Missed payment date by 6 hours....

[sharond101]

We changed our family holiday from this year to next year after paying the full balance. After rescheduling I added an extra week to the holiday as a surprise for dh birthday so we were leaving a week earlier. The payment date moved a week earlier and although it was on the invoice I was never made aware of it and woulnt have ever thought about it. Fast forward to now and I see the payment date approaching and ask for an updated invoice (part of our payment had been refunded to us as they were holding a large sum of our money and I didnt receive any updated invoice from that.) The reply was my holiday was cancelled as payment was due the previous day and that I would lose my deposit and admin fees. I sent the enquiry email at 6am, 6 hours passed the deadline and the holiday is apparantly automatically cancelled.
We have used the company before and have recommended them to lots of people on and offline. We have always felt valued (they aren't one of the big companies like Virgin or Tui). The Managee has been really abrupt and heartless with no compassion. I feel cheated and although they have proposed to retain part of our deposit (£450) to use on another holiday in the future we will lose £550.

I am so angry with myself for not realising the date would change and with them for being so cold. They are entirely within their terms and conditions so nothing is illegal but it just seems so insensitive.

@ElizaLaLa

Take it to Twitter. I bet they backtrack then.

I agree

@MessAllOver

If they terminate the contract and keep your deposit on the basis of you paying 6 hours late, this is very likely to constitute an unfair term under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The business is only entitled to keep an amount sufficient to cover their actual losses or loss of profit. Since you paid 6 hours later, that amount would probably be nil since they wouldn't have lost anything through your late payment.

Contact the business and point out that their contractual terms are in breach of the CRA 2015. If they ignore you, contact Citizens Advice or report to Trading Standards. Let the business know that you will be doing this.

OP didnt pay 6 hours late, theybasked for an invoice then. The sum lost is small as a percentage of total cost and is likely the non-refundable amount the supplier charges them and is therefore reasonable. I can't see an complaint going anywhere in this situation.

So you had between December and now to request a new invoice and you wait until the deadline has passed to actually request it?

Wouldn’t you have normally requested this shortly after getting the initial refund to make sure that everything was recorded correctly?

I can understand from your perspective how this happened and I can understand from the business perspective that it was probably an unusual circumstance that they refunded some of your money and didn’t send an updated invoice.

If it were me, I’d call them again and see if there’s anything you can do. I mean it sounds like you were planning on paying the balance, right? If you were, use that as leverage to see if they can waive the rest of the cancellation fee if you rebook and pay immediately.

@saltinesandcoffeecups

So you had between December and now to request a new invoice and you wait until the deadline has passed to actually request it?

Wouldn’t you have normally requested this shortly after getting the initial refund to make sure that everything was recorded correctly?

I can understand from your perspective how this happened and I can understand from the business perspective that it was probably an unusual circumstance that they refunded some of your money and didn’t send an updated invoice.

If it were me, I’d call them again and see if there’s anything you can do. I mean it sounds like you were planning on paying the balance, right? If you were, use that as leverage to see if they can waive the rest of the cancellation fee if you rebook and pay immediately.

I've tried that and they are being very difficult with no compassion or attempt to see beyond the terms and conditions.

Did you offer to pay the full balance of the rebooked trip?

Regardless I think you need to get past the compassion thing. It is business and you need to approach it as such. I’m guessing at this point they have a lot of people trying to back out of trips and slow paying so are being more aggressive with their terms. So approach it as a negotiation. Ask for the full amount to be applied toward a rebooked trip with payment in full immediately...

if that doesn’t work as for half the amount they are keeping to be applied to a rebooked trip , paid in full immediately, and the remaining to be used as an admin rebooking fee. You’d still lose on this but less.

@CeeceeBloomingdale. It's not reasonable in a consumer contract unless it reflects the loss the company has actually suffered from the non-payment.

Id kick off and complain!

If you paid by credit card, then do a section 7 (?) claim. If you paid by debit card, then contact your bank explain everything and ask if they will raise a dispute

it was a bank transfer-im very wary of dealing with companies that dont take any form of card

WHO pays for ANYTHING by a bank transfer?! That's the most stupid thing you could ever do

[quote MessAllOver]@CeeceeBloomingdale. It's not reasonable in a consumer contract unless it reflects the loss the company has actually suffered from the non-payment.[/quote]
That is EXACTLY what I said!

"and is likely the non-refundable amount the supplier charges them"

i.e. the Travel Agent's loss.