I recently arranged a holiday with WA Shearings for my group of Ladies Circle members and I am writing in because I wish to warn other group organisers of some of the pitfalls they can innocently fall into.

When discussing with an operator at WA Shearings the details of my trip, I asked whether they would accept names of members who had indicated they might come on the trip so that I could hold the places, as, at that time, I did not know for definite who was coming or not. I was told this was fine and was not informed about any charges, which may have been incurred to change names.

I was then asked if insurance was required and I said I didn’t know except that I didn’t want it myself and I would confirm this point later. I was then told that if I didn’t order insurance then, it would not be available, so I felt pressured to say yes.

At no time was mention made of a 14-day cooling off period, after which I could not cancel the insurance. So after finding out from my group who was coming and who wished to have insurance, I sent a confirmation letter to WA Shearings.

Imagine my surprise when I received a response indicating charges for the name changes (which I had not been told about) and informing me of the fact that I could not cancel insurance for three members as the 14-day cooling off period had elapsed (which I also did not know about!).

As you can understand, I was very upset by this business and have still received no letter of apology from WA Shearings after having written a letter of complaint.

Mrs M.B Sotos
Chairman
Thanet Ladies Circle, Kent

GTO asked WA Shearings to respond:

Mrs Sotos has had a reply to her original letter but is still not happy at paying £10 for all required changes. As a gesture of goodwill I have agreed with customer care to remove this fee and they are in the process of writing to her again. We feel as though we have acted very fairly in this instance.

Rebecca Tomlinson
Head Of Direct Sales
WA Shearings, Wigan