Holiday booking

Lewie

Hi all.
A bit of legal advice please.
On Sunday 9th February 5 of us visited a holiday supermarket.
We asked for their best price so we didn't have to traipse around other agents.
All was straight forward apart from requesting two double rooms, which were classed as an upgrade, and choose seats on the plane.
We watched her add the extras and she gave us a price. She said it was the best they could do.
One of our party had to double check with work to ok the dates. We were told that we could pay a £10 non refundable holding fee.
We paid it. She said until the deposit was paid she couldn't print off the full !itinerary. She printed off terms and conditions and wrote the price on the paperwork.
The dates were confirmed the following day and the full deposit paid.
Later that week the paperwork was sent by post.
To our amazement the price was £31 per passenger extra!
Obviously this was queried.
The excuse was that the sales person had not "pressed the button to add the room upgrade and choose your seats".
We have been told that there is nothing they can do about it.
I can't see how this can be legal?
The rep admits she got it wrong.
We paid a non refundable holding fee and paid the full deposit based on the price she gave us.
Can they really tell us we must pay more?
Thanks for any help.

agrinnall

It depends what their T&Cs say. If errors of this type are covered then they may be able to ask for more, although even then I think you would be able to claim a full refund as they are unable to provide the holiday required at the agreed price.

Lewie

Thanks for the reply.
Thing is, how do we know it was a 'mistake'?
They may do this on a regular basis, who knows?
I know T's n C's have to be deemed to be fair and can be made null and void.
They took the deposit which entered us and them into a legally binding contract.
After looking into it further I'm pretty sure they are legally bound to give us the holiday at the price quoted once the money was accepted by them.

Bantex_2

Lewie wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.
Thing is, how do we know it was a 'mistake'?
They may do this on a regular basis, who knows?
I know T's n C's have to be deemed to be fair and can be made null and void.
They took the deposit which entered us and them into a legally binding contract.
After looking into it further I'm pretty sure they are legally bound to give us the holiday at the price quoted once the money was accepted by them.

Unless you can prove it was not a mistake, you will have difficulty. They may just let it go though if you are nice to them.

Lewie

Hahaha.
Nice?
Nah, anyone that tries to dupe me doesn't deserve nice.
I will contact cab and trading standards and see how I stand.
If I 'made a mistake' and told them that I wanted to pay less after accepting their price I can just see them being nice to me and offering my deposit back!

agrinnall

Well, you seem to know everything about it so I'm not sure why you've bothered asking on here, you're certainly not going to get much more help with the attitude you're showing, and you probably aren't going to get your holiday at the price you want either.

hcb42

Being nice might work, shouting at them probably won't unfortunately, it won't be a deliberate strategy to make mistakes or they would not stay in business very long, and if they are already working to tight margins, then they may not mind a cancel.

Lewie

agrinnall.
Firstly, if I thought I knew it all would I state that I am going to seek theadvice of CAB or Trading Standards?
As for bothering to ask ‘on here’, that is my prerogative and none of yourbusiness.
Neither is whether or not people choose to give me ‘much more help’.
My ‘attitude’ is a matter of opinion and depends on how you interpret posts.
I have not intentionaly been discourteous to any post, unlike your last one tome.
If you look at my op you will see I asked for ‘legal advice’.
Your first reply to me was far from that, though I did thank you for the reply.
If you decide to reply to a question but cannot stand the op not taking youradvice as gospel then may I suggest you keep your opinions to yourself?
I appreciate ALL replies that are attempting to help and I will reply and givemy opinion in return.
If people don’t like what I post they are under no obligation to reply.

Lewie

Hcb42
Thanks for the reply.
I certainly wouldn’t go in shouting.
In fact I wont be going in at all.
I intend to find out what our rights are and then write to their head office.
If it turns out to be illegal for them to charge us a non returnable holdingfee to ensure a quoted price and then to add extras on without informing usthen I will take it further.
If it isn’t (I shall be surprised) then I shall question the moralities.
Assuming they don’t stand up and say ‘we made a mistake and our customersshould not be out of pocket’ then there are plenty more travel companies to gotto, it will be them that are out of pocket in the long run.

jkkne

I thought Trading Standards no longer took individual complaints?

wealdroam

jkkne wrote: »

I thought Trading Standards no longer took individual complaints?

I thought so too, but wasn't going to mention it in case the text got even bigger.