Sueing over a verbal agrrement

shoeless_Joe

We booked a cruise via Thomas Cook and we were told that if the price fell or a cheaper fare introduced we would recieve the difference in "on board spend"

Suprise, suprise they have now introduced a vantage fare and we cant have the difference, the girl who made us the promise has been made redundant and we are getting nowhere.

The difference is £800 so should we sue in the small claims court or are we wasting our time? as at is their word against ours.

InsideInsurance

The civil courts judged on the balance or probability, ie basically who's story the court believes is most likely the truth. With verbal contracts the issue is always proof, I assume you have written a letter of complaint to Thomas Cook and asked that they listen to any recording of the call?

George_Michael

Small claims judgements work on balance of probabilities so if a judge thinks that your version of events is correct, they should award the case in your favour.
However, as you say, it's the word of one person against that of another so there's not really any way to tell how it would go.

Is there any sort of Thomas Cook customer forum (or maybe try Trip Advisor) where you could try to find other customers who were told the same thing as you?
If you could find more people to corroborate what was said then you may well have a good case.

Buzby

SC is not the way to go - the risk to you is too great if your action fails. What do TC say - have they said the claim is spurious or just the staff member got it wrong? In your case,

I'd try to book the same or similar in a different office and see if the same promise is made to get your business. A covert recording to prove your point would be invaluable.

Slowhand

I'm sure this has come up before and the tour operator sold fares under different names. eg customer buys a Breakaway Fare with the price promise on that named fare and operator later introduced a discounted fare under the Vantage Fare name.

bod1467

Something like this was on Watchdog or a similar consumer show a few months ago.

paddyrg

The wording around these things is critical. If *the fare* becomes available at a lower cost they refund the difference...but then they create a new 'fare' at a lower price and a few different features so they can show it's not comparing like with like...so unlucky.

Happens every single day in cruise world, so without evidence of a specific wording, you're probably out of luck

shoeless_Joe

We were in Thomas Cook shop so their is no record of the conversation.
There was no one else in the shop.
The advisor has now been made redundant and the branch closed and so I can only presume that at the time she was fighting for her job and desperate for a sale and therefore would say anything.
I suspected that sueing would gain nothing but just wanted to check.
Thanks for your help

Computersaysno

I imagine you've got a good chance of winning if you issue papers.

TC will probs settle pretty quickly and even if they don't you've got a convincing story for the judge to listen to.