oh dear ...we have booked with eclipse over the internet with a low deposit of 80 pounds will they do the same to us when we cancel ours this week which we wasdue to go on in june?

Can we be clear about something - there is such a thing as a verbal contract. As I said earlier we often do not take in the terms and conditions that the person on the other end of the phone is explaining. It is a human trait. We ring up, we place an order and we have other things to do. So we wish the person on the other end would stop wittering on and let us get off. The low deposit schemes do have conditions - we may think that it is a case of someone trying to rip us off but they are not. We often apply conditions and if people do not abide by them then we rightly are agrieved and say so. How many times have you booked for someone to call, taken a day off and they do not turn up? I bet most people not only ring up/write whatever expressing their feelings but demand compensation - special delivery whetever. I am able to quote the questions I will be asked if I want to hire a vehicle. I used to ask the same questions when I set up such an operation. It would be very easy for me to skip through the questions and miss a change. There is a phrase 'Familiarality breeds contemp' We do the same for so many things. We do not listen.

fwh

Perhaps "velcro" could update the forum as to the outcome as it must have been settled by now......

Funny how these travel agents forget what they do/dont say. If you havent signed anything then you shouldnt have to pay. Hope you screw first choice into the ground with this one. Maybe you could also get in contact with your local trading standards people and they could advise you.

Good Lord... What have First Choice ever done to you? Thankyou to fwh for confirming what I posted earlier.

Hmm......... Ive been thinking about this one, and agree that possibly because you havent signed anything you could argue that you weren't aware of the conditions, but I am with FWH and AgentQ on the "ethics" of cancelling and not paying the remainder of the deposit.

I have booked by phone and "switch off" when they go through the spiel about terms and conditions, but I am sure they are trained to do so on every occasion.

You know, it's ever so strange the amount of people that book holidays and then "not recall" conversations happening or the amount of balance overdue letters and confirmations that get "lost in the post".

This all works two ways. Agents are not bad guys, as much as you lot seem to think they are.

I agree with fwh on this one...

I have worked for an educational helpline (purely advice, we don't sell anything!) for the last 3 years, and if I have learnt one thing after thousands of conversations with the general public it is this:

PEOPLE DO NOT LISTEN!

Particularly if they are being told something they don't want to hear, or if it involves money... I have literally told some callers the same thing 4 or 5 times, only to be asked the same question again...

y book a holiday if u arent sure if u can go ??????

Edit note by Biff
Please do not use text style in your posts

If you read the first post carefully, you'll see that she booked it on the basis that she only stood to lose £99.

Bridd

I read with interest some of the points made by fwh. Yes I can understand where fwh is coming from with the comments, but the situation was slightly different. Initially the whole process started with a visit to a First Choice shop by my wife, who discussed a number of potential holidays with the advisor. Because I wasn't there my wife wanted to check with me to see if I was happy with some of the suggestions and so subsequent conversations with the advisor were by telephone. Therefore it wasn't your normal "I would like to book a holiday with you.." routine - it was less formal if you like and more familliar.

As I said, at the time some of the holidays we were looking at were begining to be booked up (around 5 like this) and in the end became unavailable. So when the holiday we eventually booked came up we decided that a deposit of £99 was not bad - particularly as I had to check that I could get the dates of work as they differed from our original requirements. Given that the holidays we were looking at seemed to be getting booked up at a rate of knots, we were happy to pay the £99 deposit and were okay with losing this if for some reason I was not given permision for those dates from work. My wife even mentioned this reasoning to the agent who agreed.

Like I say, we were told it was a "low deposit", not a "Part deposit" with an additional amount to pay at a later date. This is really where I have the problem with it, as I don't believe there is any other instance where you pay a "part deposit" for anything. If you buy a car you pay a single deposit, if you book a caterer you pay a single deposit, if you buy a new house you pay a single deposit. A deposit is a single payment taken of off the final bill to show faith you are serious in a purchase - nowhere else do you (I believe) pay the deposit in installments.

Anyhow, there is no update to provide at this stage. The date I was given to provide the "remainder" of the deposit has passed so am just waiting to see what happens next.

Once again, thanks to everyone for their comments.

Velcro

Whilst you appear to have a strong case, this is based on the verbal information you have given to your legal contacts via your home insurance, however, it may be a different outcome once they view the "So called Contract" try not to be to confident of a positive outcome at this stage.

Travel agents have been offering this "low deposit" scheme for sometime, a few years ago, they were offering holidays with a £1.00 deposit.

I am sure the T/A and T/O are geared up for these types of cancellations, and would be very surprised if they did not seek the full booking fee.

With any deposit, most Companies in general have a minimum amount that is required and this applies to any product, although they will allow you to pay a small amount, providing the full balance of the deposit is paid at the required time.

Paying a small amount "low deposit" confirms YOUR COMMITMENT to purchase the product on offer.

Whilst I am not I favour of T/O or T/A, they are no different with their "low deposit" scheme to any other company.

I wish you luck.

Driver02

Velcro

I work for First Choice Retail in one of their shops. Im not here to defend First Choice at all. Bear in mind this posting could be about Going Places, Lunn Poly or anyone as they offer the same schemes with the same conditions.

I presume you have spoken to the Manager about this. As the booking is to be cancelled literally 2 or 3 days after booking then possibly FC Tour Operations may have let you off with a smaller canx fee - such as an admin fee. I have come accross situations like this in the past.

As an "off the record" hint to you, when someone defaults on a Low Deposit with our own in house tour operator, it very rarely goes to our legal department as we have an agreement with our tour operations department to get out of the Low Deposit and reduce any potential write off to the shop. But this isnt written in stone and it dont take this as if it is going to definately happen to you.

As a rule in my shop, we very rarely take Low Deposits over the phone as we try to avoid this situation. But if a shop or sales person is hungry for the sale then they will go to any lengths to get it.

Im sure there are legal channels you can go down but I would make an appointment to see the shop manager where you booked, lay your cards on the table, exlain to them the full circumstances and then see how it pans out from there. If you had signed the booking summary in the shop then I would say you havent a leg to stand on - but as you did this on the phone, its a case of your word against theirs and I think you will find they wlll back down - but dont ignore them, go to them and talk about it.

Lastly, you could ask to speak to the Regional Manager of the shop concerned, they are people who sit in the background and tell the shops what to do but they are perfectly able to talk to customers - so you could demand this - possibly better then going to our customer service department as you will wait an age for a response.

Please anyone else, dont look at FC as the ogre here though as any travel agent offering these schemes would do the same - but let this be a lesson to us all - make sure you are aware of the facts and use this unfortunate situation a learning curve for the rest of us.

Good luck and I hope you get it sorted.

Hi there

Booked a holiday last May for a holiday July 2005 over the phone with First Choice. They double checked all the details and when I asked what deposit I needed to pay the operator said £99.00 deposit. I duly paid this by cheque and thought no more of it. A couple of weeks later my confirmation invoice arrived and the deposit that I paid had obviously missed the invoice going out as it says the full amount is still due 8 weeks before departure.

I am now in a position that I have to cancel the holiday. On reading the information on the back of the invoice it says that if I took up the offer of a low deposit and subsequently cancel the holiday, I am liable for the difference between the low deposit and the full deposit.

What full deposit I was not asked for one at the time of booking nor was I offered this "low deposit" option. I was just told that £99.00 was what I had to pay to secure the booking!

I remember some years ago going into a Lunn Poly shop and booking a holiday and being offered the option of paying a low deposit and then the balance of the deposit was payable about 6 weeks further down the line but I was made to sign a special low deposit acceptance form.

I have written to First Choice and cancelled but have made no mention of the deposit thingy. What should I do now?

Marion

Really is a case for everyone to start reading the Terms & Conditions. We are all guilty - we assume one thing and then when it goes wrong, find out, often to our cost, that it something else. Whilst we may have sympathy for those caught out by such things it is really their own fault. Whilst not defending the TOs if they gave in everytime it happens then they would have to put up prices across the board. Then everyone would suffer. Should be born in mind that they are a business like lots of others. Only in this case they happen to be selling a holiday.

fwh

I'm not sure that I agree fwh. I think some of the terms and conditions are purposely made to be as small and obscure as possible, and if the booking is made over the phone it should be made really crystal clear if "low deposit" means a lot more due very soon that is non-refundable, and it should be made clear whether it is a low deposit or not. Travel agents are desperately fighting for survival these days and I think some of the rules and regulations of what they should and shouldn't tell customers may sometimes be getting overlooked. A few months ago I visited my local Lunn Poly to price up a package but it was too expensive. The agent tried desperately to find me something in my budget in various countries (despite my insistence on Turkey). When I got home she phoned me, completely unsolicited, 3 times over the next week with various holidays, none anything like the holiday I had explained I wanted. I felt pressurised and harrassed. I finally told her I'd booked DIY for a lot less and she stopped ringing. I have sympathy with travel agents, its lean times for them, but I do think they sometimes get carried away in their quest for a sale.
Shorty

Shorty
When I worked at Going Places we had to call the customer a minimum of two times after their initial visit to the shop, we also had to get at least 2 numbers from them. If we didn't then at the end of the week when the manager had to check through our enquiry forms (which had to be kept and were numbered!) we would have to explain why we hadn't done the above and would obviously be told off.
So whilst it was annoying for you to be bombarded with calls, plus I don't quite understand why they were offering different countries, it's not the individuals fault, blame the company
With regards to a low deposit, we had to explain the scheme to the customer and ask them to sign a low deposit agreement, which they had a copy of.

Hi GPGirl, I had no idea that it was company policy, I just got the impression the girl was desperate - I certainly have more sympathy for her now, although she did keep trying to push Majorca, Tenerife etc and I had made it clear I wasn't interested. Thanks for telling me, I learn loads on here
With the low deposit thing, I've never booked one over the phone, only in the travel agents, and it WAS made clear to me that it was a low deposit and when the rest was due. I just wondered if maybe in these hard times for travel agents, when they DO book it over the phone maybe they aren't making it clear? Not making accustaions, just explanations as a few people seem to have been caught out.
Shorty