First of all, sorry to hear about your husband.

All I can think off (and it has been discussed in here before - will try to get a link) is that any discount you may have received may have to be refunded too.

Other than that, I can't see how they can ask for anything else but the deposit.

Perhaps your insurance Company can help?

Mark

Here is the link to the other discussion about this:

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=136800

Mark

Many thanks Mark I've had a look through that but as the holiday was only for a week I don't know where they got £524 from. What upset me was the letter from Thomas Cook said 'Dear Mrs.... then the heading was in bold capital letters 'WE'RE SORRY YOU CAN'T GO' which under the circumstances I thought was hurtful.

Jean

Did you pay a low deposit or anything Jean ?

Unfortunately, the letters are standard letters that are produced without giving any thought to peoples circumstances.

Kath x

No Kath we didn't pay a low deposit so I can't understand this invoice. Carol and I are going into Thomas Cooks tomorrow to sort it out hopefully as I'm really worried about it as you can imagine. That's the first holiday we've had to cancel in 40 years of travel and didn't think we'd have all this trouble.

Fingers crossed you can get it sorted Jean.

Thinking of you xxx

Kath x

I'll let you know how we get on Kath.

Jean

Hello Jean - I bet you can do without all this worry.
I hope the people who are assisting you have some compassion and help you.
Give our love to your Hubby and of course to you. x

Many thanks Suzie I really don't know what to do at the minute as this has come as such a shock to us. As you can see from the time of this post I can't sleep and have been up nearly all night.

Is it possible that the charge is being levied by Thos Cook? When we went last year with Cosmos we booked direct with them. If, as you say, the T&Cs indicate there is no cancellation fee according to the Cosmos T&Cs I find it strange.

You have lots of friends on here so we will try to help.

Thinking of you.

fwh

I have checked both Cosmos and TC sites.

Both show this;

Cosmos
More than 56 days Deposit (2 years of age & over)

Thos Cook
If we receive notice of your cancellation more than 56 days before departure you will lose your deposit.

The question is how much was the deposit? Unless it was a very expensive holiday I cannot understand where they get such a charge from.

fwh

I gave a covering letter to Thomas Cook for Cosmos giving my reasons for the cancellation.

I'm sorry to hear about your husband and that you've had to cancel your holiday.

Just 2 thoughts:

1) Have you checked your travel insurance? If his cancer wasn't connected with any pre-existing condition then I would have thought that any costs incurred in cancelling the holiday would have been covered, less any possible excess. In the first instance I would, therefore, also suggest that you pursue claiming this fee against your insurance.

2) It sounds as if you didn't cancel direct with cosmos but relied on Thomas Cook to deal with this for you - an understandable course of action on your part. Do you know when they contacted Cosmos and actually cancelled the holiday with them? It is still a little strange because they obviously have now cancelled it and even if they did it late, then you are still more than 11 weeks before the departure date even now.

SM

Jean
I'm so sorry to hear about your husband. As you say, you have such a lot to deal with without this problem.

Some really good points/questions from fwh & SMa, I hope you get this sorted without too much trouble today.

BUT if you don't, please come back here for more advice.

So so sorry Jean - sending you all my love and thoughts.

So sorry to hear this about your husband. As you say this is the last thing you need at a time like this. I suppose it is possible that it is a straightforward error or matter of confusion between Thomas Cook and Cosmos as these errors do occur. Good Luck when you go into Thomas Cook today and I hope it is something that is simple to sort out.

The standard letters these companys send out our totally insensitive. I would have been ashamed to put such a letter in an envelope.

I rang Consumer Direct this morning who advised me to argue it out with Thomas Cook but if I don't get any joy to contact them again. Thanks to everyone for their help.

Jean

Jean, what terible news, my thoughts are with you & hubby and Carol. I do hope you get this sorted, you definatley don't need this. I feel the same as the others, don't know where they are getting that amount from.
I hope you get sorted today, good luck, Linda x

I can't see how they came up with that amount surely you just loose the deposit, hopefully it will be sorted out and you can concentrate on other matters without this added aggrevation.

May I also say how sorry I am with your news.

Can't offer any further advice from what other's have said but just wanted to say I'm sorry to hear your news and that I hope the problem with Cosmos gets sorted for you soon.