Coral withdraw free bet offer (for Grand National)

stemcgoo

Hi, my wife is in the same boat, signed up with Coral and deposited the money as required but now they refuse to honour the promo.

Spoken to customer service and same response regarding the address to write a letter.

I'm no expert but i do think it amounts to fraud as in our instance again altho they claim they had suspended the offer, i have screen prints of both the oddschecker referral link clearly showing the offer and secondly the coral site with the offer as i registered.
I've also told them that although they may be entitled to remove or change offers it istheir responsibility to ensure they remove all advertising to that effect which they clearly did not. Even for 3rd party referrals it is still their responsibility as the contract for such referral links exists between coral and the referrer.
Finally i told them such a suspension of the free bets after signing is a material change of contract and therefore represents a breach. As they have accepted our money on the terms advertised then a contract on those terms is formed. They cannot vary that contract. I'll see what response i receive to my letter anyway. Perhaps we should all consider a class action????

As a matter of interest we paid by paypal so i'll be intrigued if paypal chicken out as normal or if they uphold a dispute that 'my order was not received as advertised'....

blackaqua

Could you pm me a link of those screens?

becrrw

I've had exactly the same reply from Coral. I also went to the site through topcashback and was taken straight to a massive advert offering £30 credit to my Coral account. I would have taken time to look elsewhere if I thought I wasn't getting that offer. They also never sent me a confirmation email to say i'd opened an account with them.

The topcashback credit has appeared though so at least that's something!

What a scam!

blackaqua

The whole "we're not responsible for affiliate links" thing is total rubbish, like you said straight to coral with a huge advert that they could have easily changed had they wanted to. I also swear that the original T&C for the bet were around 7 long, now its over 13 or something.

mobrien18

Yes, I have the same issues as others on here, and the same generic response from Coral.

It would be interesting to see what ML has to say on this, as Coral have been duplicitious at best here.

If anyone makes progess on this, please update us here!

hefs

I have also been scammed by Coral and had the same nonsense replies from them the last one being below:
Thank you for your message.

Please be advised that during the time frame cited, Coral was not advertising any free bets on our website and we are not responsible for any affiliate links that were still advertising this. We understand your frustration but this was a company decision and as such I can only apologise for any disappointment caused.

If you would like to escalate this further and make a formal complaint, I can confirm that you will need to do so in writing to the following postal address:

Contact Centre Manager
Gala Coral Group
Globe House
Victoria Way
Woking
GU21 6DD

Now they may think that we are all stupid, but they were without doubt advertising the free bet on the day of the National as I was looking at all the different sites and odds to find the best deal. It is the same offer that they still have for 'new customers' today. I for one will not remain a customer of theirs and have told them that as well as reporting to the advertising standards. Don't expect anything to come of it though !!!!

clazh

Same thing happened to me, am getting the same replies from them also.

Has anyone reported this to BBC Watchdog?

spikescot2005

Same thing here. Have reported it to Watchdog will see if they are interested.

blackaqua

Well I have a complaint going formally through advertising standards, Log it with them too as I guess the more complaints the more seriously its taken

blackaqua

The ASA are going to formally investigate and publically announce the findings so hopefully they find in favour of us and Coral at least gets a slap on the wrists