Thomascook sneaky charge/scam

serapis · 27 February 2011 at 2:49PM

Can anyone shed some light on this please? I feel as though Thomascook have scammed me.

I have received a letter from Thomas Cook in regards to my holiday booked for the 6th June this year. On the letter it says there are two ways to pay your balance. Either via their website or telephone. I had looked at the website and found there to be a £11 charge for paying them. For obvious reasons I was not happy to pay this charge so while in town I decided to see if I could pay the outstanding balance in store. The lady I spoke with polity advised me they will only take cash to pay off my holiday. As the balance is £451 I was unable to simply go take the cash out of a cash machine (£250 daily limit) and so I was left with the last option of telephoning their "fully automated service" by way of an 0871 number charging 10p/Min. The voice on the phone took me slowly through the options and it took me a while to get to a point where I could make a payment. I opted for paying the full balance and gave my credit card details. At the end of each part of the process I was asked if each piece of information was correct. Stating yes the process proceeded. Finally I was asked how much I wished to pay. I gave the amount of £451. The response then informed me I would pay an additional %2.5 surcharge for paying by a credit card but failed to ask me if I was happy to pay the additional fee or to give me any method to stop the process. I was informed I would be paying £462.25 and the payment had been authorised.

As you can imagine, I'm not happy, I feel as though Thomas Cook have scammed me. Not only am I now down the fee to call them but I have to pay even more and an amount they did not disclose until it was too late to back out.

Can they do this or are they breaking some code of conduct or even UK law? I explicitly stated I wanted to pay £451 and they took more then I was willing to pay.

dmg24 · 27 February 2011 at 3:15PM

You already knew about the CC charge because it told you on your paperwork. I fail to see the scam!

Incapuppy · 27 February 2011 at 4:02PM

I think that for quite a lot of TOs and TAs a similar percentage is levied for payment by credit card as standard.

What does sound strange to me is that you were told you could only pay by cash in store, are you sure you understood correctly? I apologise if this is standard practice but I have not booked via a High Street TA for a very long time!

dmg24 · 27 February 2011 at 4:06PM

Incapuppy wrote: »

I think that for quite a lot of TOs and TAs a similar percentage is levied for payment by credit card as standard.

What does sound strange to me is that you were told you could only pay by cash in store, are you sure you understood correctly? I apologise if this is standard practice but I have not booked via a High Street TA for a very long time!

I am guessing that they could only pay by cash if they wanted to avoid the CC charge. The parents still book via a TA ... I know, I have disowned them.

serapis · 27 February 2011 at 4:19PM

dmg24 wrote: »

You already knew about the CC charge because it told you on your paperwork. I fail to see the scam!

Did it? Where exactly as I can find no mention of this charge in any of the paperwork. The first time I heard about it was when I was charged.

serapis · 27 February 2011 at 4:20PM

dmg24 wrote: »

I am guessing that they could only pay by cash if they wanted to avoid the CC charge. The parents still book via a TA ... I know, I have disowned them.

No, they would ONLY take cash, there was no option to pay by either debit or credit card.

Incapuppy · 27 February 2011 at 4:27PM

serapis wrote: »

No, they would ONLY take cash, there was no option to pay by either debit or credit card.

So was this perhaps because you had booked either online or via telephone?

Could you not have paid some cash one day and the balance the next?

DCFC79 · 27 February 2011 at 4:36PM

Incapuppy wrote: »

So was this perhaps because you had booked either online or via telephone?

Could you not have paid some cash one day and the balance the next?

could you not have paid by cash, say £100 or so a week until you went away

sorry cant answer the question re "Can they do this or are they breaking some code of conduct or even UK law? I explicitly stated I wanted to pay £451 and they took more then I was willing to pay."

i know your not the OP incapuppy but for some reason i quoted you

ashleypride · 27 February 2011 at 4:41PM

serapis wrote: »

I had looked at the website and found there to be a £11 charge for paying them.

If the website charges a credit card fee why would the automated telephone system not do the same?

photome · 27 February 2011 at 4:51PM

ashleypride wrote: »

If the website charges a credit card fee why would the automated telephone system not do the same?

Makes sense to me.

Is there any travel agents who dont levy a CC fee?

OP you could have gone to a bank and withdrawn the £451 over the counter, (not if it was a sunday of course).

Surprised the TA wouldnt take a card though unless of course it was because you booked over internet or phone and they didnt really want to/arent obliged to take your payment at all

Incapuppy · 27 February 2011 at 4:58PM

photome wrote: »

Surprised the TA wouldnt take a card though unless of course it was because you booked over internet or phone and they didnt really want to/arent obliged to take your payment at all

Yes, this is all I can think of; I'm pretty sure there have been other reports on this board about people who have booked online and a High Street branch refused to take payment at all (I could be wrong though!)

OP, for goodness sake don't buy any foreign currency with a credit card or even a debit card unless you have checked the T&Cs.

Thomascook sneaky charge/scam

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