1p deposit on cruises

Barney57

I July I took the Seascanner deal of booking a cruise with a 1p deposit. I decided to cancel the booking only to find I have to pay £50 per person to cancel.
There was no indication in the email to denote any conditions with the deal, ( another part of the email had an asterisk, but not this).
On the website I now notice it has an asterisk, and hidden at the bottom of the site there are terms and conditions which states the £50 fee.
I my mind this is a rather deceptive advertising, (cruise.com had the same offer but they warned me on the conditions) has anybody else come across this and is it worth refusing to pay and taking the case to court if necessary?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Looks like there's lot's of different terms for different providers on Seascanner, which provider did you book with OP?

la531983

No different to the numerous firms who advertise a "low deposit", you pay a smaller than amount usual but you still have to pay the actual deposit at some point. TUI do it, for example.

TELLIT01

I would think very hard about considering court action over £50.  You could end up with the fees for the other party if you lose.  The section below is lifted from the internet.

Is there a minimum amount you can claim through small claims court?

While there is technically no minimum amount for a money claim, the lowest issue fee (the fee you pay to start the process) is £35.00. Therefore if the amount you are looking to recover is very small, you should consider if issuing a claim will be cost effective

Pollycat

Do you still have the email to prove that there was no mention of having to pay the £50 deposit if you cancel?
No link or referral to the T&Cs?

Barney57

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Looks like there's lot's of different terms for different providers on Seascanner, which provider did you book with OP?

The cruise provider is Princess.

elsien

If it’s anything, like the current pound deal on the website, it is quite clear that terms and conditions apply with links to the t&c for relevant promotion for each cruise. 

Did you not see those when booking? 

CliveOfIndia

Barney57 said:

On the website I now notice it has an asterisk, and hidden at the bottom of the site there are terms and conditions which states the £50 fee.

So the T&Cs state that there is a £50 cancellation fee?  I think you'd have a hard job arguing against that.

Yes, I fully appreciate that the T&Cs of most contracts are not exactly riveting bedtime reading, but it's so important that you do read them before agreeing to anything.

When you made the initial booking, did you have to click a box or something to say that you'd read and agreed to the T&Cs?  If so, then I'm afraid you probably don't have much of a leg to stand on.

HillStreetBlues

This could be touching on the grounds of Blu-Sky Solutions Ltd v Be Caring Ltd [2021] EWHC 2619 

https://www.trowers.com/insights/2021/november/suppliers-beware

The case serves as a timely reminder that where T&Cs are referred to via a "tick box" of a "website link" then terms deemed particularly burdensome, such as the likes of cancellation fees, should be made clearly visible and obvious to customers for example by putting them in bold words / clauses to draw the customer to the terms.

Alderbank

CliveOfIndia said:

Barney57 said:

On the website I now notice it has an asterisk, and hidden at the bottom of the site there are terms and conditions which states the £50 fee.

So the T&Cs state that there is a £50 cancellation fee?  I think you'd have a hard job arguing against that.

The OP actually said £50 per person. So for a family party of ten, £500 would be well worth arguing against.

In a consumer contract, Princess is only entitled to their actual costs if the consumer cancels, regardless of whether they say £5 or £5,000.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Barney57 said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Looks like there's lot's of different terms for different providers on Seascanner, which provider did you book with OP?

The cruise provider is Princess.

Thank OP, 

Their terms are extensive:

https://25231160.fs1.hubspotusercontent-eu1.net/hubfs/25231160/AGB/agb-ico-inter-connect-gmbh-en.pdf?hsCtaTracking=549f8c90-c0bf-40c8-ba53-b1c03c405671|cdafde8a-1837-44c2-bb4d-2be6ddd41a7a

2 ICO is entitled to demand appropriate compensation taking into account saved expenses and a possible advantage from further use of the travel service. Instead of a demonstrable expense, ICO is entitled to claim a flat-rate compensation fee (if no substitute travel participant* is provided) and this fee will be calculated as follows for each travel participant* who has withdrawn on the basis of the respective travel price. 

which is followed by a chart of various fees. 

Governing law says

16.3 The contractual relationship between the registrants and ICO DE and the rights and obligations arising therefrom shall be governed by German law and for ICO CH, by Swiss law. However, if the registrant is a *consumer *, he/she* may rely on the provisions of the country of his/her* habitual residence which grant him/her * protection and where no contract can deviate from these, provided that ICO‘s business activity is expressly directed in that country

Not particularly straightforward, how many people was the booking for?