Just after a bit of help if anyone can. Booked our holiday with Direct Holidays over the phone in July for next year and paid a deposit of £62.00. Was told another payment of £90.00 each had to be paid in September. So in total I've now paid £242.00 Since then events have taken hold and it has meant this is now a luxury we can't afford so I checked the booking t's & c's that came with my invoice and it says due to the notice I've given all I will lose is my deposit. Have heard nothing from them so rang today chasing it up and was told that we would lose a deposit of £120.00. The problem is I don't have any paperwork to say the deposit was £120.00 and all I was told was it is in the terms and conditions. I'm looking all through the terms sent to me and nowhere does it say that. The rep kept referring to terms on the website and how I would have had to agree to them when I booked. Needless to say I got nowhere and tried to speak to the manager who was on lunch break at 4.50pm?? I asked for a call back at 7.30pm but am still waiting. I've checked on their website and have found the section he is referring to that is titled Low Deposit saying the loss of deposit would be £120.00. My argument is that why would they issue a set of terms and conditions with my invoice that is a different document to those listed on the website and how would I know which I would be agreeing to. Surely this can't be right? I'd be grateful of any advice Thanks in advance Helen

Thanks for your reply. Does this mean that even though he didn't sign the contract, the fact that he continued working means he accepted the terms by his performance? Therefore it doesn't matter whether its signed or not. That seems unfair! What is the correct way to object to a clause. Obviously for an income you would still need to carry on working but this goes against you? It is a company where the owner likes to play God. He lays people off almost like a punishment. My husband was asked to work this coming bank holiday weekend as a planned maintenance job had come in but he had already booked holidays off and we had made plans to go away for the weekend. Reading between the lines I think he has been laid off because he said no to working. I'm pretty sure this wouldn't have happened had he arranged to work. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about this.

My husband was laid off from work yesterday. He is an engineer in full time employment and has worked for this company for just over 2 years. He was given his contract of employment after 3 months and in it was a statement about the company having the right to lay people off with a rate of pay at £14 a day for 5 days in any 12 week period. But ... he didn't sign it as he didn't agree with the terms. Since then the company folded but continued trading under another name so he continued working for them. There was no reissue of contracts and the contract of employment that he didn't sign states it is made between "The original company name" and my husband. My questions are, is this a valid contract if it wasn't signed. If it is, is it still valid now the company name has changed? Therefore can the company lay him off at only £14 a day. Some advice is desperately needed as we need his income and can't readily afford solicitors fees. Can anyone help? Thanks Helen

Yes I did misunderstand - sometimes I need it explaining in more detail. I should have more confidence in myself really. Thank you all for your help and I'll get back to you with some results soon I hope.

So therefore he is kind of right surely. If we lose the judge would award costs against us. I know the chances are slim but if it happened would the judge order that we pay their solicitors costs that could amount to thousands even though the actual claim is below £1000?

Well its been more than 14 days. I've sent for the forms from the court but my husband is a little less enthusiastic about taking the matter to court because he thinks if we lose we may have to pay their costs. Its making me worry now and I'm not sure what the likelyhood is. I've read that this would only happen it we brought a frivolous or malicious case to court. Any input on this would be a great help as I want to go to court.

How can they have replaced the flywheel under warranty when the car is out of warranty? Is there a recall for this fault? And if the flywheel has been the cause of failure to the clutch then it is consequential damage and therefore should be part of the repair surely. They will prob say that the clutch is a wear and tear item therefore not covered but how long would the clutch have lasted if it wasn't for the flywheel? You need to find out what the actual faults of each of the parts replaced were. It could all be consequential damage. If you've got full main dealer service history then you could go down the route of goodwill first of all. The dealer can contact Peugeot on your behalf. If they are being difficult then contact them yourself, its worth a shot.

Sorry but I don't think you will get anything out of this now. I can only speak from experience as I don't have a whole lot of knowledge on this. We had UPVC windows fitted by a local company, all in all they were bodged so eventually I put them in court and asked for a full refund. They defended the case but turned up to court so unprepared that the judge posponed the hearing to another date, by which time they ceased trading and never showed up to the final date. We won the case but it never got paid out. I think you should just cut your losses and leave it. They wouldn't show up to court as the company no longer exists which means yes, you would probably win by default but then its a case of trying to get your money. The problem is even if there is money available once the company has been wound up there are other creditors to be paid off before they would get to you and they would probably run out of money way before then. I sympathise with you though, theres nothing worse than being stung like this.

I say stick to your guns. You would definately have a case but like mine 'Hopeless holiday in Turkey' they will try to fob you off every step of the way. Return your holiday vouchers along with your letter back to them, its such a worthless gesture that you wouldn't want to keep them! Their holiday to you has let you down but your £3000 won't have let them down in any way, shape or form! They might try to steer you towards complaining to their governing body ABTA but your grievance isn't with them as they didn't sell you the holiday. I'd say you were entitled to a full refund due to breach of contract through misrepresentation. Just to let you know the 14 days I've given my holiday company is up tomorrow and I've had no response. I wouldn't be surprised if they were calling my bluff to see if I will put them in court. I will and I'll let you know the outcome. As for you, good luck and I hope you get somewhere.

I don't know what your rights are on this but I work for a main car dealership and see customers on a regular basis who have bought cars from Carcraft and who come to us with the NAC Guarantee completely unaware of the small print and how it can catch you out. I think that with regards to your warranty there isn't anything you can do now to reinstate it as you've failed to comply with the terms and conditions but you may have some comeback with Carcraft themselves if they have failed to inform you of the terms of the warranty. Too often sales people sell vehicles with warranties that "cover everything so you'll have nothing to worry about", without highlighting your part in the agreement. They also fail to pass on that diagnosis of the fault cannot be claimed back through the warranty and is chargeable to the customer. Warranties like these generally will only cover replacemnent of the failed component. Also were you sold the vehicle knowing that there was no service history and if so should they be warranting a vehicle at all that hasn't been properly maintained? And if Landrover state the service intervals are 12000 miles or 12 months isn't this good enough? All I can tell you is that there are postings on other sites that say NAC Guarantee is wholly owned by Carcraft themselves and if this is true in my opinion they are failing to pass on the service regulations of the warranty in order to profit from the sale without any future outlay. Hope you get somewhere with this. It sounds very unfair!

Ok thanks In that case the letter will be going out to them today and they'll have 14 days. They asked for contact telephone numbers but I didn't want to include them as I get a bit panicky in these sorts of situations and I wouldn't want to leg myself up on the phone. Watch this space ...............

This is what I thought I might have a problem with if it came to court. We didn't take a camera. Long and short, our camera broke and we decided not to replace it until we got a pc which wasn't until Jan, then get a digital one ... Therefore no photographic evidence. We're a bit behind with the times! I only have a medical report from seeing the doctor once I got home. I wouldn't have thought to report my medical condition to our insurers. At the time I was more concerned with getting myself better as I was completely floored. It was only afterwards when discussing the holiday with others that I felt I could do something about it. I know that means theres a chance I could lose but why would anyone go to extreme lengths if it wasn't justified? What are your thoughts?

Last year took a holiday to Turkey that was the worst ever. We booked it verbally over the counter at our local Thomson branch as a late deal. It was a 4* All Inclusive holiday to Gumbet. When we booked we were told that onsite there was a sauna, gym, water sports etc which are facilities that we use whilst away so we booked. Along with other things that disgruntled us about the place the sauna didn't work, the gym consisted of a few padded mats thrown into the middle of an empty room (no gym equip in sight) and the water sports consisted of 2 canoes and a pedalo (which was broken). We were being rationed drinks at the bar in an all inclusive hotel and in our opinion they were considerably watered down. The food was unappetising and lukewarm and the general hygiene was of a low standard. On day 4 I developed acute salmonella (diagnosed once I was at home) which kept me off work for 2 weeks. Added to this was them smell of cat faeces from roaming cats in the complex, broken glass left lying around even after it was reported, flooding rooms (although thankfully not ours) being placed in a room opposite the emergency generator which after an electricity cut was running all night long keeping us awake, lack of hot water and a maltese rep who couldn't understand what we were saying when we tried to complain. All in all not what you would expect in a 4* hotel. I wrote to Thomson with our complaint saying that it had cost us £916 for the above and asked for a full refund. They wrote back with apologies and sent us a £100 holiday voucher to use when we book with them again. I sent this back saying it was in insult and would not accept it giving them another opportunity to settle the matter. They wrote back with apologies again giving us the address of ABTA for us to take it further. There have been another 2 letters with no outcome other than sincere apologies again so my final letter was to threaten them with court action if they didn't settle within 14 days. They didn't, instead wrote asking for fruther details so they could "address our correspondence more specifically" so it could be passed onto the customer service team. I'm in the process of giving them the details and giving them another 14 days to settle or issuing a summons. What do you think? Am I liable for their cost in the small claims court if they win?