Hen Weekend Booking

lincroft1710

If I was MD of MBFBW, your threatening e-mail would elicit the following response.

"I can only repeat what has previously been stated, we cannot transfer Mrs *****'s booking to other accommodation".

If you start threatening, you will get minimal co-operation, you are being antagonistic, you need them on your side.

ConfusedHen

New_Me wrote: »

Presumably they will have paid some of your deposit to the owner of the accomodation, so it won't be available to be transferred to the smaller accomodation.

Surely, since they acted ostensibly as a broker, the responsibility to refund any payment to the owner lies with the company not us? We entered into a contract with the company not the accommodation owner and did not pay the deposit to the owner but the company.
The bottom line for me is that as there is an absence in the contract/ terms and conditions of any clause which mention that they will not transfer the deposit, it cannot be inferred that they are able to impose this restriction at a later date.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

ConfusedHen

lincroft1710 wrote: »

If I was MD of MBFBW, your threatening e-mail would elicit the following response.

"I can only repeat what has previously been stated, we cannot transfer Mrs *****'s booking to other accommodation".

If you start threatening, you will get minimal co-operation, you are being antagonistic, you need them on your side.

Thank you. You do have a point.

Undervalued

ConfusedHen wrote: »

I have drafted an email thus:
"Good afternoon,
I am writing to you on behalf of my friend Mrs ***** regarding the booking (copied) below.
Due to unforeseen circumstances two members of our party have cancelled which makes it difficult financially for the remainder to afford the payment between us. Mrs ***** telephoned you to request if it was possible to transfer our deposit to a smaller property but was told that this could not be done.
I am writing to you to ask you to reconsider this request. I have scrutinised the terms and conditions on your website and cannot find anything which states that deposits cannot be transferred to a different booking. I do acknowledge that a small admin fee can be levied to changes.
I am aware, through making a separate booking enquiry that you have several smaller properties available for the period of our current booking, such as ***** Apartment and ***** House and I am retaining the email as evidence.
I do not see it as unreasonable for you to accept this request. I am sure that it would be preferable to losing potential additional income should we decide to cancel our booking altogether. I am sure that you also pride yourselves on providing good customer service and would not want to generate bad publicity which I would not hesitate to engage should we not be able to reach a mutually satisfactory compromise.
With regards to the deposit itself, if you are not prepared to meet our requests then I shall proceed with seeking legal advice in order to recoup this also as it is my understanding that is my right according to the OFT guidance on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts (1999) to challenge full retention of the deposit paid on the grounds that this can be considered an unfair penalty.
I look forward to your response."

Keep in mind that this can work both ways.

Yes, if the deposit you have paid exceeds their losses then you are entitled to some of it back.

However, you have entered into a contract for the service and your liability is not limited just to the deposit. If their losses as a result of your cancelation are more than the deposit they can claim the balance from you!

In either case they have a duty to take reasonable steps to minimise the losses perhaps by finding another customer.

comeandgo

Surely a company can't say in a contract all the things they won't do, they would only comment on what they would do. A contract could be miles long and pretty stupid. I.e. We will not take your deposit in euros, we will not wash up while you are in the chalets, we will not knock on your door every hour, on the hour.

ConfusedHen

comeandgo wrote: »

Surely a company can't say in a contract all the things they won't do, they would only comment on what they would do. A contract could be miles long and pretty stupid. I.e. We will not take your deposit in euros, we will not wash up while you are in the chalets, we will not knock on your door every hour, on the hour.

Fair enough but transference of deposit is a pretty fundamental thing. I have seen in other contracts reference to a non-refundable, non-transferable deposit.

bris

They don't have to transfer anything, you contracted for a larger booking, they can hold you to that. Perhaps because the smaller bookings are easier to sell to other people.


They have to mitigate their losses if they can so if they can resell the larger booking at a reasonable cost then you may be entitled to some of the deposit back. Only a court can make them prove how they mitigated this loss however so expect a rather complicated fight.

Fosterdog

ConfusedHen wrote: »

Fair enough but transference of deposit is a pretty fundamental thing. I have seen in other contracts reference to a non-refundable, non-transferable deposit.

It depends how you look at it, to me unless it specifically says it is transferable I would assume it's not, you have entered a contract for them to provide you with a specific accommodation for a certain number of people, you now want to fundamentally change the contract to fewer people and different accommodation but are acting like they are being deliberately difficult

missbiggles1

Why don't you just ask a couple of other people?

The-Truth

ConfusedHen wrote: »

I am sure that you also pride yourselves on providing good customer service and would not want to generate bad publicity which I would not hesitate to engage should we not be able to reach a mutually satisfactory compromise.
With regards to the deposit itself, if you are not prepared to meet our requests then I shall proceed with seeking legal advice in order to recoup this also as it is my understanding that is my right according to the OFT guidance on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts (1999) to challenge full retention of the deposit paid on the grounds that this can be considered an unfair penalty.
I look forward to your response."

From here on your email was a disaster!

Try to make the person you're complaining to like you, then the'll consider your request. Can't you see thaT all you've written will just make them hate you?

And I certainly wouldn't look forwards to the response you sent to that email, I can imagine it won't please you at all!