I need your help guys please.

Be very, very nice to whomever you speak and don't make threats no matter what they say initially. Everything is negotiable.

Smile on the phone and say please a lot e.g. please let me speak to a supervisor. Please let me speak with somebody who can use discretion.

I cannot see what 'real' charges Cosmos could incur within 24 hours. No holiday company can afford bad publicity at present.

How you get on? I hope this has a happy ending.

Martenkay wrote (see)

I cannot see what 'real' charges Cosmos could incur within 24 hours. No holiday company can afford bad publicity at present.

I believe many companies make an instantaneous booking with the airline when you book, otherwise they'd be unable to guarantee you the flight.

I think the truth is that this happens quite a lot, it's routine for them and you're unlikely to get anywhere appealing to their good nature.  M..o.use - the t & c's look pretty clear to me.

I hope you get things sorted KK

Something kind of similar happened to me...I was booking two seperate breaks to club la santa earlier on this year (one for a training camp and one for a race) - one phonecall and £100 deposit for each week.  When chatting with my daughter afterwards she said - you do realise that that first week is the date that your grandbaby is due!  I phoned straight back to CLS and they told me I would lose the deposit for the first week - now I've booked numerous breaks with CLS and actually know the staff to talk to.  But no matter what I said they would neither refund the deposit or use it to pay for the second holiday.  No movement whatsoever.

(Incidently the baby was born on when we would have been away for the first break)

I've just posted this on FB

We did it wrong because we're morons. Basically we thought the calendar was on Feb cut it had defaulted to Dec, we were both tired and distracted and D phoned up this morning and pleaded incompetence. They weren't going to have it but he made a very good plea about the morality of the situation, and he talked the manager into a full refund barr £140 processing fee. WHEW! THANK YOU COSMOS!

I'll add to this that their first offer was the same holiday at feb half term, but the price was out of our league. I think they felt sorry for us because D did say that it was completely our fault and we thought they were under no legal oblgation etc to refund.. he did point out that he knew the rules were there to protect the company from people pulling out late when they could have resold the holiday at an earlier date, but he said that realistically they couldn't tell him that they would have sold that holiday for a flight date within a week, from the time we made the booking last night to first thing this morning.

Thanks everyone for the replies, really appreciate it. We have learnt a £140 lesson.

I was desperately wondering this morning if I could sell a holiday on Ebay!

I'm really pleased you got a resolution, even if it did cost you £140.  Even £140 is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow but better than what it could have been.

I was a bit worried you were going to be stuck with a very large credit note, which isn't always a useful solution.

I did sit and try and read the distance selling regs for you but they were very, very hard to read.

M..o.use wrote (see)

I'm really pleased you got a resolution, even if it did cost you £140.

I was a bit worried you were going to be stuck with a very large credit note, which isn't always a useful solution.

I did sit and try and read the distance selling regs for you but they were very, very hard to read.

 

Thanks for trying Mouse, it's all a minefield. I spent ages reading stuff first thing this morning and thought the exact same.

Glad it got sorted. What a horrible moment of realisation  that must have been.
Hope you get a holiday soon

Glad you had it sorted out.

D has sent an email to the company along the lines of; in the light of so much bad press about companies and disputes etc, that it was really good to witness someone solve this with a bit of compassion and common sense.

gingerfurball wrote (see)

I hope you get things sorted KK

Something kind of similar happened to me...I was booking two seperate breaks to club la santa earlier on this year (one for a training camp and one for a race) - one phonecall and £100 deposit for each week.  When chatting with my daughter afterwards she said - you do realise that that first week is the date that your grandbaby is due!  I phoned straight back to CLS and they told me I would lose the deposit for the first week - now I've booked numerous breaks with CLS and actually know the staff to talk to.  But no matter what I said they would neither refund the deposit or use it to pay for the second holiday.  No movement whatsoever.

(Incidently the baby was born on when we would have been away for the first break)

It was made worse for us because this money was the fruits of some sort of policy that d has had through work for years, and I mean years. We don't just get £2000 potentially spare in one go and it's a lot of money to us. We earmarked this money for a holiday 2 years ago when he mentioned when the policy would mature.

I know this sounds like a sob story and I don't mean it to be so, but the look on his face last night when we printed out the holiday confirmation made my heart sink for him.

If you were a known customer, I'm surprised they didn't let you transfer that money.

This is the thing, a more global question about business etc... When should rules actually be rules and when should cases be taken on their own merit with a bit more of a human touch?

kittenkat wrote (see)

 and he talked the manager into a full refund barr £140 processing fee. WHEW! THANK YOU COSMOS!

Glad they resolved it in a way you find acceptable.

Sounds like D handled the situation well, some people lose their cool and make a situation irredeemable! Everything is negotiable if you speak to a person that can make decisions. Well done you two.

So now KK, where are you off to on that holiday?

acdcgirl wrote (see)

So now KK, where are you off to on that holiday?

D was looking online again tonight, but I just said 'not tonight'.

In realistic terms for a family of four in half term, the canaries. But the hike in price in the school holidays is hideous. No wonder families want to go in term time (me included). But as a school governor I'm conflicted of course.

I'm just going to go and rock slowly in the corner.