Buyagift complaint. What are my rights here?

rochja

I have just sent the following email to buyagift:

It was my birthday yesterday. My family gave me 3 buyagift vouchers expiring at the end of October so that I could do the 4 offroad activities at Rockingham near my home. When registered these vouchers limited that date to the end of July. When I rang Rockingham there was no availability this year. There were no other activities I wanted for my birthday and these activities have been sold under false representations that they would be available. This is not my first experience of this and no doubt Buyagift will lay the blame at the door of the provider. Yes and no. When buyagift contract with a provider there should be oversight so that there is a reasonable likelihood that the experience will be available to voucher holders. Without such oversight it is my opinion that false representations are being made to purchasers and that this is therefore fraud. I cannot raise the customer service team by phone, so will have to resort to email. I refuse to accept that the vouchers will have to be exchanged for another activity. This happens too often and refunds MUST be available if the company is not acting fraudulently
Rockingham refused to consider the vouchers as advanced booking for next year so I am not happy with them either.
However, at the moment I am more concerned with how Buyagift are going to sort this out. At the moment, the absolute minimum which is acceptable is a full refund of monies spent. I have checked and the company have now removed these items from sale. Rockingham tells me that they announce to you that they were fully booked for the year. I cannot imagine how many vouchers will not be honoured and I also want to know what you intend to do to prevent this sort of oversubscription in the future. Based on my previous experiences I would hazard that the answer is 'nothing'.

The question though is: what rights do I and those who bought the vouchers have here?

Thanks for any advice

lucy03

rochja wrote: »

I have just sent the following email to buyagift:

It was my birthday yesterday. My family gave me 3 buyagift vouchers expiring at the end of October so that I could do the 4 offroad activities at Rockingham near my home. When registered these vouchers limited that date to the end of July. When I rang Rockingham there was no availability this year. There were no other activities I wanted for my birthday and these activities have been sold under false representations that they would be available. This is not my first experience of this and no doubt Buyagift will lay the blame at the door of the provider. Yes and no. When buyagift contract with a provider there should be oversight so that there is a reasonable likelihood that the experience will be available to voucher holders. Without such oversight it is my opinion that false representations are being made to purchasers and that this is therefore fraud. I cannot raise the customer service team by phone, so will have to resort to email. I refuse to accept that the vouchers will have to be exchanged for another activity. This happens too often and refunds MUST be available if the company is not acting fraudulently
Rockingham refused to consider the vouchers as advanced booking for next year so I am not happy with them either.
However, at the moment I am more concerned with how Buyagift are going to sort this out. At the moment, the absolute minimum which is acceptable is a full refund of monies spent. I have checked and the company have now removed these items from sale. Rockingham tells me that they announce to you that they were fully booked for the year. I cannot imagine how many vouchers will not be honoured and I also want to know what you intend to do to prevent this sort of oversubscription in the future. Based on my previous experiences I would hazard that the answer is 'nothing'.

The question though is: what rights do I and those who bought the vouchers have here?

Thanks for any advice

I'd send a letter before action to buyagift explaining the situation, asking for a refund and mentioning you have been unable to discuss the matter by phone. I'd also complain to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service as if there are a lot of complaints relating to this then it might be picked up by Trading Standards.

agrinnall

lucy03 wrote: »

I'd send a letter before action to buyagift explaining the situation, asking for a refund and mentioning you have been unable to discuss the matter by phone. I'd also complain to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service as if there are a lot of complaints relating to this then it might be picked up by Trading Standards.

The OP has no rights in this as he wasn't the purchaser. It may still be worth contacting them anyway, but if they want to they can simply decline to deal with him with no come back on them.

lucy03

agrinnall wrote: »

The OP has no rights in this as he wasn't the purchaser. It may still be worth contacting them anyway, but if they want to they can simply decline to deal with him with no come back on them.

Apologies, I didn't notice that. Yes, if you can get the original purchaser to write the letter then they should.

I assume that these vouchers weren't purchased some months ago though and only just given to you?

rochja

Thanks both of you. Buyagift have refunded to original purchasers' cards and gifted me an activity. It seems that they have also de-listed the venue