Where do you stand if a company fails to honour their terms & conditions?

Monkey_Chinchilla

I was lucky enough to win a holiday and in the terms and conditions it says the winner must be able to travel on a specific date and if they can’t the prize is forfeited. I can travel on the date specified but now they are trying to change the date and I can’t travel on the other dates offered. The long and short of it is my husband is a teacher and the specified date falls in the school holidays but now the only dates they are offering us fall in term time. I don’t want to seem ungrateful but most holiday prizes exclude school holidays so when we found this one that was in the school holidays we were really excited and now we’re being messed around we’re really disappointed.

Blulu

Ouch! That is so unfair and so disappointing. Do the T&C say anything about their rights to change the date? It sounds to me (though I am no expert at all) that IF the T&C specified that you have to use them on a specific date, and that you still can do that date, that they shouldn't have the right to change that and if they do, they need to keep offering you an alternative until you accept it. UNLESS, they specified that they have the right to change this date in the T&C.

I bet they made a mistake and didn't realise the prize was in the holidays, and changed it when they realised it would cost them more.

I think if it was me, I would print the T&C and take them to your nearest Citizens Advice.

Good luck and let us know huh?

vanpopple

Hi monkey surely they cant do that?
If they are changing the dates after the prize has been won?

Im not sure myself but maybe a quick call to ASA or Trading Standards would help.
Ive noticed so much that holiday prizes only allow travel in term time, which is so wrong especially when a prize is advertised as a
''Family Holiday''

Well I got my fingers crossed for you, good luck :T

Monkey_Chinchilla

I've just checked the T&C again and of course there is a line which says: 'we reserve the right to amend the prize draw of these rules at any time without notice'.

It's very unfair. You enter a competition in good faith but by adding this line in they can do what they want.

I had a similar problem with the last holiday I won. When I entered the competition the T&C link just took you to the terms of the website. I won the competition on the radio then didn't hear anything for three weeks. Eventually after chasing it up several times I got a letter saying the holiday was on a specific date in three week's time and if I couldn’t go then the prize would be forfeited.

I phoned the organiser up and asked if it was possible to change the date because there was nothing in the T&C that stated the date and I needed to give my boss at least 4 week’s notice to take time off work and she just said ‘there would have been something in the T&C’. So it was my word against hers. I usually do a screen grab of the T&C as soon as I found out I’ve won but how could I do a screen grab when there was nothing to grab?

Luckily my lovely boss let me have the time off (although my teacher husband couldn’t come with me) but the whole thing was so badly organised that I didn’t get my conformation letter with the flight number until I returned from holiday!

Blulu

You know, even though they add this get out clause, I would still chase it. You might get further by writing than phoning - send recorded delivery. I should include what you said about how you only entered because the prize was during the school holidays as you are both teachers. I really want you to win on this one, not least of which because of all you do for us here :T:T:T

It seems to me that the bods that oversee comps should stamp down on this type of thing. I would check with the organisation that oversee competitions (can't remember who, sorry) to just check that they can get away with this, AND to lodge a complaint. If companies run comps for the benefit of all that publicity, then wheedle out of shelling out for the prize, it's a scam, whatever they say.

luckylady0

I aagree with Blulu, just because they have an 'omnipotent' clause that seems to imply they can do anything they want, I don't think it's valid especially since it conflicted with the nature of the competition. If no date was given then that ambiguous clause would be more applicable but since a date was given, it's false advertising. People entered with that date in mind, many would have or have not entered based on that, it's a crucial factor of the prize, not an add-on frill that is subject to change.

Ask them for another date out of term time or an alternative prize like cash. It's their fault, and due to the size of it no 'get out of jail free' card should absolve them completely of all responsibility.

lovinituk

Accept the new dates and I'll come with you instead

vanpopple

:rotfl:^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^:rotfl:

Very good

Monkey_Chinchilla

Just to update you all, the company came good and arranged for us to take the prize in the school holidays.

20LegendClaire

Great news! Well done for sticking with it.

Tom_H

I wouold say this is the last ditch thing to do, but if it's clear you're not getting anywhere put your complaint on their facebook page (assuming they have one?) - I've had issues where I've had trouble getting answers on various things before, then as soon as you post where other customers can see it's suddently magically sorted! It's is a bit of an aggressive tatic though so as I said best try the other suggestions first in my opinion.