Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

[DonkeyKong]

Hi - looking for some advice. I guess due to my own daftness, I have no leg to stand on but thought I would get opinion.

I booked a holiday online - I have done this many times with reputable companies, but this time chose the cheapest one as it was coming in around £100 less. Usually you select flights, hotel, options, etc, enter payment, and when you confirm, everything is done there and then. On this site though, having collected all the information, I just get a message back saying, "thanks - we'll call you later" with a confirmation of the hotel and flight costs, totalling £649

They rang back the next day while I was out, saying the holiday was available as per quote apart from a price change on the room which was "only £39 more". She asked if I was OK with that and I said, yes - if that was the only change - she agreed it was. I reconfirmed, "so the only difference to the online confirmation is the extra £39 - everything else is the same" ... to which she said yes. She then gave me all the prices, which I agreed to, saying since I had no paperwork with me I couldn't remember, but was happy with the original quote plus the small modification.

Anyway I get back home and see the £649 quote versus what I just agreed to pay - £802. (This is more than even the most expensive alternative, and even today, the same holiday is on their site for £649)

I called their customer services and said how come it was so much more, and they have basically said, it doesn't matter - I agreed to it. Which I did. And they have a recording of me saying so.

I asked them to listen to the call, to hear me confirm there would be only one small change, but they still maintain what was said is entirely irrelevant, since I agreed to the end price. I asked "so even though your agent lied about the changes, I am stuck with this?" The answer being yes.

As I say, probably my own stupid fault for trusting people, but my *question* is - if a company mislead you into accepting a contract in this way, am I lost as I agreed? If they had come on the phone and said, your holiday will be over £150 more I would simply not have confirmed. I have the documents through today (4 days later) and although the correct flights and hotel are booked, there is no cost breakdown at all, so I cannot see how it differs.

Do I bother with trading standards / credit card, or just mark it down to experience?

[cymruambyth]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

Are you covered by the distance selling regulations?

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

If you were lied to then you have rights, Section 75 being the main one. Instruct your bank to do an immediate refund based on the value taken NOT being the amount authorised, then rebook with a proper firm.

the holiday company you used have less rights than you, in this instance based on huge fact section 75 protects you more and you did not agree to the price charged hence you are within YOUR rights to charge it back and cancel.

Please do name and shame the firm you used......

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

You will be arguing against misrepresentation, whatever you do when you speak to your bank do not whinge just literally state that you wish to claim under section 75 for misrepresentation against the holiday purchase based on the amount charged by the holiday company being way more than you agreed verbally on the phone. They are in direct breach of contract by doing this and you simply want your money back so you can book again through a proper and honest holiday company.

thats all you need to do. If the bank (credit card company) refuse then come back here and we will help you, as an example see this from the FOS --> http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...on75.html#cs10

The main section relevant to your complaint from the FOS' perspective is shown here --> http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...section75.html

Section 75 only helps the consumer where there has been either a breach of contract, or where goods or services have been misrepresented to the consumer.

Good luck - you just need to play the game properly to get refunded fully.

[DonkeyKong]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

Hello
Thank you very much for the replies - just wanted to clarify...
I did agree to the amount I was charged on the phone. But it was on the basis that "if that is my original quote plus the £39 modification" then I agree to it as I don't have the docs on me to check. So I did agree to £802 and they have charged me what I agreed.
My argument is, that the £802 was mis-represented or miscalculated.
Does the situation still stand. They have me on record agreeing to the amount that they charged me.
Thanks again!

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

Hello
Thank you very much for the replies - just wanted to clarify...
I did agree to the amount I was charged on the phone. But it was on the basis that "if that is my original quote plus the £39 modification" then I agree to it as I don't have the docs on me to check. So I did agree to £802 and they have charged me what I agreed.
My argument is, that the £802 was mis-represented or miscalculated.
Does the situation still stand. They have me on record agreeing to the amount that they charged me.
Thanks again!

Hiya,

Ok, please answer the following:

1. Do you have confirmation of the screen confirmation at time of booking confirming £649?
2. In your original post you state that the woman told you that the price was the same as the booking quote plus £39 extra - she did not mention £800+ at this point according to you, so how can they have it on record that you agreed to £800+ unless post 1 above is slightly incorrect - please clarify as this is vital...
3. According to post 1 the call went like "I reconfirmed, "so the only difference to the online confirmation is the extra £39 - everything else is the same" ... to which she said yes" - if so, you never agreed to anything at £800+

please clarify these points for me.....

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

I did agree to the amount I was charged on the phone. But it was on the basis that "if that is my original quote plus the £39 modification" then I agree to it as I don't have the docs on me to check.

Ok so you did NOT agree to £800+ as they quite clearly stated £649 so however you look at it, as far as the phone call goes you would have always been led to believe that the woman meant it would be £649 + £39 (extra) because you stated it on more than one occasion that you presume she refers to the original quote (£649) to which she confirmed as accurate. If she didn't bother to check with you what that quote was then that is their fault - that is misrepresentation entirely hence you will win this fight so long as you stick to the wording I am using and not your own as you'll end up shooting yourself in the foot lol. As far as you are concerned at all material times, whilst you were discussing the "original quote" in your head that was always £649 - as that is what you agreed to.

So I did agree to £802 and they have charged me what I agreed.

No!! You did not, see above point

My argument is, that the £802 was mis-represented or miscalculated.

Exactly, see my first point above and use that wording in your chargeback complaint, ie you always believed the "original quote" to mean £649 which is all you ever agreed to pay, prior to agreement of the extra £39. If the quote jumped from £649 to £800 you would not have booked and at no point did the saleswoman tell you that the total would be over £800 whilst on the phone to you, hence you were lied to ie the price was misrepresented to you.

Does the situation still stand. They have me on record agreeing to the amount that they charged me.

Yes the situation stands - so long as you change your mindset because you did not agree to £800+ at no point so don't confuse things by saying you agreed to the total! that doesn't wash - they should have confirmed the total to be charged PRIOR to charging anything to your card. They did not, hence you were cheated hence you are claiming s.75 for misrepresentation and breach of contract by way of hidden price increment after the point of sale and presumed agreement.

Make sense?

[DonkeyKong]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

Sorry mate - my inability to convey this properly is making me believe this is just entirely my fault. To try and shorten:

1- The original online quote was for £649 - I have a copy of this.
2- She told me on the phone that this would need to change by £39 as the room "needed to come from a different supplier"
3- I asked "are there any other changes, like for example, the flight" and she said "no, its the same quote but with an extra £39 for the room"
4- I said, "as long as you are just adding £39 to the original quote, which I don't remember and don't have a copy with me, then I am good to go"
5- She then said, "right - I will summarise the charges, then read them all out. The total of all the charges she read out came to £802. I agreed they could charge £802 to my Visa Debit, which they have done.

Regarding point 5 - they have me, on recording, agreeing that they could charge £802 to my card. And they have done this. I don't dispute this.

My whole point here, is, instead of me listening and adding up the charges to see if they were right, I simply took her word that it was my quote plus £39. And I said, if you are charging me what you said you would, plus only another £39, then I accept your calculation of whatever the new total was.

The more I write this down, the more daft I can see this looks. Their customer services says the fact that they may or may not have lied was irrelevant. I had a chance at the final confirmation point to reject the deal, and I didn't. I should have went at the time -"why is £649 pus £39 now £802" But I didn't.

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

What firm are we talking about, then let me read their terms and find an exclusion point for you......

You should be ok, let's see once I've seen the operators terms.

Please name them, it's fine

[diddlydee]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

I don't think you are being at all stupid, DK. When shopping around, you can't possibly remember every price you looked at from each website. You clearly understood that she was offering you the deal you had accepted plus £39 premium. You also stated that you didn't know the original price as you didn't have paperwork to hand.

Don't be so hard on yourself. Personally, I would be as angry as you are to find out that I had been ripped off. I hope you can come to a satisfactory conclusion.

[DonkeyKong]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

Thanks guys. The site is sunmaster.co.uk. I just ran the quote through the site again, and the same original £649 quote is still coming back for the exact same dates.
I made a slight omission above. I did also add baggage with EasyJet - this is £18 each way for 1 bag, which the added at a total of £36 - which is correct.
So my holiday should have been original £649, plus £36 for baggage (at my request) plus the £39 they added which is £724. This means they had added £78 in addtion to the extra charges they quoted me.
cheers!

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

Ok, that changes nothing - Ive already clarified what to do above - just change the amounts I mentioned. The principle is the same, ie there were extra charges that were NOT spelled out to you nor were they accepted by you at the point of sale or earlier.

[DonkeyKong]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

Thank you very much! I will pick this up on Jan 2. Do you know if a SAR would allow me to request the phone logs they say they have of me?

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

No need mate. I linked you to a similar case on the FOS site. Read those. Forget the story but follow the outcome and the reasons why. Doing so allows you to get a flawless story in order.

Likewise se with your case, so what if THEY say they've got a recording. The issue that may involve the FOS would be, were you clearly told the total payable when she spoke to you? No. Ergo when she mentioned the agreed quote, in your mind she meant £649 plus the easy jet fee. At no point did she give you any clue as to these extra costs nor did she give you a complete run down of costs prior to completion of sale hence the contract was breached as a result of their increasing the price.

Simples.

First you must read the FOS cases I linked to above. Then call your bank and raise a chargeback based on the reasons above and throughout plus anything useful from the FOS site. That's it. For now.

The fos come later if the bank refuse. Whatever you do do not hang yourself and say too much. The little bits don't matter much it's the key breaches that you'll be claiming under (price increase without notification & misrepresentation of product & service offered)....

[SXGuy]

Re: Agreed to holiday price over phone that was not as quoted

Think what Niddy is saying, and he can slap me if im wrong. Is you need to say to the bank, please refund me the money because they price i received by email as a quote, was not the final price they took from me, therefore i have been mislead.

I doubt they will ask for much more info than that, and it keeps it clear, to the point without much room for wiggling out.