Salsa class booked without permission - what are our rights?

user1977

AndrewDE said:

user1977 said:

AndrewDE said:

This is how the enquiry was worded, this is the email, sent on a Monday, that led them to book her in for the following Saturday:

Hi,

I haven’t had a response about booking this lesson.

Please can you let me know the Saturday availability.

Many thanks

And what was the previous communication from her?

Thank you,

I’ve just booked, please could I arrange the two hour lesson for a Saturday with (redacted)?

It's not clear that's merely enquiring about availability though, "please could I arrange" reads more as a request to make a booking.

AndrewDE

user1977 said:

AndrewDE said:

user1977 said:

AndrewDE said:

This is how the enquiry was worded, this is the email, sent on a Monday, that led them to book her in for the following Saturday:

Hi,

I haven’t had a response about booking this lesson.

Please can you let me know the Saturday availability.

Many thanks

And what was the previous communication from her?

Thank you,

I’ve just booked, please could I arrange the two hour lesson for a Saturday with (redacted)?

It's not clear that's merely enquiring about availability though, "please could I arrange" reads more as a request to make a booking.

So they just guessed which Saturday she was talking about? And what time?

Aylesbury_Duck

It does seem that the retailer is wrong here, but what posters are trying to do is pick apart your argument, constructively, so that you know what sort of questions and challenge you may face if you pursue this all the way to small claims court.  If the retailer defends his position, he'll seize on any ambiguity, implication or inference in the correspondence.

lisyloo

I don’t think anyone is saying they didn’t make a mistake.
but your wife didn’t make much attempt to mitigate a booking that she knew you couldn’t make and would incur cost.
if I know something is going to incur a cost I make sure the message is received (like a reply, a read receipt or a phone call), so the question is what will a judge think is reasonable.

have you spent a few minutes checking if you have access to a solicitor?
as I’m pretty sure you’ll get varied opinions on here.

TELLIT01

The first request from the OP's wife was clearly just asking about availability "Please can you let me know the Saturday availability."  The second "I’ve just booked, please could I arrange the two hour lesson for a Saturday with"  is much more ambiguous.  It seems the recipient of that e-mail has arranged the session for the first available Saturday and responded with the date and time.  Where the problem arose was the OP's wife not realising it was a 'no-reply' address and assuming the booking was cancelled.

I can certainly see fault from both sides.  If I had received a booking I didn't want I would have phoned (it's not clear if that was attempted).  If the business had responded to the first e-mail the confusion wouldn't have arisen in the first place.

Thrugelmir

Many years ago there was invention called a telephone. Made communication so much easier. I wonder if it's about time someone remarketed the device again. As would save hours of time for everyone if used one. Wouldn't be a fraction of the posts on MSE. 

pinkshoes

The OP has only ever enquired about availability on a Saturday, and not asked to be booked in on that particular Saturday.

The OP DID reply via email stating they could not do that Saturday. Yes, with hindsight a telephone call would have been helpful, BUT... the OP would then have no written evidence proving they replied saying they could not possibly do that date. We are always asking people what WRITTEN evidence they have.

As the email address did not make it clear it was a "no reply" one then as far as the OP was concerned, the business allocated them a slot which they didn't ask for and they replied saying they couldn't do that one.

Manxman_in_exile

TELLIT01 said:

The first request from the OP's wife was clearly just asking about availability "Please can you let me know the Saturday availability."  The second "I’ve just booked, please could I arrange the two hour lesson for a Saturday with"  is much more ambiguous....

I think you've got the chronological order of the emails confused with the order in which the OP has posted them?

Manxman_in_exile

AndrewDE said:

user1977 said:

AndrewDE said:

user1977 said:

AndrewDE said:

This is how the enquiry was worded, this is the email, sent on a Monday, that led them to book her in for the following Saturday:

Hi,

I haven’t had a response about booking this lesson.

Please can you let me know the Saturday availability.

Many thanks

And what was the previous communication from her?

Thank you,

I’ve just booked, please could I arrange the two hour lesson for a Saturday with (redacted)?

It's not clear that's merely enquiring about availability though, "please could I arrange" reads more as a request to make a booking.

So they just guessed which Saturday she was talking about? And what time?

This gets more confusing.  You just told us that your wife had emailed them saying "I've just booked... "

Why did she say I've just booked (which sort of implies she'd made a booking?) instead of something like: "I've just tried to book our Salsa session - which we've already paid for - through your website portal but it won't allow me to do so.  Can you let me know what times you have available on blah blah blah... ?"

FWIW I think the people providing the course are at fault here, but it gets difficult to apportion blame when the communications between two parties are not entirely clear.  (Usually because of people emailing in a hurry or using text speak).

eg - do you and your wife know for certain that her attempts to book online failed?  Maybe they didn't and the provider was confirming a booking your wife wasn't aware she'd made.

It also comes down to what sensible attempts did your wife subsequently make to cancel it.  (Was it impossible to contact them exceapt a "do not reply to this address" email?)

lisyloo

pinkshoes said:

The OP has only ever enquired about availability on a Saturday, and not asked to be booked in on that particular Saturday.

The OP DID reply via email stating they could not do that Saturday. Yes, with hindsight a telephone call would have been helpful, BUT... the OP would then have no written evidence proving they replied saying they could not possibly do that date. We are always asking people what WRITTEN evidence they have.

As the email address did not make it clear it was a "no reply" one then as far as the OP was concerned, the business allocated them a slot which they didn't ask for and they replied saying they couldn't do that one.

When you say did not make it clear, I got the impression from the first post that it was a “no-reply” email address that the wife didn’t look at (hence the devil is in the detail).
I personally don’t think fire and forget (and don’t look where you’re sending it) is adequate in this situation even when the mistake is someone else’s.
a judge will go on what a reasonable person would do and I think a reasonable person would make efforts to mitigate losses by confirming receipt.
phone is one way (and please could you send me an email to confirm), but read receipts (and keep them) is another, knocking on the door is another, but I wouldn’t just fire and forget if it was my money.

i wonder if the op has found their insurance yet.