Parkdean Resorts

heather1165

Morning everyone & thanks for allowing me to join. I don't know if this is allowed but here goes ... I need some advice about a holiday booking I made with PDR in February in which I paid a £50 deposit. The remaining balance was due to be paid in full on 15th May - I didn't pay it because of the lock down & thought that if I didn't pay it I'd just lose the deposit & the holiday would be cancelled. I was wrong! PDR sent me an email advising me that my booking was paid in full on 19th June & that they were looking forward to seeing us in August. When I checked my bank account, £709 had been taken by PDR - raging!!! As I was on the phone waiting for over an hour to speak with a rep, I got yet another email staying that due to the lockdown I had a payment extension until 10th July - cheeky!  The rep said that as I'd booked online I had checked an automatic payment agreement for the remaining balance to be collected from my account & he couldn't give me a refund. I know I should have called & cancelled the booking but surely this can't be right? My agreement with them should have been cancelled and been null and void when the funds weren't taken from my account on the due date!! What do I do now? I did call my bank and asked for a claw back payment on the same day but they told me to contact PDR.  Thanks, H

elsien

What do the terms and conditions say about final payments,  loss of deposit etc ? 
Just not paying the final amount due doesn't mean that the holiday is cancelled, it just means the holiday stands and you still owe the money. You didn't even contact them at that point to discuss your options so I don't know why you are fuming.
If they are open in August which seems likely you can still go on the holiday. Alternatively they may or may not be willing to swap to another date. 
In this instance I can't see that PDR have done anything wrong.

Sooler

Go on the holiday in August.

Mrsn

I’m certain the t’s and c’s will have said that your outstanding payment will be taken from the card you paid with, it’s a fairly standard practice with these things. So park dean in my opinion haven’t done anything wrong by collecting the monies due.

For future reference any booking you make if you don’t contact the company to cancel you will always be liable for the full amount due.

[Deleted User]

Not sure what your problem is to be honest.   You booked a holiday which looks like it will be going ahead?   If you wanted to cancel, then you should have cancelled it and lost whatever the t's and c's dictated at the time of cancellation.  Am guessing you are realising this now but what are you actually losing?   You get to go on a holiday.  If all cancelled at time, you will get a refund.

heather1165

My biggest issue is that the balance should have been paid/taken in May but wasn't so I therefore thought it had been cancelled. The balance was then taken from my account 4 weeks later, on the same day btw as an email advising me I had up until 10th July to pay said balance 

[Deleted User]

Ok Heather so now you know you should have cancelled the holiday if you wanted to cancel it and you didn't so are you saying they shouldn't have taken the balance until 10th July?  But what does any of it matter if your holiday is going ahead?  If they had waited until the 10th July, then you would still have had to pay the full amount.   Is the problem you do not want to go on the holiday any more?   If yes, then as you now realise you should have cancelled in May.   Don't think you can claim Parkdean are being unreasonable?   They waited for payment.  I understand how you felt it would be cancelled automatically but not so, therefore, the only thing you can do now is go on the holiday if it is up and running at time.  If not, then you will be able to obtain a refund.