DVD watching

When Night is Falling is one of my all-time favourite movies, and it's coming up to 10 years since its release. Lord. So I just watched it again. Complete romantic escapism, but that suits me. People running off to the circus; people running away from the circus. And fantastic music.

It's a shame that Patricia Rozema hasn't done anything for a while (although I admit that the Beckett stuff doesn't interest me, so I'm not likely to check it out). Pascale Bussières is just as hot as ever these days, although I see that a movie of hers has snuck by me (La Répétition). Why haven't I heard of that one before? Must track it down (since I don't exactly find Emmanuelle Béart hard to watch either). Yes! There is a DVD (although if it has the miserable ending it appears to, I will not be buying it). I think I'd also like to see the movie she's done about Alys Robi (Ma Vie En Cinémascope), but I hope it appears at a film festival here sometime, since the fact she ends up in an asylum isn't exactly my idea of a good time (although the story looks like it'd be good to watch in general).

lastminute.com wank

Being the amazingly dutiful daughter that I am, I booked all the accomodation for my mother's visit. She arrives Sunday. The dates were a bit vague at first, so I booked places anyway, assuming that it'd be fairly straightforward to twiddle a day either way for both sets of hotels. I read the terms and conditions at booking time, and nothing there contradicted my assumption. However, according to the world that lastminute.com inhabits (bugger linking to them), it is NOT straightforward, or, indeed, possible to modify the booking.

What I wanted to do was extend my mother's stay in Canberra by one day, and reduce our stay in Melbourne by a day. I sent an email to lastminute last week. No reply. So I rang them. They said, "We're still working through our mail backlog", and I said that since time was running out, it'd be nice to sort it out then and there. Okay. So they said they'd have to call the hotel to get the booking reduced. I'd already contacted the hotel directly to do it, but they fobbed me off back to lastminute. Hold hold hold... Finally, the operator gets back and says no, the booking cannot be altered. I did a big WTF?! (politely), and she parroted the line that lastminute has to abide by the terms of the accomodation provider, and said provider does not allow any alteration of internet bookings WHATSOEVER. I didn't recall seeing any such terms and conditions when I booked, so I checked.

Here is the fun stuff for your edification:

1. In many cases we are acting as disclosed agents for a third party supplier and in each of these cases your contract is between you and them. You will be subject to their terms and conditions and you must read these before proceeding with your order.

D. Specifically with regard to accomodation booked on the site,
If you wish to cancel your hotel booking you must contact our Customer Service Team on 1300 132 799 (+61 2 9249 6070) a minimum of 24hrs before your arrival. Contact must be made between 9:00am and 5:30pm AEST. We will contact the hotel on your behalf. Some hotels may accept a cancellation (with or without a cancellation charge) but it is entirely at their discretion. As part of the terms of sale, they are not obligated to accept any cancellations and you may be charged for the entire length of stay. In the event that the hotel will allow a cancellation, you will be charged an administration fee of AUD35.00 per booking by lastminute.com. This will be in addition to any cancellation charges the hotel may impose.

[bold per the site]

So, ok, the hotel does not have to allow any alterations to the booking. I think that's crap, given reasonable notice, but c'est la vie. What gets me is the FIRST clause, where it says, You will be subject to their terms and conditions and you must read these before proceeding with your order.

There was no fucking terms and conditions from the hotel I booked. None at all!

So I called back, and pointed out this slight inconsistency.

Was I expected, before completing a booking, to go to the provider's website and check their terms and conditions THERE before finishing the booking on lastminute.com?
No, of course not. (Also, the terms and conditions between the hotel and lastminute.com might be different to those on their own web site).
So how AM I supposed to see what their terms and conditions are before I booked? I wouldn't have booked with that hotel if I'd been aware of that particular gotcha.
The accomodation provider is under no obligation to refund anything, as you can see in our terms and conditions.
Yes, I did see that, since I HAVE read your terms and conditions, including the part where it says that I should read the provider's terms and conditions before completing the booking. Once again, how was I supposed to do that? I think that your site is wilfully misleading.
It's not misleading, it's very clear that the provider does not have to provide a refund.
And it also does not say that they WON'T. And it tells me how to alter a booking, and cites a cancellation charge (not that I'm cancelling), so by implication you say that it is possible.
But it is up to the individual provider.
While I was unable to ascertain what the provider was or was not willing to do due to the MISLEADING information on your website!

...Rinse and repeat. After a couple of iterations of this, I was unable to maintain the "calm and reasonable" thing (since I am not a particularly calm or reasonable person), and said thxkbye and hung up.

Not sure where to go from here. It seems obvious to me that their first clause implies that they WILL provide the terms and conditions of the individual operator, but they do not. There is also a reasonable assumption (reasonable to me), that most hotels will accept a cancellation of all or part of a booking, given notice and perhaps payment of a fee, unless otherwise specified. Of course, I'm sure it'll be argued that it doesn't matter what "common practice" might be, they aren't under any obligation. I do think that all of that should be spelled out in the operator's terms and conditions, which are not available in any form on lastminute.com, although they are well and truly available on other web booking sites (such as wotif.com). And I think it is misleading in the legal sense, but who the hell am I to know.

I don't think that they should get away with this. I'm sure I am not the first and only one to be sucked in by something similar. I think there's such a thing as a consumer ombudsman here in Canberra. I'll see how far I get with it. If it was something like $50, I might say the hell, but $240 is enough to be bloody annoying.