Won a trip to Sydney but they want me to pay £1000+ in taxes? UPDATE - NOW RESOLVED!

Chopstheduck

Is this allowed?

At first they said taxes, which was around £500 which we thought, ok fair enough. Now they have come back with a figure of over a £1000 which appears to be the taxes and all the carrier imposed charges.


http://www.barrheadtravel.co.uk/Competition


This was the competition. The T&Cs are a bit vague, and I can't find the referred to Barrhead T&Cs anywhere. It is starting to feel like a con.




UPDATE:::

A result!!!


A lovely lady has called me from Barrhead Travel. There was a mistake in the T&Cs and it neglected to say that taxes and charges were payable.


So they are now going to pay in full for the trip


WTG Barrhead travel!

tamalyn

it doesnt mention paying taxes in their terms

tamalyn

these are the normal barrhead terms http://www.barrheadtravel.co.uk/terms-and-conditions

Chopstheduck

mm, the normal terms do not refer to any competition terms at all.


I can't help wondering if Emirates are offering the flights and Barrhead are simply pocketing the money to cover the hotel cost. I've never been charged for flight taxes on a competition win before.

robbies_gal

i dont know for sure but surely thats not right chrging you for any part unless stated

Chopstheduck

Looking through all the emails and Emirates thing, it does seem legit, and Emirates were only offering seat only tickets. So Barrhead have passed that charge onto me, and we can't even afford £1000 this month. No idea if I would get anywhere with a ombudsman?

bullshot

I've won a few holidays with flights and have never had to pay a penny they have also included private airport transfers.There is no mention of Airport Transfers either in their T&C's and I seem to recall the we paid around £50( return for 2) for them when we were in Oz ( our Oz holiday was not a win).....gutted for you.

Chopstheduck

bullshot wrote: »

I've won a few holidays with flights and have never had to pay a penny they have also included private airport transfers.There is no mention of Airport Transfers either in their T&C's and I seem to recall the we paid around £50( return for 2) for them when we were in Oz ( our Oz holiday was not a win).....gutted for you.

I've never paid neither. Usually gone the other way with free upgrades or lounge access. And, yep, had free transfers too.


This is all looking rather crap. And we were told of the win a month ago, been sorting out childcare, people have booked time off work. Seems very unfair.

hamsterfan1

I've had to pay transfers but never taxes

sydroo

Seeing as the T&Cs only state that "Holiday insurance and spending money are not included in the prize." you could, in my opinion, rightly assume that everything else with regard to flight and local hotel taxes would be included.

velocity_girl

This seems extremely unfair to me - that should definitely have been mentioned in the terms. It just so happens this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5146328 was beside yours on the forum - you'll see the ASA adjudication linked says promoters should not advertise competitions where the winner has to incur a cost to claim the prize. Of course that hasn't helped the winner, as all the promoter gets is a slap on the wrist. I do think the ASA would agree this is unfair so you could try making the promoter aware of rulings like this and threatening to complain to them... Whether it will make any difference though is another matter.