

Thomas Cook is run as 3 serarate businesses, shops, telephone and internet, I've had my own battle with them recently over making payment and posted on the overseas board. From my dealings it would appear that the 3 separate sources are in competition with each other, so it is no suprise that the telephone side wouldn't tell you about the internet. However, the prices are not that different so would have saved you little to book on the internet. Your parents would have been issued with the terms and conditions of their telephone booking, and the cancellation charges will be laid out in that. Booking a holiday is not like most other direct purchases, and you do not have the same distance selling cooling off periods, usually flights are paid for at the time of booking and non refundable, unless you choose a specific ticket type with airlines like British Airways. Prices can vary widely for the same holiday, the cheapest generally being for far in advance or last minute bookings, You will need to check the terms and conditions that your parents have been sent to see where you stand, and then do some research as to whether you can now book this holiday cheaper elsewhere, taking into account cancellation charges.