Deposit being held. Unable to contact company. Advice needed please!

Chrislj

Hello all,
First time poster. I have an issue with a motorhome hire company. I booked a 3 night hire of a motorhome back in November. We were due to use it this weekend, on Monday I paid the large deposit required £1250. But the very next day my wife became unwell. So we cancelled obviously losing the cost of the hire. We were told that we would get a refund of the deposit. Paid on debit card 🤦!♂️. Since I cancelled on Tuesday I have emailed several times and phoned unable to speak to anybody. I have done a search of their company online and it seems they have A LOT of history keeping deposits.
Their head office is about 25 minutes drive from me, so I'm going to go up there tomorrow, but really need some advice as In what to say when I get there. The booking is officially cancelled. And being as we haven't even stepped foot in the motorhome. Surely the deposit should be returned to us.
Sorry but really stressed out with this.
Any help appreciated thanks
Chris

agrinnall

Contact your bank to ask for a Chargeback, but do it quickly as you may run out of time soon.

Chrislj

Thank you agrinall, I phoned them and will lodge a dispute on Saturday. As that is a day after I was supposed to start my hire with them, but I will certainly mention that when I speak to them tomorrow.

DoaM

How was the contract engaged? (Online? By phone? Face to face?)

How was the deposit paid? (By DC I know, but Online? etc.)

What do the T&Cs say about cancellations? Have you received them in writing? (Email is OK; a link in an email to website T&Cs is not).
What do you have in writing (email is OK) from them about the cancellation?

You agreed to contract and have now breached the contract without giving them any time to mitigate any losses or re-hire the motorhome. At a minimum you're probably liable for their loss of profit for the hire - but it all turns on the T&Cs and what they've agreed in writing. (i.e. what you can prove).

ThumbRemote

DoaM wrote: »

You agreed to contract and have now breached the contract without giving them any time to mitigate any losses or re-hire the motorhome. At a minimum you're probably liable for their loss of profit for the hire - but it all turns on the T&Cs and what they've agreed in writing. (i.e. what you can prove).

I think the OP is expecting to lost the full cost of the hire (see bold in their post below), so I think the deposit they refer to is the damage deposit for the motorhome.

Chrislj wrote: »

Hello all,
First time poster. I have an issue with a motorhome hire company. I booked a 3 night hire of a motorhome back in November. We were due to use it this weekend, on Monday I paid the large deposit required £1250. But the very next day my wife became unwell. So we cancelled obviously losing the cost of the hire.. We were told that we would get a refund of the deposit. Paid on debit card 🤦!♂️. Since I cancelled on Tuesday I have emailed several times and phoned unable to speak to anybody. I have done a search of their company online and it seems they have A LOT of history keeping deposits.

DoaM

Good spot.