talkmagic.co.uk

Yeah, I do understand the other side to it. I think the conclusion is, rather than one side or the other being right, that any "provisional booking" or "pencilling in" needs to be clarified when it happens. That way, if a punter is unhappy with a particular company or individual's policy (i.e. I'm simply not going to engage in some "cheque race" - if someone doesn't want my custom enough to hold other bookings for a short period until they've received my deposit, they can whistle for it) they can go elsewhere.

And, whilst a savvy customer (me, in future!) will enquire as to the exact nature of a provisional booking, I do think the onus is on the service provider given that they have probably been taking bookings for years and are familiar with the pitfalls etc, rather than a customer who may be booking that service for the first time and have no real idea how it all works.

I make it quite clear to my customers that no booking is confirmed until I have the deposit. I do not pencil in dates or make provisional bookings as this has caused me huge problems in the past.

I have had the situation more than once before when a customer contacts me less than a week before to confirm a booking that was "pencilled in" six months ago.

No deposit, no booking, simple as that.