Lost Deposit

jimmebob86

Booked a group holiday for 2018 - 12 of us in total with Thomson. We all gave £75 as an initial deposit to the lead passenger who went in and paid the initial £75 per head needed to secure the booking. An additional £125 was due 4 weeks later with the balance being due 12 weeks prior to travel.

We experienced great difficulty in paying the additional deposit ( constantly told to ring back as they were busy with other customers or couldn't find the booking etc). Eventually went in to store and paid £125 using my AMEX card. Asked for a receipt but was told they will only deal and correspond with lead passenger.

Fast forward a few weeks and it transpires, the lead passenger tried unsuccessfully to pay his deposit - kept being fobbed off by the shop (too busy with customers) and forgot to pay. The upshot of this is that the holiday is cancelled and no refund of any deposit paid by any passenger. I tried to discuss with the store but as not lead passenger they will not discuss with me.

I have raised a chargeback with Amex for the £125 that I went into the store and paid them. There may be terms and conditions when booking such as if the full deposit isn't received that any monies paid are lost however, as I am not the lead passenger I have not been given a copy of the terms and conditions and therefore cannot be held to them and if there were t&c's, I should have been made aware when I personally came in and paid.

Do I have a leg to stand on? If we had been made aware someone hadn't paid, I would have happily paid the missing deposit to keep the booking active but seems so unfair that a group of people have lost over £2000 when we weren't made aware and had no chance to rectify the situation as they wouldn't speak with us.

bris

The lead passenger is to blame. There is an easy payment solution to use online so I really don't see why payments were an issue. I also find it hard to believe that the store refused your payments, it's called waiting your turn. Cant see anyone else to blame here but the lead passenger tbh.


As for yourself, there has to be a breach of contract for the chargeback to go through. As there was none on Thompsons part then you really have no case, all you did was make a payment to the account, the lead passengers account so blame him. You might find they refund you in the first instance but when Thompsons dispute it it will be reversed. Gl though.

BorisThomson

Do I have a leg to stand on? If we had been made aware someone hadn't paid, I would have happily paid the missing deposit to keep the booking active but seems so unfair that a group of people have lost over £2000 when we weren't made aware and had no chance to rectify the situation as they wouldn't speak with us.

You need to be addressing this to the lead passenger. It was his responsibility to ensure this happened, and not the agent's job to either chase him or notify the other passengers that he had failed to pay.