HOSEASONS HELP NEEDED PLEASE

Thunderthighs66

Hi 
We have a UK Cottage holiday booked for late August & have paid Hoseasons the £25.00 deposit by debit card back in January 20 the balance of the holiday is due to be taken at the end of July.
We have decided that regardless of what the Coronavirus situation is regarding travelling we no longer want to go ahead with the holiday. 
In view of this we have been trying to contact Hoseasons by telephone throughout the day, every day for 2 weeks to cancel the booking but just cannot get beyond an engaged tone.
We have sent 2 emails using ccare@hoseasons.co.uk & customercare@hoseasons.co.uk & for both we have received a read receipt but no reply.
If we cannot contact Hoseasons & they do not contact us our last resort would be to either notify our bank to refuse the balance request or risk them taking the payment & being forced to go on a trip we no longer want to take.
Does anyone have any suggestions or can help in any way please? Would we incur penalties if we stopped the balance payment being taken?
Any help or advice would be appreciated. 
Thank You

[Deleted User]

Ok so as you have decided you no longer wish to go on the holiday, can you cancel your holiday on your account section on their website?   You will, however, have to pay whatever the terms and conditions at the time of booking state which realistically is probably going to be more than the £25 deposit.   Check to see what you agreed to and what terms.  Everyone is entitled to cancel a holiday but the terms won't be waived.

eskbanker

You won't be able to get your bank to stop Hoseasons from taking a payment that you've effectively already authorised when committing to the booking and providing card details.

A quick look at their cancellation terms suggests that it's far more than the deposit that you'd be obliged to pay them if you're cancelling within the final month or two before the trip, so you'll need to accept that you'll still owe them a substantial amount when you do cancel, regardless of exactly how it's paid.

It may be worth writing to them by recorded delivery, advising that you cancelled in mid June by emails that they received (enclose copies) and reconfirming this cancellation in writing due to not being able to contact them via any other channel, as the date of cancellation is likely to be significant in determining how much you need to pay.

rjmachin

Did you download the terms and conditions when you made the booking?

According to the terms and conditions now, you may be expected to pay quite a bit of the money:
https://www.hoseasons.co.uk/assets/uk-cottages-terms.pdf?v=8f43762584e4c82470c4269a20b1fd2a

Section 4 relates to low deposits, and says how much you are expected to pay if you cancel depending on the value of the booking.  E.g. usual deposit for up to £200 is £75, so you would have to pay an additional £50.
On top of that, it says to also see section 7 for cancellation charges.  Depending on the number of days before you check in date was supposed to be, you're looking at 50/60% cancellation charge of the total cost.

Do you have any friends or family who would want to take your place? 

Thunderthighs66

Thank you for all your help its appreciated, 
We did receive the following email from Hoseasons on the 14th of May telling us the final payment date had been extended & also outlining details about cancellations to the booking. I thought with what they had put we wouldn't be liable for any further payments beyond the deposit if we cancelled, have we read that wrong?.........................................................

We wanted to give you an update about your upcoming holiday.

Giving you more time to pay for your holiday
To give you extra flexibility at this time of uncertainty, we have changed your balance due date to just three weeks before your holiday is due to start. 

Your new balance due date is 31/07/2020
To confirm this is the date when your final balance is due for payment
Giving you additional flexibility

At present your holiday dates are unaffected by government guidelines and we hope to welcome you on holiday. However, if you decide to cancel your holiday before your new balance due date then we will waive your liability for the remainder of the balance. This means that no further amount will be collected from you.

Should you cancel on or after your new balance due date, the booking conditions, at the time you booked your holiday, apply. This means that you will need to pay the cancellation charges as set out in the cancellation table (according to the number of days before the start date of your holiday) which can be found in clause 7b of the booking conditions, as well as any non-refundable charges to the extent already paid.

If you decide to wait and your booking is prevented from taking place due to government public health measures, make sure to check our COVID-19 page to find out more about your options at that time.

Thanks for your patience and understanding as we continue to deal with an extraordinarily high number of incoming queries. These will take some time to respond to as we have tens of thousands of customers to help. 

Spookydel

We're having the same problem here - I've been trying to cancel for a couple of weeks as we're due to be going to the Netherlands and don't want to risk going abroad,  and I'm also only getting the engaged tone when I call, and alas the only way to cancel the holiday is via their contact centre, you can't do it online.  I did find another number in the auto-reply to one of my emails - 01502502523 - but any time I've rung that, no matter what time of the day, it puts you on hold for a bit then tells you the office is now closed, call back tomorrow at 9 am.  Keep us posted if you have any luck at getting through