Fuck fuck fuck just lost £600 due to our own stupidity

[Changedname1468]

Help. DH just booked a ferry crossing. It came to £600. Which was already steep. As he booked it, I had a look on my phone and realised it was only £400 if booked through a benefit scheme I am member of. He had just verified payment but said no worries and cancelled it straight away within 5 min of booking and paying (not that it mattered) and I booked it at the cheaper price. I asked him to print the cancellation off and saw that the cancellation fee was £600. It doesn't look like the ticket was refundable. I feel absolutely sick that we have basically just lost £600 (and paid basically £1000 for the ferry crossing). I'm not sure what I'm expecting anyone to do. One of us will ring them tomorrow but I'm not having any hope. Any words of advice or stupid fuck ups you did and how long it took you to recover from it?

That's incredibly fortunate @HellsBells67 !

Slightly different but we didn't realise we'd been paying the AA for breakdown cover monthly for 10 months AND the same to Greenflag!

I rang AA and pleaded with them and they refunded the whole 10 months worth. Couldn't believe it!

It's dfds. I will contact them tomorrow and plead my case. Trying not to despair quite yet.

Try the line that the card payment online said it had failed.you didn’t receive a confirmation. So you booked again. Now you see that you have booked twice. This has happened to me in real life with an easy jet holiday.

ADHD here. Regularly book things for wrong time day place etc. trying my best to avoid but I have a reputation amongst friends and family…they have started to double check my bookings (and I have started paying a fee quid extra for cancellation options 😂😂🤪🤪 I am pretty good at organising things for the DC but seem to run out of sensible for me.

I once booked non-refundable flights to Cuba but when DH came home from work he told me that there was no way he wants to go to Cuba. It took me 2 days to pluck up the courage to call customer services and beg for a change but the customer service chap was lovely and said he’d just refund me.

Dont lose hope just yet.

We had to change a DFDS booking from just the ferry to a mini break including the ferry for 7 people and DFDS were happy to do it on the basis we booked the mini break before they cancelled the ferry that had been booked originally. I was impressed with their customer service so I think you will be fine albeit you may just get the £400 back.

Am fairly hopeful you’ll get some money back. Although the stated policies are often black and white, if it’s a long time in advance and a genuine error, then I think they will often refund.

We both needed emergency passports this year - £450 plus a day lost in Peterborough. Totally our fault.

Once paid over £1k to get our newish car sorted when it broke down - only to later realise it had an extended warranty so would likely have been covered.

I thought there was a law that if it was cancelled within 24 hours of the booking they have to refund it? This happened me with easyJet once, I immediately called when I had booked the wrong month and they refunded it all minus a tiny admin fee

I have booked duplicate tickets with GWR and they were non refundable and they have allowed me to cancel one! Good luck

Oh OP, just another idiot tax story to make you feel better.. my FIL left his car keys on holiday in Morocco, got back to Gatwick and obviously couldn’t find them. Then had to get a 2 hour taxi home to pick up the spare, a 2 hour taxi BACK to Gatwick to then pick up the car.

I used to work in travel and know that if you cancel within 24hrs of booking, you get a refund. EasyJet / Ryanair do this, even Avanti West Coast on their non refundable tickets.

I would ring rather than email since this is time sensitive mater

Well, technically they did allow us to cancel the ticket. They are just also keeping the money.
I'm in between feeling like laughing and crying. Worse case scenario this will become a story of emotional support to future mumsnetters in similar predicaments.

Really? That would be great. It was literally minutes between paying and cancelling the first booking.

true re 24 hour period to cancel in travel - should say in small print.

Explain.you and dh both booked tockets on your different devices, oops silly you guys both doing it. Obviously you don't need both so would they please mind ever so much helping.you cancel properly. Be really friendly and thankful. If that person can't, thank them for their time and ask if there's anyone higher up who might have the authorisation to make an exception. I think there's a decent chance.

@Changedname1468 Sorry for your predicament OP. This is what Citizens Advice says: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/changed-your-mind/cancelling-a-service-youve-arranged/
Specifically:
When you don’t get 14 days to cancel
If you went into the business’s shop or premises to arrange the service you won’t get this cooling-off period.
You also won’t get a cooling-off period for:

• accommodation (eg a hotel room or a short-term let)
• transport of goods (including courier services)
• vehicle rental services
• catering or leisure activities for specific dates (eg hotel and restaurant bookings, theatre tickets, catering for a wedding or party)*

For these services you’ll have the same cancellation rights as if you were making arrangements for them from the seller’s premises.

*I fear that as your ferry booking is for a "leisure activity for specific dates" that the 14-day cooling off period won't apply. However, I still think it's worth contacting the ferry company to see if there's anything they can do. Have you actually looked at the company's cancellation policy on their website? It's well worth doing this.
Good luck!

I had never heard of this. Is this at the discretion of the business or is it a legal obligation even when the booking conditions explicitly say the ticket is non-refundable?

• “Not a UK law:
• This is a common practice, not a strict legal requirement for all bookings in the UK.
• Airline dependent:
• Policies vary widely. Some airlines offer free cancellations, others charge admin fees, and some provide no refunds.
• Booking method matters:
• Direct bookings with airlines are more likely to fall under their 24-hour policy than bookings made through online travel agencies or smaller agents.

Pretty sure it is entirely discretionary, the 24 hour mistake thing.

Maybe some ombudsman ruling or something?

But actually a lot of companies aren’t completely rigid in any case, and you will find a nice, helpful human.

Yup. Playing the stock market 😆

@Changedname1468 I would be straight on the phone right now speaking to someone. They will often have people on overnight because of time zones etc. It is worth a shot and I do think you will get it back. I worked for two ferry companies and both would definitely refunded in these circumstances especially considering you have another booking

I booked various hotels in Thailand in January for our August holiday, they were booking where you pay on arrival or just slightly before. I booked a selection and then cancelled the ones we didn’t want around April time once we had confirmed our itinerary. I completely forgot to cancel the one accommodation I’d booked via agoda and the week before we travelled in mid Aug, I saw a payment ping up on my phone for £895 saying agoda. I had an absolute panic. Convinced I’d lost the money from forgetting to cancel. They were actually really good and refunded me a few days later. Fingers crossed OP

@Changedname1468 And this is what DFDS's FAQs on their website (www.dfds.com/en-gb/passenger-ferries/customer-service/faqs) says, specifically:
I’ve cancelled my booking, will I get a refund?
Refunds for cancelled bookings depend on the ticket type purchased for Dover – Calais/Dunkirk routes.

Economy Ticket: No, this ticket is non-refundable.
Premium Ticket: Yes - cancel up to 48hrs before your booking crossing time.

Refund requests must be submitted in writing within three months of cancellation. For full details, please refer to the Terms and Conditions agreed upon during booking.

Not the same at all, but I bought my DC's school shoes online from big name shoe shop this year. Pop-up stated that if I spent £50, I would receive a £10 discount.

However when I tried to enter the code it says it was invalid. I sent a message to the chat, got a very apologetic response within 15 minutes offering me a personalised code for £15 off ("I hope this has restored your faith in our brand."). Entered code, all good.

However, out of interest, I then read the T&Cs of the original discount to see that school shoes are exempt from the code. Oops.

However, they were quite sneaky in giving me the pop-up at the point at which I had put said school shoes in basket

Also doesn't matter anyway as DC has rejected said shoes and they need to go back

Anyway, good luck OP, hope you have success tomorrow.