I am having major problems with sun 4 U and are in the process of taking them to ABTA. They have taken £600 from my account without my permision and are now claiming that it is for a Low Deposit Scheme that we suposed to have entered into. We face losing £900 because we have pulled out of the holiday due to lack of confidence. If anyone else has experienced similar problems and have reported them or are thinking of reporting them I would be interested in hearing from you. If you would like to contact me personaly * Removed *

** Edit to remove email address for member's online security. luci HT Mod **

Did they offer low deposit when you booked? How much deposit did you pay and what was the total cost of the holiday? If you paid a low deposit then they will take the remainder of the balance.

No Low deposit scheme was ever mentioned or enteren into. But they say it is a verbal agreement and we have to prove otherwise. They are very dismisive, offensive & they are using our ridiculous law to take inocent people to the cleaners.

The law isn't ridiculous, but it sometimes gets misquoted by dodgy characters who are then believed by the victims.

You don't have to prove anything to them, they already know the truth whatever it is.

If you have a genuine case and they don't refund the disputed money you would to have to make a claim of unauthorised debit from your card to the card company. If the card company thinks this falls under their powers they would then ask SUN4U for their authority and would expect something more substantial than an allegation. If it falls outside of the card company's powers then you would have to go to a county court case. There you would give your story and SUN4U would give theirs. In both cases if they wanted to claim you had a verbal contract I think it likely they would be expected to produce a recording, these days any company trading over the phone for this sort of money can be assumed to keep recordings.

Was this booked over the phone? If not why do they claim you have a verbal contract? And how long ago did you book it because you should have had something in writing to confirm it unless you cancelled really quickly.

The problem we have here, and this does prove the the Law IS stupid and ridiculous, if you purchase something with your debit card, you have given the company or the buyer your bank details. In doing so you have allowed them legal access to your bank. According to HSBC and the banking profession and CAB once you have released you bank details, that person can now withdraw as much money as they wish without anyones permision. By giving them your details you have given them unrisrticted access, by law; check it out.

The other problem we have is the issue of a verbal contract. A verbal contract, a conversation or deal over the phone or face to face, is regarded by british law as a legal contract. It is part of the Distance Selling regulation act 2000. This means, and i have had it clarified, if I phone you up and we talk, after the conversation I can take your car and sell it. I would then claim that the conversation we had involed you giving me the car as a gift that I can sell to help me out. By law that is a verbal contract even though there is no evidence of the coinversation. It is now you responsibility to pay for a solicitor and prove in court that the verbal contract did not take place, unitl you can do this the contract stands and the car is mine. This, unfortunately is our ridiculous,pathetic English Law. Check it out, you money is not protected any any shape or form if your purchase online, by phone or anywhere if you buy using your card.

A verbal contract does not have to be recorded in any shape or form.

According to HSBC and the banking profession and CAB once you have released you bank details, that person can now withdraw as much money as they wish without anyones permision.

Have you got that in writing?

It's probably true if you give someone like a relative the details to go shopping with but not if you give them to a supplier for a specific transaction. I've had a company take the details I gave them a year earlier and make an unauthorised debit from my account. One 10 minute visit to the bank, one form and shortly later the money came back because he couldn't show any record that the payment had any authority.

Not in writing but out of the horses mouth from an HSBC Bank representative and a CAB official.

I think you've managed to confuse each other about the rules.

You didn't say whether SUN4U sent any documents beofre you cancelled . Come to think of it, they should have sent something when you cancelled just to confirm it. Their website conditions don't mention any low deposit schemes.

The Distance Selling Regulations do not apply to holidays.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2000/20002334.htm

I have checked all there documentation, i.e. Brochuer, FAQ, Website, booking pages, online terms and conditions, none of these sources mention a Low deposit scheme. The only mention is on the invoice at the back in the Terms and conditions. Funny that.

I am in the process claiming it back, but it will be a dificult process. I need other people who have suffered at the hands of Sun 4 U to come forward and help put a stop to this companies antics once and for all.

Now you're talking sense. It doesn't help that we have three seperate threads running about this crowd, I've left a message for admin to see if they can be merged. What it needs is for the affected people to get in touch with each other and then make a coordinated complaint to the trading standards office in Birmingham, which by a wonderful coincedence is one of the better ones!

Oddly enough, Low Deposit has appeared on their home page in the last 24 hours or so, since it was raised here. I wonder if they are watching on the quiet.

However it does not state Low Deposit Scheme. It implies that you pay a low deposit for your holiday, which is what we did, until they took out a further £600. Now they refuse to refund the £900 they owe us. How can we communicate with each other away from this forum if the moderators will not allow us to expose our email or other contact details?

That would be great; we could all put our complaints to good use and take this company to task.

Come on moderators find a way that we can communicate and share documentation and ideas that will help all of us resolve this problem and get a refund or the compensation we deserve. I am in a communication with another person from another site who is experiencing the same problems as me with SUN 4 U.

This company is creating a lot of misery for a lot of families and they are sitting back and laughing and earning £££££'s at our misfortune.

It does state that a further deposit is due July and that terms and conditions apply.

Scrapion,

there is a way for people to communicate but as a new member you can only reply at present. It's the Personal Message system which is accessed from the top of any screen where it (presumably) at present says "0 new messages". If anyone does contact you that will change and if you click on it you get what looks like an email account.

If you discussed "low deposit" on the phone you may have weakened your case, it is an industry expression which most Tour Ops are using. They will claim it's meaning is in common use, which isn't true but it muddies the water!
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Sunaddict

that mesage wasn't there when this complaint started and their T&Cs only mentioned a single deposit payment

Steve
Thanks for that. I wonder if they put it on when Summer 2011 went on sale?

Maybe they will have same flow sale by 2011...

Sunaddict wrote:

It does state that a further deposit is due July and that terms and conditions apply.

It might say that a further payment is required and that terms and conditions apply, buit the terms reference a Variable Deposit payed at variable times, not a Low Deposit Scheme.

It is not transparent and in that they have breached the ABTA Code of conduct on many levels. E.G ABTA standards on website and online trading, Standards on brochures and booking conditions and ABTA generic Code of conduct.

They also breach the Teletext Code of conduct.

They are very naughty people, however, I am a very determined individual who will not allow a company of any sort to take money from me or my family. I am also pretty clever and very resourceful.

should anyone wish to help on this matter and get together look for scrapion on twitter. follow me and lets talk.

Lets give them what they deserve.

If you manage to get an organised band together the details for Birmingham Trading Standards (because that's where they are based) are shown at http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/tradingstandards , currently about half way down the page but it could get updated.

Hi all. Am afraid merging the threads together might throw the conversations out of sync as they will go in date of post order. We could put all threads in one forum however?