Direct Holidays - Advice needed by 22 July!

[TMAngel]

Advice please. In March we booked a holiday to Zante through Direct Holidays which was to take place on 24 July 2008.

 

Unfortunately due to my OH being made redundant and his father taken ill we decided to change the holiday to Italy in September. We made these changes at the beginning of May.

 

When these changes were made we paid £150 in admin fees which we knew about and then received a cancellation e-mail with regards to Zante.

 

But I still have no invoice or anything in writing from Direct Holidays in relation to our Italy Holiday. I received a letter on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 July saying that our holiday balance of £580 was now overdue and this was not received by close of business on 22 July they would take action to cancel our holiday.

 

I contacted Direct Holidays on Friday 18th and explained that as I'd never received any invoice/confirmation I had no idea of the payment date. I also explained that until I received something in writing then I would not pay the balance.

 

I asked them to e-mail me - which they actually read out and confirmed my e-mail address and they said they would send the invoice.

 

Well it's now been 3 Days and I haven't received anything still - where do I stand? I know it might appear a stupid question but I don't beleive in paying for anything if you don't have the details - we had an issue in Dominican Republic 2 years ago that was only solved when I showed them the booking paperwork.

 

Do I pay up and keep chasing the invoice or do I just sit back and wait and if they cancel make a complaint??

[Meldrew2]

Under ABTA rules you should have recieved a confirmation invoice within 14 days.

[TMAngel]

Thanks for this info re ABTA. Where does this leave me now?

 

To be honest we've had so much trouble with Direct Holidays that we are not bothered about going away to Italy with them now.

 

I still haven't had any confirmation/invoice as of today and if they cancel the holiday can they force us to pay 50% cancellation fee's as it's now 'inside' of the 56 days?

 

If I've never received any details have I got a case to argue that we are not paying any fees???