Holiday Help

Hi guys, was just wondering if anyone can help me out here. I booked a holiday for my family to go to turkey in September, my mum was due to book on at a later date but as some of you know she passed away. Anyway, i paid a low deposit of £100 and I don't really want to go now. I phoned up to cancel under the impression i'd lose the £100 only to be told i owe them the remainder of the deposit (£800). And that I can't cancel till i pay that. To cut a long story short, what can they do to even get that money if i refuse to pay it?.

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Optimus I'm assuming you have no holiday insurance you can claim under?
What does the small print in the holiday brochure/website say about cancellations ? It's usually loss of deposit and a sliding scale of what you have to pay even though they can probably resell the holiday anyway.

It says a lose deposit, but i was under the assumption that just meant the £100 i paid. But the man today said the deposit is actually £200Pp and that i only paid the low deposit. When i questioned how exactly they think they would get another £800 of me he couldn't even answer.

Hon, I think after what you've been through you deserve a holiday, and Turkey is amazing. I would go back tomorrow. Do you have a girlfriend who would go with you?

Yeah i was going with her and my two little boys, but cutting long story short my mum was fairly young and didn't have insurance. Any money i had went to her funeral.

I'm so sorry. In that case maybe speak to the manager and explain your circumstances. If they're decent they'll refund the full amount.

Tryed explaining and he really didn't care. Said he can only cancel once full deposit was paid. Was just wondering what exactly they can do if i dont pay and tell them to F off.

In aus I would call Dept of fair trading. Do you have something like that where you are?

What is it?.

They give telephone advice on monetary disputes.

Oh right. Yeah we have advice helplines here that can deal with things. Pain.

Pain as in it takes forever on the phone to get through? Is there an online facility?

Is it a travel agent? And do you have the brochure. Can you read the small print and see what it says. That's the only thing that will tell you

Here you are - this in Thompson's small print:

12. If You Cancel Your Booking

If you want to cancel your booking, or part of it, you must contact us as soon as possible. If you have made your booking through a Travel Agency, your agent must advise us of your request to cancel. Once your booking has been cancelled you can expect to receive a cancellation invoice within 14 days. If you don’t please contact us.

To cover the cost of processing your cancellation, and to compensate us for the risk that we may not be able to resell your travel arrangements, we’ll make a cancellation charge on the scale shown below. You are responsible for paying this charge.

Guide To Our Cancellation Charges
These charges are based on how many days before your booked departure we receive your cancellation notice, and are a percentage of the total cost of your booking, not including your insurance premium. If you want to cancel one or more passengers on the booking you’ll have to pay a proportion of the applicable cancellation charge for those passengers.
Period Before Departure When Notice Of Cancellation Is Received Percentage Of Total Booking Price
70 days or more Loss of deposit
69 - 63 days 30%
62 - 49 days 50%
48 - 29 days 70%
28 - 15 days 90%
14 - 0 days 100%

Your deposit is non-refundable, even if the cancellation charge calculated is lower than the deposit amount paid. Where extra facilities or transport options, see Sections 10 and 11.4, are non-refundable, in part or in full, the cost of these will be added to the cancellation charge you have to pay.

If you booked using a Low Deposit Offer, the full deposit amount stated on your confirmation invoice will need to be paid upon cancellation.

The cancellation charge may be higher for certain travel arrangements, such as coach tours or scheduled airfares. Please ask for details of cancellation charges when you book and check your insurance policy to see if you’d be covered for the cost of any cancellation charges.

So if you booked with Thompson then the holiday is more than 70 days away so you lose your deposit, but as you paid on a Low Deposit Offer (see in bold) then you will have to pay the full deposit you would have made had you not paid on the offer

What would happen if i didnt pay the remaining deposit christine.

By far the best outcome would be if you took your boys on holiday, maybe take a mate? Then you'd have the holiday you and the lads deserve and not have the unpaid debt hanging over you.

I'm not an expert but there are places that offer help. The charity StepChange (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/StepChange) offers help online or over the phone. This is their guide to what happens if you don't pay
https://www.stepchange.org/debt-info...ollection.aspx

I actually dont understand why he requires you to pay the balance of the deposit before getting a refund. That makes no sense to me.

Sorry i should of explained better. I don't get a refund. They want another £800 just to cancel the holiday.

That doesnt seem right to me. I would definitely be taking that further, hon.

If it is Thompson, and I dunno if it is but I bet they all run along similar lines, then read my post above. He loses the deposit but he didn't pay the full deposit in the first place then he still owes the rest of the deposit