you will be liable,for the remainder of the deposit.i do not think,this will be waivered,as it will be your word against theirs,as to whether,it was explained or not.
tracy

Hi

This form that you signed, was it agreeing to their terms and conditions (ie paying the full deposit if you cancelled) if so, I would think that you will have to pay it.

There is a thread a few weeks back about this same situation. I'll have a look for it for you.

Added later:- The thread is dated 10 March - its on page 2 at the moment and is titled "Low Deposit". There are quite a few answers to exactly the same subject as you raised.

Hope it helps

hiya
unfortunatly i also think that you will have to pay for it. altough you did not have the low deposit agreement explained to you, you have, by the sounds of it, signed a low deposit form. this confirms that you will pay the rest of the deposits in the event that you have to cancell.

all i can think is that you should talk to the agency manager and complain that it wasn't made clear. however im pretty sure that they will just come back to you and say that you should have read the form before you signed it.

problem with low deposits is the agents give the full amount of the deposits when you book, so it comes out of their pocket if you dont pay.

also double check your travel insurance if you took it, as you may be able to claim the amount back from this.

muzzy

You do need to cancel the holiday now - in writing. This will ensure that you do not incure further charges. I agree with the comments in the other posts and see little chance of you getting around the balance of the deposit. You have also signed and even if the terms were not spelled out your signing means you have agreed with the terms & conditions. I would also suggest that you contact your local Trading Standards. It is possible that they have had complaints about this particular branch that you dealt with. If nobody bothers to complain then there is no chance of preventing this sort of thing. It also should be a warning to everyone - don't sign anything without reading it first.

fwh

rather than cancel, you could just pay amendment fees, usually about £20 each and change the holiday to another time, you can even change destination if you want,. I did it with Portland and only paid the amendment fee.

I wonder when people will realise that paying a low deposit is only a means of enticement to get you to book your holiday there and then - you still often have to pay the remainder of the deposit a few weeks later - even if you don't you still stand to lose the normal deposit amount if you cancel.

I think this is why more and more people are doing diy holidays as apart from paying the flights up front often there is only a small deposit to pay on the accommodation. The tour operators seem to be asking for rather high deposits nowadays - if you book a cheap holiday it can be more than half the full cost!!

Pippa

Based on what you have said, I would also recommend that you cancel the holiday now. I would also check whether your insurance might cover the cancellation charges. However, I would not consider paying over a penny of the money they are asking for without first taking some advice as to whether or not you are liable to pay it.

The Package Travel Regulations state that all terms and conditions of any holiday contract must be pointed out to the customer before the holiday contract is concluded; not after. Any terms and conditions not pointed out to you before entering into the contract would normally be void and unenforceable, and such terms and conditions cannot be forced upon the customer later without their consent.

Without seeing the document you refer to, I can't comment as to whether or not you may have committed yourself legally to paying over this money by signing it. However, £500.00 is a lot of cash to shell out if it transpires that you haven't, and it is not unknown for travel agents and tour operators to try and pull the wool over their customers eyes when it comes to issues concerning liability.

You have also signed and even if the terms were not spelled out your signing means you have agreed with the terms & conditions.

This may not necessarily make a difference. Even terms and conditions which you have agreed to can be voided if they conflict with the wider rights which consumers enjoy under law, and/or the Unfair Contract Terms Act.

This case only highlights a growing trend for people to enter into a contract without proper consideration. We are seeing similar complaints on a regular basis. It seems that every case that we hear of has the same scenario. Low Deposit - Cancel - Get hit with a high charge - Claim not been told this would happen . Whilst I am not suggesting that anyone is not telling the truth I am concerned that the same story keeps being repeated. We are all guilty of selective memory at times. We are all impatient to get on with life. We are always dashing from one thing to another. Something is going wrong for this repitition - Perhaps the low deposit schemes need to be banned. Perhaps we also need to slow down as well - Maybe a cooling off period where we need to confirm the booking within 7 days. That way no one could say they did not know.

fwh

Yes thank you all for your comments/observations. In line with some of the comments here, we contacted the operator and have rescheduled the holiday for next year. We have suffered a loss in the process but not as great as if we had paid out the 500 pounds. So we feel reasonably happy with the end result. We've been a bit naive here I know, but I do believe that these things do need to be stated a little more explicity.
Anyway thanks to you all again you helped us to resolve our problem.

mallman, glad it's sorted!!

I booked a holiday today for 2006 to Turkey with Thomas Cook and was offered a low deposit of £99.00 with the balance of the deposit payable in September. They asked for a credit card number to take the balance in case of my non-payment or cancellation and I had to sign a form to say that I understood this amount would be collected. In my experience, if the deposit is less than £100 per person, then it is usually a 'low-deposit offer' where the balance of the deposit is always payable a few weeks/months later.

Pleased you were able to re-schedule your holiday though Mallman!

Cazz

I have a little inside knowledge on this subject. Going Places can cancel the holiday with the operator at the Low Cost Deposit collected from the customer within 2 weeks of the deposit remainder due date. (for example you pay £50 of the £110 deposit when you book and the remaining £60 is paid by GP on behalf of you which you then re-pay to them within 8 weeks of booking. If however you fail to pay this money GP can contact the operator before it reaches 10 weeks from your booking date and cancel at £50) They would however prefer to amend your holiday as they don't want to lose you as a customer, which I'm sure you can appreciate.

I thought you may be grateful for a little more insight and some knowledge in case you find yourself in the same situation again.

eaje84 comments are true, however I just wanted to clarify that this does not mean that the customer should be let off paying the full deposit (which I don't think eaje84 was applying by the way).

The agent is sometimes able to cancel with the operator at the low charge as effectively a "gentleman's agreement", however, the agent is still entitled to pursue the customer for the full deposit, as the money the agent saves makes up for those bookings where they have been unable to recover the full monies.swings and roundabouts

The agent is sometimes able to cancel with the operator at the low charge as effectively a "gentleman's agreement", however, the agent is still entitled to pursue the customer for the full deposit.

And in turn, the customer is entitled to query the reasonableness of having to pay such a charge under the Unfair Contract Terms Act; particularly in situations where the holiday in question has subsequently been sold to somebody else and the tour operator has not made a loss.

Remember that the contractual relationship in such cases is between the tour operator and the customer; not the customer and the travel agent. The travel agent merely acts as the agent of the tour operator, and if they incur any losses as a result of a cancelled booking, then that is an issue which needs to be thrashed out between the travel agent and the tour operator; not the travel agent and the customer.

The Office of Fair Trading has been expressing concern over the potential unfairness of cancellation charges for a number of years now, and judging by recent case law, the courts would seem to have their doubts as to whether terms in holiday contracts which claim the right to impose such charges give tour operators an unfair advantage to the extent that it breaches consumer protection legislation, also.

A customer who incurred cancellation charges of 100% of the holiday cost for cancelling a holiday 14 days before departure recently took the tour operator to the small claims court, and won the case. The judge ordered the tour operator to refund 50% of the cost of the holiday, stating that in his view, the tour operator had had plenty of time left to resell the holiday to somebody else!

From where I'm sitting, it looks to me as if the days where tour operators could rely upon having this one all their own way are well and truly numbered.

We still however return to the original problem - Did the agent tell the client that they would be liable for additional costs if they cancelled? - I have no intention of accusing anyone of not telling the truth, but, the question keeps arising not only on this site but elsewhere. I have no doubt that in some cases they have not done so. I also have posted before that we can often be very selective in what notice we take of terms & conditions. There is also the fact that the agents are taught to tell people certain things. It is in effect a script that they have. I know because having been on courses and taught customer facing staff there are certain things that you are required to do by law. If people take the attitude that they can book and cancel with impunity then everyone will suffer. Ask yourself a simple question. If it was your business what would you do.

fwh

We still however return to the original problem - Did the agent tell the client that they would be liable for additional costs if they cancelled?

Agreed. However, in the absence of being able to produce any evidence to demonstrate this, the issue still boils down to the agents' word versus that of the customer.

agents are taught to tell people certain things. It is in effect a script that they have. I know because having been on courses and taught customer facing staff there are certain things that you are required to do by law.

I don't doubt that there is a script that agents are supposed to follow; however, I am equally sure that not all agents manage to stick to it 100% of the time. We all make mistakes, and human nature being what it is, there will always be those who seek to deflect the blame onto someone else when they make mistakes; particularly if it is a mistake which is likely to cost money and possibly result in them getting into trouble. Not that I am suggesting that it is always the agent's fault in situations like this, as I am sure that it is not.

If people take the attitude that they can book and cancel with impunity then everyone will suffer.

Actually, that isn't strictly true. Not everyone would suffer - just tour operators; although given the way in which some travel companies seem to take the attitude that they can ignore whatever aspects of consumer law they please with impunity once they have pocketed their customers' money, should we really be suprised if members of the public decide to turn the tables on them and play them at their own game if the opportunity presents itself? As the saying goes, people who live in glass houses...!!!:wink:

Ask yourself a simple question. If it was your business what would you do.

I would make sure that a taped record of all such calls was kept to protect my interests; as indeed many businesses which sell goods and services do these days, as a matter of routine. Problem sorted.