Company not refunding money even though cant provide service for 6 months

bvb_2

Hey

The 14th of Oct saw my girlfriend getting another year older. As a cool gift i bought her a flight in a hot air balloon with happy birthday written on it. The season for flying ends at the end of October and starts again in April. Now, i know its not this companies fault, but the weather hasnt been good enough to fly and we are now booked into the very last day this year, so if the weather isnt up for it, then we will need to wait till April. I told the woman on the phone that this is a birthday gift and if its not going to happen i want a refund rather than waiting until April, 6 months after the birthday, but she was adamant that they couldnt refund the money and once its been paid we jsut have to wait until it happens... It wasnt cheap and i would rather i had the money for this period or buy something else for the GF. Can they do this? or what can i say to make them refund the money, seems a bit off it sits in their bank account for half a year with them having done nothing

any help with this would be great

thanks
bvb

yorksrabbit

But if you were aware that flight probability was weather dependent before you bought, then you must have factored that into your purchase decision: the odds weren't favourable, but you gambled anyway. The supplier has no duty to refund and might even increase the 2010 price, in which case you've got yourself a bargain. Or the supplier might hit you with an administration charge for cancellation / refund.

Here's an idea: why not have two celebrations? Six months on, it can be your GF's "half birthday". (Though how you'd get that written on the side of a hot air balloon, I've no idea -- come to think of it, I didn't know they were emblazoning any such messages on this type of, er, craft.) Good luck anyway.