Thomas Cook Event Deposit

ian_foote

I was on a Thomas Cook "Club 18-30" holiday with a large group. During the holiday, the reps were trying to sell tickets to a weekend event later on this year. During our reps sales pitch, he told us that deposits were refundable by a certain date, so we put down deposits for three people via debit card. A few weeks after returning home, we received our university timetables, and found out that two of us have exams on/around the time of the event. So I phoned the customer helpline who said "deposits are usually not refundable" and recommended emailing their complaints department. A week later they got back to me saying that deposits were non-refundable, despite me telling them that our rep said they were.

Where do I stand if the rep said deposits were refundable? Is there anything else I could try to get the deposit back?

Many thanks

Fosterdog

Do you have any written confirmation of the booking at all? If so what does it say about cancellations?

ian_foote

I have a confirmation email, which does not have anything about cancelling, it does have a link to their website for more details. I found their booking terms and conditions, in their it does say deposits are non-refundable, despite us being told the event had refundable deposits.

DoaM

If the company wishes to rely on T&Cs for a non-website transaction then they need to present the T&Cs prior to the consumer becoming bound by them. As such (as a minimum) the T&Cs needed to be contained within the email (supplied in a durable means) ... a website link does not constitute durable means therefore the non-refundable deposit clause in the website T&Cs is irrelevant.

arcon5

DoaM wrote: »

If the company wishes to rely on T&Cs for a non-website transaction then they need to present the T&Cs prior to the consumer becoming bound by them. As such (as a minimum) the T&Cs needed to be contained within the email (supplied in a durable means) ... a website link does not constitute durable means therefore the non-refundable deposit clause in the website T&Cs is irrelevant.

Even with these terms being unenforceable there is no statutory right to cancellation so in light of their denial I'm would need to somehow prove they offered cancellation as part of their agreement

DoaM

There's also no statutory right to retain 100% of any deposit paid, so TC would need to justify doing so.

If OP sent TC a letter before action then TC will most likely provide a full refund than risk court action.