Unreasonable Cancellation Charge?

melbournebound

My brother got married on Saturday (congratulations to me!).

Anyway, we had booked hair and makeup about 20 minutes from the hotel in which we were staying. We didn't pay a deposit but my mum left her credit card details to secure the booking.

The weather absolutely dreadful and the roads between the hotel and salon were terrible. I called on the Monday to say that due to the weather we might have to cancel, but the salon owner assured me that everything would be fine and we'd work something out. The bride called and was told the same. Later in the week the weather deteriorated further and the salon tried to get the bride to chance a trial time so that they could get home early.

Now, we never finally settled on what services were to be had, in part because they couldn't keep the salon open to do the bride's trial, and we hadn't settled finally on whether they would come to us, which is a service they offer at a charge. On the Thursday, I told the salon that the roads were so bad that we couldn't make it out and they'd have to come to us, which they refused to do. I then had to cancel. They told me that there would be a cancellation fee, so I asked what it would be and how it would be applied. They didn't reply.

Today my mum got an email saying that her credit card had been debited by 450 euro, which is the amount that we estimated the complete service would cost (the charge would have been 50% if they had allowed me to cancel on the Monday, but was the full amount which was never agreed and mum wasn't informed about before the charge was processed). This seems outrageous to me, not least because on the email where they specified the cancellation fee they also mentioned that they do provide the call out service. To my mind, they forced us to cancel. Also, they didn't specify how they arrived at the figure, which I think is very poor form.

Do we have any comeback from this? Are we being unreasonable?

djk1000

Seems a bit messy alright. make copies of everything you have and lodge a dispute with the credit card company to say that you didn't authorise the charge.

It will be up to the hair salon to then convince the credit card company that they had a right to do it, unless you signed an agreement or indicated your consent, I don't think it woud be easy for them to do.

Long story short, dispute the payment right away!

melbournebound

Thanks for that. I've mailed the salon to find out how they arrived at that figure, but haven't heard back yet.

I'm going to have to call Mastercard in the morning.

Gillo

melbournebound wrote: »

On the Thursday, I told the salon that the roads were so bad that we couldn't make it out and they'd have to come to us,

With an attitude like that, I really don't have any sympathy for you.

At the end of the day you booked a service and the stylists time and didn't avail of it, while it may not be your fault the weather got in your way it's certainly not the saloons fault.

melbournebound

I really can't see what's wrong with my attitude, to be honest. They offer the service and charge 150 an hour to avail of it, I wasn't asking them to do it for free.

And if you don't like my attitude, you think for that reason it's ok to take hundreds out of the credit card without any notice of what the charge might be? Good grief, that's a heavy penalty for not liking someone's attitude.

Gillo

They were two seperate point hence the seperate paragraphs.

Firstly, you felt it was too unsafe to drive to an appointment you had but hey not wanting to miss it you expect the other party to drive out to you instead, now maybe I missed something the last ten days but the crap roads tended to go in both directions not just one so it would have been equally dangerous for the saloon staff to drive to you.

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Second point (hopefully a bit clearer this time)
The saloon took you booking in good faith and more than likely turned away other clients and business on the basis that they would be providing you with a service at a certain time. You failed to turn up for this service by your decision not the salons fault or decision, therefore you are still liable for the time booked. I agree that the weather may have played an unfortunate part but the saloon fulfilled their side of the bargain as far as we know by opening and having the stylists ready and waiting.

anotherlostie

Do restaurants charge people 100% of the cost of a meal when they don't turn up for bookings under similar unforeseen circumstances? Same issue, other people turned away, staff need to be paid, savings made on materials. I think the salon is extracting the urine here. Good luck with your efforts and I hope Mastercard tells them where to go. Unless you actually signed something, I don't see their defence.

melbournebound

Yes, I did think it was too dangerous and time consuming for us to travel that morning. I think they thought the same thing, but forced us to cancel, possibly on the basis that they could take money from us without providing a service.

I am not arguing that they shouldn't take a cancellation fee, contrary to what you appear to think. I am arguing that taking an arbitrary amount without telling us beforehand for a service that they couldn't provide is wrong.

Exclamation Marc

anotherlostie wrote: »

Do restaurants charge people 100% of the cost of a meal when they don't turn up for bookings under similar unforeseen circumstances? Same issue, other people turned away, staff need to be paid, savings made on materials. I think the salon is extracting the urine here. Good luck with your efforts and I hope Mastercard tells them where to go. Unless you actually signed something, I don't see their defence.

I completely disagree with this. Restaurants don't charge 100% of the cancellation fee because when you book a table in a restaurant you tend not to book out all the chefs, waiters, hosts etc, all for yourself so your analogy is way off. If I cancel my table, it goes to someone else or it doesn't, they have other customers and business and money coming in, plus the restaurant will not hire staff to cater for you, they will be working that day anyway. Also, the fact that they took a credit card to "secure the booking" legally indicates a deposit of sorts.

And also as the OP booked a timeslot with the salon they actually do have a contract with the salon despite your incorrect argument that "if you don't sign anything, you've no contract". I can tell you with certainty that although signing something is quite indicative it is not the be all and end all of contracts. I don't sign anything when I get on a bus, but I still have a contract with the bus company.

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OP, its a tricky situation becase the argument the salon will run with is that although they have a contract with you, they have a seperate one with their employees, so whilst you may not pay full price, they still need to pay their staff for coming to work that day (as I'm sure the staff remained on site all day in case you turned up) at the staffs hourly rate or whatnot. I have no idea how much they would cost, but it could easily be the price they are quoting you for cancellation.

It was wrong of them not to indicate a cancellation fee to you, as they should have done so clearly prior to accepting your booking, but that does not defeat their claim to one. If I were you I would ask a friend to enquire with them about a similar booking (not exact, dont give the game away), and get a quote on services and ask your friend to ask what the cancellation fee is.

If they say 50%, then at least you'll know they're not shafting you.

I think its a very high cancellation fee, but as there was no agreed price its messy and to some extent you are at their mercy. I really do understand your frustration with them for charging so high, but if they retort that thats how much it cost to pay their employees for the day, it'll be hard to mount a comeback. The only thing in your favour is their refusal to disclose a cancellation fee, so maybe run with the argument that you enquired about the cancellation fee and had you known the price of it you would have braved the cold roads. First though have a friend enquire to figure out their cancellation fee as if the regular cancellation fee is a lot lower then you've been quoted, you may have a case. However they didn't force you to cancel, you're just a victim very unfortunately of really dreadful road conditions last week.

castie

As far as I knew cancellations fees had to be laid down in the contract be it verbal or otherwise.

If they did not mention terms and conditions at time of booking then I don't see how legally they can charge them. Informing you of them when you try to cancel is akin to increasing the price half way through your hair cut i.e you dont really have a choice by then.

MunsterCycling

TBH OP they don't have leg to stand on and take no guff from Mastercard about them not being able to do anything, the transaction is a fraudulent one and they must act. If they had come to the hotel and then ye decided not to proceed due to say time constraints then yes they would be entitled to have a fee but it would have to be consented to first, what they did is akin to them using the card number from a receipt and putting an extra transaction through.

melbournebound

Thanks for the replies. I think I may have given the impression that we cancelled on the day of the wedding, but we didn't, we cancelled on Thursday after they couldn't do the bridal trial due to the weather. I certanly didn't call them on the morning of the wedding after they'd opened up and tell them to hop in their cars!