COTTAGES.COM - "sent me a cancellation email by mistake" - and then it gets complicated ....

Gonna-be-debt-free

Original post from April:
During the winter I booked a summer holiday of a week in a cottage in the UK.  We paid a £300 deposit with the balance (£700ish) due in May.
At the end of March I received an email from the holiday cottage company, saying that due to government guidance they were cancelling/"transferring" the booking and would essentially provide a credit note for any money paid which could be used for another holiday up to the middle of next year.  Not ideal, but not too bad in the circumstances.
In inquiring whether I could instead get a refund of the deposit paid, I am now told that the email was sent in error, my booking has not been cancelled, the balance is still due etc.
The problem is, I took a voluntary pay cut at work to help the company I work for to get through the current crisis.  I now can't afford the balance on the holiday.  I wasn't expecting to need to afford it.  It hadn't even factored into my calculations as I had been told by the holiday cottage company that they had cancelled it.
Do I have any comeback on the holiday cottage company?  Can they make me pay the balance?  (at the moment it is due to come off my credit card automatically)

NEW INFO 16th June:
Resurrecting this because they now want payment, even though we agreed to move the booking to next year. 
After my last post above, I found out that it was actually cottages.com that I was dealing with, not the small local company I had assumed.
I then managed to get in touch with them by email where we agreed that I could move my booking into next year.  The staff member I was corresponding with said I needed to email a particular email address who would then deal with it, but that it would take a while as they had a lot of customers to deal with.  I emailed, received no reply, chased a couple of times, then a couple more times. 
Most recently I chased and got an automated reply that the email address was not being used any more and I should go through other channels.
Found out that they had sent me emails through a company called "awaze" which had ended up in my spam mail.  The emails contain a PDF letter saying they need to speak to me and giving a number to phone.
When I phone the number I wait on hold for an hour at a time, at which point it cuts me off.
Prompted by something on here where someone had said you can contact them online through your cottages.com account, I tried that.  It seems there is an area of the website where you can log on with your confirmation number and surname.  However, it wont get any further than a message, in bright red, saying to phone them to make a payment on the booking.

Well done if you read that far!  My question is, what can I do next?

• they fortunately can't just take payment because my credit card had to be changed, so the old number is invalid
• they still have my deposit.  I was prepared to be philosophical about potentially losing the deposit to help out a small local bookings company, but not so much for a much larger company that just pretends to be small and local.
• I don't mind moving the booking to next year using the deposit they already have, which is what I thought we had agreed to, but they don't seem to be doing that
• I can't find any way to communicate with them, given that I can't keep spending hours on hold during the working day (their phone lines cut off at 5pm)

Any ideas?
 

Westin

Without being privy to the exact wording of the email i think it will be difficult to answer.
Did you receive a cancellation invoice after the said they were cancelling the holiday? 

Gonna-be-debt-free

Westin said:

Without being privy to the exact wording of the email i think it will be difficult to answer.
Did you receive a cancellation invoice after the said they were cancelling the holiday? 

Thanks.  They didn't send a cancellation invoice.  The wording of the email was:

Unfortunately we need to transfer your booking. This is in light of the Scottish government guidance around essential travel.
What happens next?

• We will amend your booking, with a status that says ‘cancelled’.

• We will credit your cottage customer account with the money you have already paid.

• This means the money you have paid can be used against a future holiday.

• This holiday can be rebooked within the next 12 months from the date of your current arrival date. So if you are going away on the 3rd April 2020, you can rebook a new holiday up to the 3rd April 2021.

So with the reference to "money you have already paid" and "the money you have paid" I wasn't expecting to still have to pay more.

Westin

On the basis of the email I would read that the deposit is held as a credit but they are expecting you to let them know what new holiday dates you wish to book - that being the "transfer".  There will be a balance due on the new holiday and those payments would continue on the credit card debit scheme you set up.

I do agree that it is poorly worded and was probably a generic email sent to all.  It could have been better worded for those like yourself who had only paid a deposit and still having balances to pay.
 

Gonna-be-debt-free

Westin said:

On the basis of the email I would read that the deposit is held as a credit but they are expecting you to let them know what new holiday dates you wish to book - that being the "transfer".  There will be a balance due on the new holiday and those payments would continue on the credit card debit scheme you set up.

I do agree that it is poorly worded and was probably a generic email sent to all.  It could have been better worded for those like yourself who had only paid a deposit and still having balances to pay.
 

Yes, that was what I understood too, but they are now saying that the email was sent in error, that my holiday is still booked for this summer, and I need to pay the balance (which will come off of my card automatically).

The problem is that I now can't afford the balance, having taken a pay cut.  In agreeing to take the pay cut I didn't take into account any balance due, as I believed the holiday had been cancelled and any new holiday would be next year.  I am now told I have to still pay the balance now.

Aylesbury_Duck

Why not cancel and forfeit the deposit?  Better to write off £300 than spend another £700 you now can't afford. 

An alternative is to borrow the money, but not sure that's the best route. 

Gonna-be-debt-free

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Why not cancel and forfeit the deposit?  Better to write off £300 than spend another £700 you now can't afford. 

An alternative is to borrow the money, but not sure that's the best route. 

Thanks.  Yes, i think that's what I will need to do. 
I'm not going to borrow the money - technically we have the money to pay for it available, but I don't have the disposable income that would pay it back. 
It's particularly frustrating to lose the deposit when the error was theirs, not mine, but in the grand scheme of things I guess it's best just to write it off. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Gonna-be-debt-free said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Why not cancel and forfeit the deposit?  Better to write off £300 than spend another £700 you now can't afford. 

An alternative is to borrow the money, but not sure that's the best route. 

Thanks.  Yes, i think that's what I will need to do. 
I'm not going to borrow the money - technically we have the money to pay for it available, but I don't have the disposable income that would pay it back. 
It's particularly frustrating to lose the deposit when the error was theirs, not mine, but in the grand scheme of things I guess it's best just to write it off. 

I think that's a wise decision.  Unfortunate I know, but I admire your commitment to your employer and your sense of perspective when many others on here have lost theirs.  Best wishes and I hope your work gets through this and recognises the contribution you made.

Gonna-be-debt-free

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Gonna-be-debt-free said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Why not cancel and forfeit the deposit?  Better to write off £300 than spend another £700 you now can't afford. 

An alternative is to borrow the money, but not sure that's the best route. 

Thanks.  Yes, i think that's what I will need to do. 
I'm not going to borrow the money - technically we have the money to pay for it available, but I don't have the disposable income that would pay it back. 
It's particularly frustrating to lose the deposit when the error was theirs, not mine, but in the grand scheme of things I guess it's best just to write it off. 

I think that's a wise decision.  Unfortunate I know, but I admire your commitment to your employer and your sense of perspective when many others on here have lost theirs.  Best wishes and I hope your work gets through this and recognises the contribution you made.

What a lovely thing to say   Thank you. You really brightened my day.

Gonna-be-debt-free

Resurrecting this thread with updated info.  Has anyone got any idea of my options?  I assume they are chasing me for payment, and if that's the case then they probably haven't moved the booking but are still expecting me in 3 weeks time.

sheramber

 I assume they are chasing me for payment,
Well , either they are or they are not. Why do you assume?
When was your holiday booked for? At present travel is  against the guidelines.
Do you have insurance?