Paid hol invoice now co advise they have undercharged - where do i stand?

Wealthy_woman

I booked a 2 week holiday in a lodge in Scotland in February. I paid my deposit and received the invoice. The invoice shows the arrival and departure dates in two places. Yesterday I paid the balance but was later called back by the manager telling me that they had made an error and charged me for one week instead of two and they want to re invoice me for the full amount. This is the first I knew about it but the manager said I should have checked the invoice against their website. Apart from the shock of potentialy having to pay double what we were expecting to (money which we dont have anyway) I dont think they can insist that we pay. I paid the invoiced amount after all. I understand that they will have made a loss on our booking but i dont think it is fair that they want us to pay the rest. If Id bought food in a supermarket I wouldnt expect to be told that Id been undercharged and would now have to pay more for it (especially if I'd already paid for it). does anyone know where I stand on this? They are going to call me back on Monday afternoon when she has had a chance to talk to the person who did my booking.

[Deleted User]

Hi there
i think the first question is, did you really not know you had been undercharged? As this would have a bearing on where you stand?
Regards

[Deleted User]

I see it at this on the basis that you have said that they will lose money, could you not come to a compromise with them and meet in the middle?
No-one wants anyone to lose money and they do have a business to run, perhaps if you suggest it first they might split it down the middle, yes neither party really happy but at least you get your holiday and they stand to make a small profit. I expect otherwise they can cancel your holiday and just refund what you have already paid.

Yes I understand the supermarket thing but that tends to be on a few pence out of millions, whereas I suppose this is an independent and comes to hundreds?

McKneff

Sureley, when you were pricing up holidays for two weeks and found one for two weeks at a certain price, and gone ahead and booked it at that price, you must have noticed it was way short of the invoice amount.

Give over, accept that they have made a mistake and just pay up for what you actually originally chose (before the invoice)

And probably somewhere on the invoice it will say in small letters
E&Oe which is Errors and Ommisions excluded.

spugzbunny

Ooo tricky one! I've been browsing the googles and can't resolve it. I've even checked the commercial terms at work!

It may be the case that the price on the website was an invitation to treat and the invoice they sent you was the contractual offer... therefore your payment was acceptance of the offer and therefore contract.

on a more human note - I would probably argue this till I was bored then try and meet half way so you still get a discount but they get some money back and the poor sod who did it doesn't get sacked! Cos really .. you knew it was less when you paid it!

p00hsticks

What exactly does the invoice say ?

Is it clearly stating that the total you have just paid is for the entire two weeks period (less the deposit) ?

Wealthy_woman

thank you for all the replies. The location was recommended by an acquaintance and after a look at their site to see what the place looked like I called them to check on availability as the 'check availability/prices' part of the site was unabvailable. I was given the price and booked there and then. I honestly had no idea I had been undercharged. The amout I was quoted on the phone was the same as the invoice amount and it did not occur to me to check it to their site. I have spoken to them several times since I booked it and called them the other day to confirm that I still had time to pay (8 weeks before arrival) and to check the amount as I had added another person. Adding another person did not change anything. I dont want anyone to get sacked or given a rocket either and it was honestly a shock to find they say I owe them more. At the end of the day we will be spending two weeks there with the kids in the summer and dont want our last family holiday to have this hanging over us (ds is hopefully going to uni this year).

edit - the invoice says the date of arrival 24/7/11 and date of departure 7/8/11 and then in another large box it says the accomodation name and from 24.7.11 to 7.8.11 it shows the total cost less the deposit and balance to pay

spiro

How much was the invoice for (deposit plus balance to be paid)? This may allow us to gauge how obvious or not the error was.

david39

I imagine their last-resort get-out tagline will to point to somewhere in their T&Cs or invoicing documents that has the letters E&OE (standing for Errors and Omissions Excepted).

This used to be the standard defence for a company that had made an error in its price list or invoicing. I don't know the standing of this defence these days, it may well have been superceded by other trading standard laws.

Wealthy_woman

£1180 was the total payable which I thought was for the 2 weeks. I cant access my personal email at work so I cant see whether there was an E &OE on there but I will assume there was.

I didnt shop around - the location/place what was was recommended and once we took a look at it we decided it would be perfect for us. We usually go to a small campsite in Dorset since the children were little so really didnt realise this was for one week only.

I think I have several options here. Pay for the 2nd week and go on holiday with a clear conscious, pay for one week and just go for one week or stick it out with the possibility of having a miserable time knowing I may have got someone a rollocking or worse. Obviously they could cancel my booking completely if they are going to take a loss.

gordikin

OP, it is possible you may find they will return the money you paid and you'll have no holiday. I'd try doing a deal.

I live in and know Scotland well...where are the lodges...roughly?