No cooling off period on deposit paid following sales call?

paddyrg

These photo/pampering prizes are an absolute swizz. Legal, but borderline and certainly not run with an ethical conscience. The hard sell will be VERY hard, by the way, check the forums here for people wanting to cancel several grands worth of orders they place for expensive photos at these things. Unless you are immune to high-pressure sales techniques, it may be convenient to forget all your ID which they want you to bring to sign you up on the spot for finance (when you say 'but I can't afford £600 for the photos' they kindly sign you for finance at £20/month until the end of time).

But as for provable losses - frankly I would ask them to send you an itemised list of provable losses they are deducting from your deposit as you are questioning what losses they have incurred in just a few hours (when they demonstrably haven't even booked you in as they called back to say booking you on the dates you asked would be more cash). It may be that a bit of bolshiness and bluster now saves you a heap of grief if you actually turn up.

Flyboy152

arcon5 wrote: »

...........

(2) Regulations 7 to 19(1) shall not apply to—
(a)contracts for the supply of food, beverages or other goods intended for everyday consumption supplied to the consumer’s residence or to his workplace by regular roundsmen; or
(b)contracts for the provision of accommodation, transport, catering or leisure services, where the supplier undertakes, when the contract is concluded, to provide these services on a specific date or within a specific period.

.............

From what I understand, that regulation applies to services that have already commenced. The service is still cancellable if it hasn't started.

Flyboy152

Stitsophrenic wrote: »

To answer your question, I paid by debit card.

They told me that the deposit was required to protect the earnings of the stylists and make up artists should I not turn up.

But I suppose that it could be argued that if they require only 7 days notice of a date change, they wouldn't be incurring any losses should a cancellation be made before this time.

Should they have told me that I couldn't cancel without losing my deposit during the initial call?

*sigh*

I never do silly things like buy over the telephone from cold callers, I'm such a wally!

Yes they should. All deposits are "refundable," to an extent. The business has a right to be protected against any losses, therefore the law allows them to retain any genuine pre-estimate of those losses. Seeing as no stylist had actually been engaged I'd say that their costs are about three pounds sixty.

Flyboy152

nomoneytoday wrote: »

Why not go along, and not buy any pictures, whilst checking that the refund will be to your card and not vouchers etc ?

But the "deposit" is to pay the wages of a stylist. If the OP turns up, they will still use the stylist and not have to pay anyway. So I don't see why the deposit would have to pay for the stylist, if the OP doesn't turn up.