Holiday Complaints

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low deposit
7 Posts
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On your paperwork it must mention somewhere that it is a low deposit, have you checked your confirmation?

When I was a TA we had to get customers to sign to say that it was a low deposit they were paying, and that the full deposit as shown in the back of the brochure would be payable by X date. They will have covered themselves somewhere as it's normal that if someone is cancelling a holiday they are going to want to not have to pay the full deposit.

By booking the holiday you will have had to tick to say that you accept their terms and conditions, so I would've thought that you are legally binded to the full deposit and they will be able to take further action to retrieve the monies owed.

Have you checked the terms and conditions that you agreed to?
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I have a few issues with the original post, in that the poster said he was not aware he was taking out a low deposit and that he said it made no mention of this on the operators website. Firstly, at time of booking (which would have been made by an agency, not on the web to obtain a low deposit) he would have signed, along with his booking form a Low Deposit agreement, stating he would pay the balance of the Tour Operators deposit AS STATED IN THE T&C's IN THE BACK OF THE BROCHURE by a specific date, so he could not have been unaware that he was making this agreement with his agent. A low deposit works by the agency breaking the deposit into more managable chunks, but if you wish to pay the balance of your deposit at time of booking the agency will be more than happy to take that too. Secondly, there will be no mention of a low dep on the operators website as these are offered by agents to make it easier for customers to book their holiday without a large initial outlay and are not offered by direct bookings from Tour Operators.
If the holiday is cancelled, or the customers decide they can no longer afford it they are still legally bound to pay the balance of the tour operators deposit and any non-payers can often find themselves turned over to an agencies legal team to recover the balance as the agency has already paid the deposit on behalf of the customer.


For the record, I am a Travel agent, a very good one at that, with almost 10 years experience under my belt and I can assure you that any good agent is not out to rip anyone off.

(Is this the same holiday to Majora that you were posting about yesterday?, If it's due to work commitments can you not just pay an admin fee and move the dates to when you can actually travel?)
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Hi

I always book my holidays with First Choice (Eclipse) online and the low deposit does apply when booking via this method, we pay £20 per person, then pay the balance of the deposit several months later, we usually book in June for the following Summer and pay the balance of the deposit in January.

I'm afraid you will have to pay the dep. balance regardless of whether or not you take the holiday, and I imagine it would affect your credit rating should you choose not to pay it.

Philippa
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Sorry!

I'm being a bit of an airhead!

Was forgetting Eclipse hols aren't on sale in the High Street so of course I would be able to get the low deposit online :roll:

Don't know about the First Choice website, but the rest of my previous post applies, you will be obliged to pay the balance.
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i would say your best option is what has already been suggested change the date to a more suitable time this way it will probably only cost you £15 to £20 approx each person to change and you will get your holiday otherwise you will end up £600 down with no holiday to show for it, dont think you have a lot of choice unfortunately, although when its the other way round as i found out last year after i had paid my deposit and holiday was cancelled due to them making a mistake over the pricing and refusing to honour it i could do nothing about it except get my deposit back,so its 1 rule for travel agents/tour operators and another for us customers, unfair but sadly true !!!! good old airtours always let you down
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This happened to us a couple of years ago and I agree with others that you should try to change the dates.

The low deposit was definately mentioned on our paperwork, its common practice really, so we just took it on the chin.
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