Cancelled on waterbabies deadline but still charged £50 fee? What are my rights

sophjack1

I cancelled our water babies classes on the deadline albeit 4hours later than the deadline of 10am that day.
waterbabies will refund me minus the £50 cancellation fee. 

I only had notification about the charge due to my bank contacting me.

I had had a text 4days earlier to check my mailbox but on further checking I had not received any email from them.

They have stated the times that the email was opened on mail chimp but I have not received it. 

Where do I stand on this, are they allowed to take money out of my bank? Who can I take this matter further with? 

Thank you 

[Deleted User]

If you've incurred a fee, then they can take it from your designated payment method, which appears to have been your debit card. However, you also say that they refunded you minus a fee, so it's not clear that any money has been debited.

There isn't anyone to take it further with, as long as the figures are correct.

sophjack1

So far I’ve been charged the full course fee £165 on my debit card.
The owner will only refund me minus the £50 cancellation fee.
My bank will only get involved 15days after the dispute took place.

[Deleted User]

So you need to chase them up for a refund of £115.

Flight3287462

Sounds like you missed the deadline sounds like you are due to have your refund reduced by £50.

Did you read their T&Cs before purchase?

Undervalued

sophjack1 said:

So far I’ve been charged the full course fee £165 on my debit card.
The owner will only refund me minus the £50 cancellation fee.
My bank will only get involved 15days after the dispute took place.

Well if I understand your first post correctly you admit you cancelled after the deadline?

Whilst legally a deposit can't be used as a penalty, a "fully refundable" deposit is not really a deposit at all!

It is worth mentioning that they could look to you for more than the deposit if they could demonstrate that their actual losses (despite making reasonable efforts to minimise) were greater than £50.

sophjack1

They have just refunded me £115 this second.
It just seems unfair that I cancelled in the deadline day to be charge £50.

Undervalued

sophjack1 said:

They have just refunded me £115 this second.
It just seems unfair that I cancelled in the deadline day to be charge £50.

If the "day" ended at midnight rather than at a specified time, would you expect a four hour grace period into the following day?

I understand your frustration but there has to be a cut off point somewhere otherwise a deadline is not actually a deadline at all.

sheramber

sophjack1 said:

They have just refunded me £115 this second.
It just seems unfair that I cancelled in the deadline day to be charge £50.

But 4 hours after the stated time  for cancelling. Therefore you did no t cancel before the deadline.