Ellie

if you actualy got into court and won please share the details with us, not just because we'd all like to gloat at their loss but because you may have set precedent that could benefit others. In my case they caved in and paid up after the court date was set but that means that it can't be applied to other claims.

steve

I gave them (Ros) a call and was advised to send a letter to Thomas Cook, as apparently emails and phone calls tend to get ignored.

They also confirmed that Thomas Cook should be dealing with the complaint (and not Airtours as TC tried to suggest) as I booked the holiday through the Thomas Cook website.

Cheers.

Hi
Sorry to hi-jack this but Steve you mention that

'In my case they caved in and paid up after the court date was set'

Which route for court did you take them through. I am thinking of going the small claims court route with Airtours but never done it before so not sure what to do!!
Thanks
Sarah

Sarah

I started my claim online at http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk - the initial fee for filing a claim is less this way. The only downside is that the system only allows you a limited amount of space to explain you claim, limit it to the basics of what they did wrong and which laws you think they are in breach of (if any). The fee is automatically added to your claim so if you win you get it back. If it goes all the way to court and you lose you can be asked to pay some of the other sides costs but there is a limit on this, they can't claim for a bus full of barristers to defend a £500 claim!

If you have filled everything in correctly a notice will be sent to the company from Northampton County Court (presumably they had spare staff!!). The company will reject the claim taking the maximum amount of time allowed (they will probably wait 14 days just to acknowledge it). If they ignore it completely and don't file a defence in time you win the case, although getting the money is still not guaranteed.

Northampton will then say they can't take it any further using the online process and will transfer it to your local county court and will send a paper form to be completed. At this point you have more space and can attach copies of documents but you should still stick to facts - "I don't think this is fair" isn't a legal case, you need to prove it to be unfair. The company will again be asked to respond and again will deny it, this time they may try to scare you by using legal terms like "absolute proof" but don't be put off, it will be a standardised letter. The court will then ask if you want to set a date to go before a Judge (or they may say the Judge will decide in private if the evidence is clear cut) and may ask for more money. If they do, wait until the last moment to pay it! The company will have also received the court date and at this point will finally stop automatically refusing and will actually consider your claim! If they think they may lose (which would be disproportionately bad for them because it would set precedent that others could use) they might send a cheque "out of goodwill but with no admission etc..." and ask you to stop the case.

Before you start you almost certainly need to read this - a wonderful piece of legislation that rules most of the get out clauses in Tour Ops T&Cs invalid!!

The "care and skill" rule in this may also be useful.

You also need to show that you have made reasonable attempts to sort it out before going to court. In my case I wrote to MYT and was told to go away. My local trading standards then wrote and were given the same answer. I contacted ABTA who said the case wasn't covered by their limited rules so they couldn't help. All this showed the court I had tried other means.