'Mate' pulled out of a holiday.

Nanoman

Nanoman

Nanoman

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Joined
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Herefordshire
Hi,

Basically five of us had planned to go somewhere cheap this year on a lads type holiday to somewhere in Greece (turned out to be Faliraki).

The four of us know each other quite well; three of us have been mates since school. The fifth person was (at the time) a good mate from uni and has only met 1 of my other mates.

This uni mate and I had agreed to go on holiday a while back, we were looking at 18-30 type holidays for a few months and he was up for going with my other mates as well.

So skip ahead to yesterday one of my other mates heads into a travel agents to ask if there was anything available. There was, so he calls me with some details on a few holidays. I call my uni mate to inform him and I state that we are likely to get something booked, he agrees with this and states that he has £300 available next week and will be able to borrow from his rents if he needs to.

My mate in the travel agent rings back pretty much straight after stating that there was a deal going in Faliraki for £285 per person. I jump on the chance and told him to book it. This was based on the fact that I know I have the money available and my mate has just given verbal confirmation. My mate states that they will not take a deposit as the date is too close so my mate suggests to pay it up front on his card and we will wire the money later. I agree to this.

I then ring my uni mate and tell him a holiday has been booked, at first he genuinely seems fine with this, I tell him my other mate has paid on card and requested if he would be able to send the money to him today (i.e. borrow from his parents for the time being). He says he will call his parents and then call back.

When he calls back this is when things start turning sour. He clearly sounds stressed and states that his dad has basically told him it was a stupid thing to do as he does not have the money up front and he is not going to front the cash. He then starts shifting the blame, stating that I should have called before putting money down. Even though there was a verbal agreement right before and I have Facebook messages of him stating that it is time to get something booked. He also started giving excuses about needing to find a job and attending interviews (he recently graduated from uni).

I have not been able to get hold of him today, his phone is off. Finding someone else hasn't been possible so far, the travel agents said they cannot refund a person either (as expected). I expect that I will not get far with this and it is likely going to cost me an extra £285 as I am not going to let my other mates take any of this cost.

Does anyone have any advice for this? Also is anyone here up for taking his place? We fly out 6th of August for 7 nights from Birmingham International, we are all friendly etc. will be a laugh :))

Thanks.
 
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Wrong dates for me im afraid!!

Im in a different situation, had a hol planned with the gf and she's cleared off!! Thankfully we were waiting for a late deal.

So ive hol booked off work and no-one to go away with :(
 
Not a lot you can do apart from try to find someone else to fill the empty spot.

I know I wouldn't talk to the ***hole again mind, from what I can tell he gave permission to go ahead and do it and then backed out. Some "mate".
 
"he agrees with this and states that he has £300 available next week"

"He then starts shifting the blame, stating that I should have called before putting money down"

I'd say he's right to shift the blame really, it was wrong to pay outright and expect him to pay you the same day, when the "verbal agreement" was that he'd have the money available next week. I don't think it's really fair to shove this on him and then act like he's done something wrong.

It entirely depends on what's happened, his "verbal agreement" seems like it was just him agreeing to get something booked, which generally speaking means a small deposit, not the full amount upfront. So I really think you should have rang him before anything was paid, just to cover yourself, to make sure he was fine with it. Had he agreed to that, it'd be entirely different.
 
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The fact he's early 20's and needed to borrow 300 quid from mommy and daddy to go on holiday didn't set off your spider senses??
 
Why not speak to your Uni mate, if you can afford it, pay for him on the agreement he signs a quick contract agreeing to pay you back X amount a month? If you'll have to pay for him anyway, at least this way you stand a chance of getting it back!
 
kylew said:
"he agrees with this and states that he has £300 available next week"

"He then starts shifting the blame, stating that I should have called before putting money down"

I'd say he's right to shift the blame really, it was wrong to pay outright and expect him to pay you the same day, when the "verbal agreement" was that he'd have the money available next week. I don't think it's really fair to shove this on him and then act like he's done something wrong.

It entirely depends on what's happened, his "verbal agreement" seems like it was just him agreeing to get something booked, which generally speaking means a small deposit, not the full amount upfront. So I really think you should have rang him before anything was paid, just to cover yourself, to make sure he was fine with it. Had he agreed to that, it'd be entirely different.
Click to expand...

states that he has £300 available next week and will be able to borrow from his rents if he needs to.
Click to expand...

This is the bit that puts him in the wrong, IMO.
 
1: Get two mirrors and place them opposite each other.
2: Stand in front of them
3: Quickly run away
4: You then have infinite clones of you all for the price of 2 mirrors and one seat!
 
I don't mean to make it sound like he is completely to blame, this is the story how I see it. I asked if he could get the money from his parents (hoping they wouldn't mind) as he was getting paid from a temp bar job shortly.

My mate that paid up front stated that it was fine to sub him for the time being and I made my uni mate aware of this as well. It sounded like his dad had put him off going in general to be honest due to no money available up front but also job seeking.

I probably should have called him before stating we would put money down. I was under the impression that this would be fine as I had spoken to him just moments before and he agreed when I stated that we are likely to book something today.
 
My mum had this hassle when she booked a holiday for herself, my younger sister and her 2 friends. 2 weeks after it is booked, the friends pull out. No problem she thinks, just change the names, but no.

If you want to change the peoples names on the list of people going you have to pay a rebooking fee or something which can be as much as what you already paid. So my mum had to pay £700 just to change 2 peoples names. It was silly, already lost £700, do we pay that again just to go on holiday.

I hate travel agents and the people that droppped out lol.
 
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