This holiday situation

[Butterflykissess]

I'm posting this on behalf of a family member as she wanted opinions on this situation. Two friends book a holiday (for the sake of this thread i will call them jane and Lisa) they agree that they will pay off £250 a month so that the holiday is paid off in time. Lisa keeps up with the payments but jane doesnt. lisa starts to worry and speaks to jane about it jane says she will pay it after christmas, which turns into after easter and basically keeps making excuses. Anyway 2 days before the holiday is due to be paid off Jane says she needs and extension and asks Lisa to call the holiday company (which she does and they agree to a 2 week extension.) Jane insists she wll be able to pay it off in the 2 weeks. During the 2 weeks Jane says she cant get the money and says she will get a pay day loan. She doesnt get one in the end and asks Lisa if she will loan her the money. lisa doesnt as she cant afford it, shee then asks Lisa if she has anyone who can take the place. With it being such short notice Lisa struggles to find someone but eventually does 48 hours before the deadline. Lisa tells the other friend she can have the holiday and pay off the reminder and just pay for a name change. Lisa tells Jane and Jane says she wants the other friend to pay her the money back which she had paid towards the holiday. Lisa tells Jane she has 3 options, which are she either comes on the holiday herself and finds a way to pay the remaining money, pays back the money Lisa will lose from the cancellation fees or accepts she will lose the money she had paid so far. Jane says she wants the money back in installments but the other friend has already said she wont be able to pay anymore than the out standing balance. so jane asks for it back in instalments. But the other friend is unwilling and is only able to accept the holiday at the out standing amount. Jane then says just do what you want and hasnt spoken to Lisa since. What are your opinions and who is wrong in this situation?

Jane is totally in the wrong. She's booked a holiday she can't pay for and is letting down Lisa by not going.

Jane needs to accept that the money she has already paid is lost and she won't get it back from either the other friend or the holiday company. So she can either let the other friend pay the rest and accompany Lisa, or refuse to let the other friend go and make Lisa go alone. Either way the outcome is exactly the same for Jane: she loses the money she's paid. The only choice is whether she's going to ruin it for Lisa as well. If she does then she's a bitch.

Jane is in the wrong. Sod off Jane!

Jane is in the wrong as she has let Lisa down by not paying the agreed sum. She should let the money go, unless it is a large sum without much left to pay off (in which case, maybe the holiday should be cancelled and Jane’s money returned, less her and Lisa’s cancellation fees).

Lisa has offered Jane a very reasonable variety of options. Lisa should be pissed off with Jane for leaving her in the lurch, potentially out of pocket and going on holiday alone.

Lisa gave Jane the option of still paying off the balance and coming - if the holiday was cancelled Jane would have lost everything she'd paid so far yes? So she should not be expecting to recoup what she'd already paid.

Imo Jane should be apologising profusely for being a crap friend.

Jane is in the wrong. Completely.

And it always amuses me when people freely admit to being a bit thick on posts without paragraphs. Especially on mumsnet. Your post wasnt incomprehensible at all.

How much did Jane pay and how much was left to pay?

I’ve been the ‘C’ friend before and willingly paid the deposit back to the equivalent of Jane - but, this was about a month ahead of the holiday and I had been considering going with them anyway.
Interestingly it forever changed the dynamics and neither of us were friends with ‘Jane’ after the holiday.

I didnt think it was hard to read until a lot of posters complained. honestly most threads dont have paragraphs!

anyway the amount jane has paid is £800 and the holiday costs £1990.

If Jane doesn't go, is she liable for any of the remaining money owed? Or will she get any money back by cancelling?

If she will be liable she should accept bobs offer to pay the balance off and be thankful she doesn't owe more.

If she'd get some back, then I can see why she may prefer to cancel than have someone accept the place.

How much has Jane paid so far?

It depends, has Jane paid off 80% or thereabouts of it, or 20% or thereabouts of it?

If she's paid off the majority, then yes, 3rd person should pay more than just the outstanding. Last minute holidays have a discount of about 40% don't they? So I would say that anything around that mark Jane can suck it up. Because of her deceitful behavior (and it was deceitful, she had LOADS of time to either get the money together, or admit that she couldn't) she almost cost Lisa (who had done everything that had been asked of her) her holiday.

At a guess Jane assumed Lisa would bail her out rather than lose all the money on the holiday. Then Lisa would have had a snowflakes chance in hell of getting that money back from Jane - EVER.

Cross post - that's about a 40% discount. Jane needs to suck it up.

Just to add if the holiday was cancelled they would have lost the money already paid which as Lisa hasnt paid much would mainly be coming from Lisa's money. so either way jane would have lost the money if she didnt pay off the remainder.

Jane is in the wrong. Friend C has probably only agreed last minute as it was a bargain. If Lisa hadn't found someone to pay the rest then the whole booking would possibly have been lost, not just Jane's share.

Jane is a dick.
Her behaviour and lack of responsibility is totally selfish and shows conplete thoughtless to Lisa.

Other friend is helping out last minute and didn’t sign up for a full price holiday but rather the “balance price” - Jane doesn’t get to be let off the hook as she created this situation.

If I was Lisa I’d wouldn’t bother with Jane again after this

After latest OP update (Jane would have lost her money by cancelling anyway), I say tough luck Jane. She has paid £800 for a valuable lesson.

I'm going with the majority vote, and Jane is in the wrong.

She shouldn't of booked the holiday, and keep making reasons why she couldn't pay and asking for extra time, sounds like she didn't really want to go.

Jane would have lost the money or holiday anyway, so it's Jane's mistake.

Well, Jane is a very annoying flake and Lisa should remember this in future dealings. However, £800 is a lot to lose if she is struggling for cash (I have assumed due to struggling to pay). Jane shouldn't expect any money back, (because she's an idiot) but it would be kind if Lisa and friend C could come to an agreement to give a percentage. This friendship will change whatever the outcome.

Lisa wants to give a holiday potentially worth over £1000 to a friend for a fraction of the amount it costs and expects Jane to suck that up?

Jane may be a bit of a dick but Lisa is a tit too.

Jane was daft to commit to payents that she couldn't keep up.

"shee then asks Lisa if she has anyone who can take the place."

When she asked that would it have been on the assumption that nothing was paid back to her?

I doubt it somehow & I don't think that that was Lisa's call to make.

That said, Jane wasn't going to be able to go & get much/any money back was she?

As friend C saved Jane from being liable for a larger bill, she should suck it up and be thankful...

Jane hasn’t spoken to Lisa since?
Every cloud Lisa, every cloud.

Lisa wants to give a holiday potentially worth over £1000 to a friend for a fraction of the amount it costs and expects Jane to suck that up?

No, she sold a holiday worth £1990 for £1190 - but the person buying it had to make a decision in 24 hours and had no say over the destination or any of the details, so it's fair enough for them not to pay full price. £800 is a lot of money, and I can see why Jane is very upset to lose it, but this is a situation entirely of her own making - she had a long, long time to make this right and didn't.

1. It is easy enough to read- people commenting on that are just rude.
2. It's a shame for Jane to lose the money but she'd have lost it whether Lisa had found someone to pay for the holiday or not. She should have been honest/more organised from the start.
3. Lisa and new person should have a lovely holiday.

Jane should consider what she's paid as a deposit, which she would have lost anyway because of her inability to pay.

It's not Lisa's fault that Jane is incapable of being honest about her financial situation and grown up enough to come clean that she couldn't meet the deadline.

Lisa has managed to salvage the holiday by introducing Bob who shouldn't have to pay, at short notice, the full amount.

Had Lisa decided to go alone and stump up for Jane's part of the holiday, that doesn't entitle Jane to claim back the £800 she's paid either.

So Jane can sod right off for being a Larry let down and too pathetic to be up front about it. She's ruined a friendship because she's an absolute selfish turd.

She doesn't get a penny back. She wouldn't if Lisa had had to cancel, so she shouldn't now that Lisa has managed to salvage her side of the holiday.

Jane asked lisa to find someone else to take her place.

This is the outcome.

If Jane wanted the holiday sold to someone else she should have done the negotiating. Jane has been feckless and immature. But ideally Lisa should have discussed terms in detail before selling the holiday on.

I can see Jane’s upset: someone else is benefiting from her down payment.

What would have happened to Lisa’s share of the hol had the balance of Jane’s share not been paid?