30 pounds sur charge to pay by credit card

unholyangel

martin22 wrote: »

many thanks for reply
Travel agency : 30 pounds sur charge to use credit card to pay
the question is that does a travel agency should inform the customer in advance if there is sur charge for credit card?
In my case we agreed on a price (on the Tel) ,then they said i can pay by either cash or card , i said ok i want the tickets and i pay by card, and gave them my credit card details ,but when they tried to take money from my credit card , they said your card don't go through and dose not work .***AT this time they mentioned that there is a sur charge if i pay by credit card*** that i argued and said i don't want these tickets ,because the price going up and i can get it cheaper elsewhere . i believe they should informed me about credit card charge in advance,or at least mentioned on their website (apparently they have no website). so i said cancel them i don't want them. but travel agency said that they booked and paid for tickets before they take money from me .then i left ,booked somewhere else almost 300 pounds under their price. but now they sending me a bill to pay ???may i thank you in advance

Yes they should inform you in advance.

Just double checking but is this flights only? Its not a package holiday or a flight & hotel deal?

If they've booked before taking payment from you, thats a loss of their own making. They should have the ability to reserve the flights free of charge for at least 72 hours - and thats really only used when the customer wants a day or two to think about it. If its a booking thats done over the phone, the seats are usually pulled from availability when they select the flights from the available list for up to 30 mins or so - this is to avoid seats being double booked.

IMO there was no clear concise agreement entered into. You made an offer, they rejected that offer and made their own counter offer which you refused. They cannot accept an offer that was never made. No acceptance = no contract.

If you're going to reply to their invoice, I'd reply with the last paragraph above about offer + acceptance and little else.

Theres a few other ways you could argue against it (even if a contract were in place) but I think the above is the best option and definitely the least confusing argument.

ETA: the above may change depending on answers to wealdroams questions. The above is presuming this all happened in the same visit/telephone call and not that it has been dealt with over several days.

stugib

martin22 wrote: »

Hi there
we called a travel agency on a Thersday 19 march and reserved 4 tickets to Turkey.they said you have 3 days to pay other way tickets would be canceled, then 2 days after on saturday 21 march they called we agreed on the prices.then they took our credit card details on the telephone to take payment.the credit card

You didn't discuss the price of the tickets on 19th? Wouldn't an offer + acceptance (and therefore indication for the agency to book the actual tickets) have taken place then?

I don't understand how you'd reserve anything at an unspecified price and then call back 2 days later to agree a price? What does 'reserving' actually mean? I also can't see them being able to put airline tickets 'behind the counter' just in case you decided to buy them - you either ordered them, with a promise to pay with whatever method later, or you didn't

unholyangel

stugib wrote: »

You didn't discuss the price of the tickets on 19th? Wouldn't an offer + acceptance (and therefore indication for the agency to book the actual tickets) have taken place then?

I don't understand how you'd reserve anything at an unspecified price and then call back 2 days later to agree a price? What does 'reserving' actually mean? I also can't see them being able to put airline tickets 'behind the counter' just in case you decided to buy them - you either ordered them, with a promise to pay with whatever method later, or you didn't

As per my post above, this is an ability most (if not all) travel agents have. Whether they actually offer it to the customer or not is another matter. They are able to put a hold on seats for up to 72 hours.

Re: payment.....traders need to be upfront about surcharges. This would be covered under the CPRs. Also covered under unfair terms in that a term is unfair if it could be used to force the consumer to accept increased costs, penalties, new requirements or reduced benefits.

stugib

unholyangel wrote: »

As per my post above, this is an ability most (if not all) travel agents have. Whether they actually offer it to the customer or not is another matter. They are able to put a hold on seats for up to 72 hours.

Sure, but that would be more about whether they may have incurred costs or the service has started. The OP could still have accepted their offer in the first call.

unholyangel wrote: »

Re: payment.....traders need to be upfront about surcharges. This would be covered under the CPRs. Also covered under unfair terms in that a term is unfair if it could be used to force the consumer to accept increased costs, penalties, new requirements or reduced benefits.

At what point though? Let's go with the fact the contract exists after the first call. He's promised to pay £x. In the later call they have the option to pay £x or the option to pay £x+30. Not having the funds to use the cheaper option doesn't mean it's unfair?

unholyangel

stugib wrote: »

Sure, but that would be more about whether they may have incurred costs or the service has started. The OP could still have accepted their offer in the first call.


At what point though? Let's go with the fact the contract exists after the first call. He's promised to pay £x. In the later call they have the option to pay £x or the option to pay £x+30. Not having the funds to use the cheaper option doesn't mean it's unfair?

Well you said you didnt see them being able to reserve them just in case - I was saying that yes, they can and they can do it for free.

Your second point....remember that consumers have far more protection than businesses. If there was a contract then the company cannot introduce new terms (such as a credit card surcharge). However, as above, its covered by both the CPRs and unfair terms.