Thomas Cook deposit from Family fund and the blurred boundaries

[missal]

Hi All,

 

Just looking for a bit of advice after a bit of a run in with Thomas Cook.

 

I am a single mum with 5 children eldest of whom has Autism, so we received a charitable donation towards a holiday and proceeded to book with Thomas Cook.

 

They offered us the low deposit and remainder to be paid within 8 weeks, 8 weeks came and an unexpected bill came out of my account, taking money from the holiday balance, so I called and explained, they extended for another 13 days.

 

The time came to pay and i called with my card and it was declined, we tried again for a lower amount, declined again. I was advised that if the holiday was not paid by close of business that day that it would be cancelled, at which point i asked if they could just extend for 24-48 hours and we could sort this situation out, the answer was no, the branch were not prepared to take us on 'trust' as they have done this in the past and been let down (so they can be flexible, they just don't trust us??) the remainder of the balance would then become the brances debt and if we didn't pay then they would have to.

 

At around 4.30pm I found out that the bank had carried out a routine fraud check on my card. by which time the holiday had been cancelled, as we felt backed into a corner with the advisor saying, you'll have to find some other way to pay (and we didn't have any other way) We were gutted, I haven't even broken the news to my autistic son yet, don't know how to.

 

We decided to make a complaint a while later, as we felt that we had been treat in an unforgiving way and when holidays are booked in this way, it's not black and white as far as im concerned.

 

We emailed our complaint to TC and received a call from the branch manager, basically trying to argue the point with me, my response to her was that i knew this would be their attitude and this is the reason they were cc'd into the email that was directly sent to TC complaints dept. She continued to labour the point about dates and extensions, my point was that i did call to pay, but because the bank carried out their fraud check, we are now £550 down and without a holiday, not only that we are not able to apply for family fund holiday for a further two years!

 

So part of the conversation she mentioned again the taking customers on trust (and to me this just feels like why for others and not for us?) also that there is a chance we could reinstate the holiday. I asked her to do whatever she could and come back to me with some sort of resolve for the situation. At around 5pm (6-7 hours later) I am advised that she has been trying to get hold of 'them' for 3 1/2 hours but she can't and that she feels that they will say no because reinstatements must be booked within 2 weeks (why weren't we told this when we were asking for a 24-48 hour extension and our holiday was cancelled). Also that if I am going to pursue with their customer relations dept. that i should do so as they may be able to override the branches decision.

 

I just feel wholly dissatisfied at the actions of the branch, their withholding information that would've resolved this issue, when we were trying the pay the deposit and their obvious flexibilities, when they feel like it.

 

I run my own business and appreciate risks involved but, we had a holiday costing around £5k booked with an additional family joining us at around £2k (carers and support).

 

Can any let me know if they think i can any case for appealing this matter.

 

Regards