Here’s a quick question for you.
How often when you purchase a product or service and are asked to read the small print before signing do you actually read it? Or how often do you simply grunt a ‘Yeah that’s fine’ before jotting down your signature or ticking a box online?
I’ll be honest, as an avid Apple customer, I don’t think I’ve ever read the 85 pages of text that accompany an update on my iPhone so I have no idea whether I’ve just signed up to sell my soul to Tim Cook or if Apple have suddenly gained granted a share of every penny I have to my name.
Obviously, that’s not something that’s written into Apple’s Terms and Conditions (I hope), but at the same time, you could argue that I take that risk every time I don’t read the T&Cs in full.
And it’s the same with any other kind of purchase – including your annual holiday overseas.
It’s an issue that has hit the headlines this week following the story of a family in Manchester who thought they had managed to secure a dream break to the USA at a price that was too good to be true.
Sadly for them, it was.
Kristopher Meredith and partner Paul Hales were looking to book a 15 day break to Florida for a party of six and were quoted around £1,400 – not per person, but in total.
By contrast, a quick search on flight site Skyscanner this morning for a return flight to Orlando next summer brings up prices of around about £400 for flights alone, before accommodation is even taken into account.
While the pair paid a deposit of £750 on the American break, holiday company Thomson then emailed to say that the booking had been cancelled and offered a refund of their deposit, with a pricing error having resulted in the discounted rate being offered.
Mr Meredith is now threatening action to force Thomson to honour the price but - whilst the argument could be made that Thomson should have noticed the error - the company itself has something on its side.
Such an issue is written into its terms and conditions as below:
‘If there is an obvious error on the Confirmation Invoice we reserve the right to correct it as soon as we become aware of it, but we will do this within 7 days of issuing the Confirmation Invoice or, if your departure is within 7 days, no later than 24 hours before you go. If any of these changes are not acceptable then you will be entitled to a full refund.’
It’s also something that it also written into the ABTA Code of Conduct, which all holiday companies operating legally in the UK must adhere to.
If such a pricing error occurs and the contract with a tour operator hasn’t come into effect – usually when a confirmation invoice is sent – then any money paid will be returned to the customer.
If the contract has come into force and the due date for the balance to be paid hasn’t been reached – as in this week’s case – then the Code of Conduct (and usually the booking conditions) allows the operator to cancel the booking and refund the money.
Even if the balance date has passed, it can be argued that a contract is void due to a mistake and a refund can be provided, although there will no additional levels of compensation.
For that reason, ABTA advises that you should ALWAYS check the booking conditions – that way you’ll be sure of exactly what you are signing up for.