Air tattoo cancelled - refund rights

MiniMinni

As you all probably know The Royal International Airt Tattoo was cancelled last weekend.

I purchased my tickets from local Tourist Office and wanted have my refund there but they are saying I will have to post my tickets to The Royal Air Force Charitable Trust Enterprises in Fairford to make a claim.

I don't understand why I cannot get my refund from the place I paid for the tickets.

Posting them to Fairford will mean that I will actually loose several pounds by doing it as I would have to send tickets by Special Delivery so they wouldn't get lost in the post. And also I would have to wait 8 weeks for my refund.

Surely this is against the law?

magyar

I've been trying to do a bit of research on how this would be interpreted in the Sale of Goods Act (and whether it is indeed covered by it). The best I can find so far is from Consumer Direct, who point out that you are entitled to a full refund if an event is cancelled, but they don't state whether this is from the agent or the promoter. (It just says 'seller' which is slightly ambiguous, but implies it's the agency).

You have a right in common law to compensation for breach of contract, and this would normally cover your costs. Sending tickets worth presumably quite a lot of money by Special Delivery doesn't sound unreasonable.

It's certainly worth a phone call to Consumer Direct to ask about the interpretation of their web site, and depending on this, to revisit the Tourist office.

On the point about '8 weeks for refund' then this doesn't sound too unreasonable. They are a charity after all, and will not have expected to have to process thousands of refunds directly after the event, so eight weeks is not an unreasonable time.

hamletcigars

You could always send them back and request the refund plus postage costs,after all when I send other stuff back I make sure I request a refund of postage

always get it but only if I ask

luckily I got ours from work and since the cheques haven't been cashed yet,can get a refund straight away from them direct

sra

MOVING THREADS FOR BETTER RESPONSES

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]

Tozer

magyar wrote: »

I've been trying to do a bit of research on how this would be interpreted in the Sale of Goods Act (and whether it is indeed covered by it). The best I can find so far is from Consumer Direct, who point out that you are entitled to a full refund if an event is cancelled, but they don't state whether this is from the agent or the promoter. (It just says 'seller' which is slightly ambiguous, but implies it's the agency).

You have a right in common law to compensation for breach of contract, and this would normally cover your costs. Sending tickets worth presumably quite a lot of money by Special Delivery doesn't sound unreasonable.

It's certainly worth a phone call to Consumer Direct to ask about the interpretation of their web site, and depending on this, to revisit the Tourist office.

On the point about '8 weeks for refund' then this doesn't sound too unreasonable. They are a charity after all, and will not have expected to have to process thousands of refunds directly after the event, so eight weeks is not an unreasonable time.

Good post. However, if I were them, I would be claiming force majeure or frustration of contract thereby they would NOT be in breach of contract.

Its not as if they decided not to perform the contract, safety and practical reasons meant they had to cancel.

Please remember it is ultimately a charity - they have already lost out on thousands and will make a huge loss on this event.

magyar

Tozer wrote: »

Good post. However, if I were them, I would be claiming force majeure or frustration of contract thereby they would NOT be in breach of contract.

Good point. They would probably also claim they used all reasonable endeavours to fulfill the contract, which is likely to have been a condition of their insurance.

asea

I'm quite curious as to why there are 5 threads by the OP asking exactly the same question?

Tozer

asea wrote: »

I'm quite curious as to why there are 5 threads by the OP asking exactly the same question?

YEah bit desperate isn't it?

matthew_t_2

Jeez!

I see where you are coming from, but please remember RIAT is run as a charitable enterprise.

Fair enough, claim your ticket fees back, but adding on Postage etc for something that is completely out of their control [the weather]?!

I guess your reply will mention that they have insurance to cover for this, but ultimately, the charity could end up at a considerable loss, if you look at it from a perspective of 100,000+ people claiming postage fees on-top. Premimums would rise for the event, and any additional fees would have to be recovered, at the expense of the good causes RIATCTE works to support.

For the sake of £4.60 or so...

Don't shoot me down, it is just my humble opinion!

soolin

asea wrote: »

I'm quite curious as to why there are 5 threads by the OP asking exactly the same question?

Just send a note to the board guides on the other threads and ask them to move the threads to here so they can all be merged.