Terms and Conditions - UK Holiday

Mumtopandm

Hi - I'm new to this forum so hope I'm posting in the right place and am posting the right sort of thing.
I recently wrote to a well known UK holiday company after a disastrous camping holiday, with a number of complaints. They have acknowledged that everything I have said in my letter is true in relation to all the complaints and issues, however they have said that their terms and conditions state that I only had 21 days to complain from the end of my holiday. Because I wrote after that time frame they are saying they won't entertain any discussion or possibility of compensation. My issues are - 1. we raised concerns while we were there as well and the letter was really just a follow up to put our issues in writing; 2. their T&Cs weren't sent to us but they are only on their website so I'm wondering if that's all a supplier has to do - ie make put their T&Cs on website and rely on the consumer finding them. Are T&Cs the final say - or do I still have other statutory rights that would enable me to continue with my complaint? Interested to hear others' thoughts on this? Thank you

tacpot12

Their T&Cs need to have been given to you prior to you paying for the holiday. If you booked online, then if they provided a link to the T&Cs on their website, they have met their obligations. If you booked over the phone, they should have sent the T&Cs before your right to cancel expired.

If we assume for a moment that the T&Cs apply to you, there is a question as to whether the requirement to complain within 21 days is an unfair term. I think you will have trouble arguing that it is unfair, as 21 days should be enough time to draft and send a letter of complaint. If you had been incapacited by the holiday, I expect the holiday company would have accepted a complaint written after 21 days, but as soon as you were able to.

It is not unreasonable to expect/require you to write a letter of complain even when the complaint has been made verbally while you were away. Not to do so suggests that the problems were not sufficiently importart to warrant a complaint.

Your best option may be to look for a "goodwill" payment based on being just outside of the 21 days. If you have any good reason for the delay in writing, write and inform them, and ask them to reconsider.

If the T&Cs weren't provided to you correctly, write and tell them this, and ask them to reconsider on the basis you think that a court will hold the term with the deadline does not to apply.

ThumbRemote

Mumtopandm wrote: »

Are T&Cs the final say - or do I still have other statutory rights that would enable me to continue with my complaint?

No, the T&Cs absolutely are not the final say. In fact, attempting to fob you off by restricting your time to complain is an offence in itself.

However, and it's a big however, it's notoriously difficult to resolve holiday related issues.

You have, under UK law, the right to get what you paid for. If any of that wasn't provided then you need to try and put a monetary value on it. For some things that's easy - if you paid for bedding to be provided, but it wasn't, how much did it cost you to get it? Other things are more tricky. If they said it was a quiet location, but actually it was next to a noisy nightclub, how do you measure that? Or if they promised a kids playground but it wasn't there, what value is it?

Then there are other things that they can just was their hands of. The site could be grubby and run-down, but as long as it meets minimum safety standards and they haven't made a big thing of how clean it is in the advertising, they can generally get away with it.

Under UK law you can claim for 'loss of enjoyment', but again it's not straightforward.

What were the issues? How much was a straightforward breach of contract, and how much was just a poor quality holiday?