AIBU to panic that I’ve just lost us £700 plus on a holiday booking

[Sleepsoon7]

I am a complete idiot. I always book flights and hotel rooms separately. I am used to price being per room as normally book direct with hotels or through third party websites that charge per room. Saw what I thought was a bargain on a major holiday company website and booked a number of nights in a hotel we’ve been to before for DH, DD and me as a treat. I realised afterwards as soon as I looked on my account on the website that the price was per person and not per room. I can’t afford £2000 plus pounds and if I cancel the website says they keep the deposit which was the £700 plus which I can’t afford to lose either. Office is shut when I tried to ring (not surprising) and MasterCard say they can’t do anything about it. I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid. DH is being very calm but has gone to bed as I’m pacing about panicking like crazy and he has to work tomorrow. I am not working tomorrow so will ring Office when they open but am so worried they won’t let me cancel without keeping the £700. Anyone any experience of similar situations and how did you deal with it / what happened. Am I totally screwed?! I am in Uk in case that makes any difference.
(No consent for any newspapers to use this in case any were interested)

If its Tui you'll have to fight tooth and nail to stop them from taking the £700 we had a similar problem

I’d phone and beg. I’ve done this before on a non refundable booking for 8 people and I accidentally did the wrong date. I phoned the hotel directly and said that I would be booking with them but I had got mixed up, I still wanted to be a customer just on a different day and they cancelled it for me free of charge.

Tweet them and see if you can swap holidays?

Ok - firstly thanks to those of you who ‘held my hand’ through the night and this morning. I really appreciated knowing there were kind people out there wishing me well.
After 15 mins or so of Muzak I got through on the phone to a very calm lady who told me despite the £2000 figure in ‘my account’ I had in fact paid in full for all 3 of us for the total time ie the £700 figure is correct. I asked her several times to confirm that the amount I had paid covered all 3 of us for the 6 nights and she said it did.
The relief is incredible. I am having a little cry whilst I wait for ‘my account’ to be updated. She resent me the confirmation email which suggested there was £0 balance to pay which had been what I relied on before I went in to ‘my account’.
The company was First Choice and the t&cs did not suggest a cooling off period. (Their website and the Tui one we’re both down undergoing maintenance in the night).
As I can’t get through to my DH to tell him, in true mumsnet fashion I have updated you all first.
I keep logging in to ‘my account’ to see if the scary £2000 figure has gone. So far still there. If still there in an hour or so I will either ring again or drive to my nearest Tui branch to see if they can check the system. I have the first name of the lady I spoke to and obviously the time of my call so if need be I can ask for them to check the tape - assuming they do actually record all calls.
Hopefully that won’t be needed and this is a happy ending...! (but I am still a little nervous I have to confess)

Yay! Does happy dance for @Sleepsoon7 !!

Great!

But why was the £2000 figure there in the first place then? This is so confusing..

Phew - what a relief! I still don’t really understand what happened? In fact the holiday cost the £700 you were expecting it to cost, but the instead of confirming you had paid in full, the company email erroneously told you you still owed more than £2,000? Glad it’s sorted anyway.

Oh - that sounds very promising Sleepsoon.

What a relief!

Oh that's good!

Where did the £2000 come from though?!

I had a NIGHTMARE with First Choice. Would never ever use them again.

Really glad this appears to be resolved OP but do follow it up.

You need to get it pulled if you don't want newspaper coverage, they don't need your permission.

Oh, just seen your call bit. No, they don't record all calls, it's random, usually a few per shift for monitoring and training purposes.

So the next question is, how can you get a £700 holiday from First Choice?! I'd like one too!!

I'm SO relieved for you, it must be such a weight off your mind.

I had a situation like this many years ago, when I'd accidentally booked expensive plane flights abroad with the wrong card....I had used my workplace expenses card, and the booking could have cost me my job and whole career! (Not allowed to be used for personal things, especially expensive flights!)

There was no possibility of cancelling or money back, so I rang the card company and the amounts were not showing yet on the card. The extremely kind card company employee explained it would take 48 hours for the transaction to go through and that if I reported the card lost, and cancelled it, the company couldn't take my money. It meant (in due course) I had to sign a form to say I did not want the booking and wouldn't be taking the flights, but it saved my skin....and my job.

Useful to know in the future. And I never made such a mistake again!

I understand not affording the 2k but if you thought it was £700, but can't afford to lose £700, then you can't afford to spend £700 on a holiday, can you.

Heh? I cannot afford to chuck £50 in the bin but I can spend it on food. Unless what you wanted the OP to say was 'if they don't refund the 700 deposit we cannot have a holiday this year' but that seems excessively pedantic.

This does sound a bit strange tbh. We are all encouraged to book flights and hotels online but whoa betide us if we get the spelling of a name wrong or a date. Especially important if you have a long haul flight and take off one day and land the next etc.

Its a minefield. £700 for a holiday sounds very very cheap. Please wait until the 'My Account' updates before breathing a big sigh of relief. If they dont record calls (which is normal with this sort of thing!) then it could be your word against their's.

We went on a flight last year to South Africa and a large family got on last stating that they had been told at check in that people would move to allow them to sit together (complete lie I suspect). They refused to sit down and were going up to random people asking if they would move. No one would but this family made a real nusisance of themselves on the flight. They had two toddlers who just screamed the place down and the family did very little to resolve.

I would phone back, ask for the same lady and ask her to confirm to you in writing that the £700 is the total cost of the holiday for all of you...

That seems cheap for First Direct and I wouldn’t be surprised if down the line, they chase you for the £2k and suggest the woman meant that the £700 was all that is due right now.

Is the site back up now? What does the booking page say the cost should be?

I really hope that it’s all sorted but I wouldn’t be totally confident just yet.

It is cheap, but given how much airlines and holiday companies must be bricking it over Coronavirus, it wouldn't hugely surprise me if they were just trying to fill places. There are some huge savings on their site at the moment. A week in Turkey over Easter at a four-star hotel for £260 AI.

This makes no sense at all. Why would it say £2000 “in your account”? What account? How did you even look at this account if the website was down?

Phew! Really glad that was sorted out - guess the £2000 was an error?

I wonder if the £2000 was the 'old' full price and £700 is what it's been slashed to. Are you going away soon, OP? As I notice they are making big cuts on holidays in the next month or two, presumably as people are cancelling or just not booking.

Phew what a relief!
Yeah I assumed the £2000 was the initial full price and £700 is the reduced price.

For everyone asking how on Earth OP got such a cheap holiday, there's a little virus thing going round at the moment that's putting people off travelling...

Phew!

Have you tried to go back to the website to see the cost? How much are they advertising it for now? That should help relieve you if you are still nervous as it wouldn't jump from £700 to £2000 overnight.