SunWeb offering vouchers instead of refund

Westin

But that is what ABTA have proposed (credit voucher now, paid out 31 July 2020 if not used, security against the Government backed ATOL scheme) - yet previously you were against that.

Browntoa

Your s75 will fail as the company is not refusing to repay  

They are purely not paying you in cash as you desire. 

desklamp

Browntoa said:

Your s75 will fail as the company is not refusing to repay  

They are purely not paying you in cash as you desire. 

Which is breaching the terms and conditions at the point of sale, which stated that if Sunweb cancelled, the customer could choose to be refunded in cash.
I believe that Sunweb's customers bought a holiday for a specific day and not a travel voucher. 

Browntoa

Doesn't enable s75 whatever your interpretation.

Try ringing your credit card and trying , you won't get anywhere unless they refused to refund or go into administration. They have not failed "to provide a service " as a voucher allows you the access the services you booked but at a later date.

desklamp

Do you have any reference to confirm your assertion?

It is my understanding that Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the credit card company is jointly and severally liable for any breach of contract or misrepresentation by the retailer or trader.
1) The holiday company has breach its T&C in not offering "A FULL REFUND OF MONEY PAID" (The terms explicitly say MONEY) 
2)They have breached the package travel regulations.
3)As an ABTA member there is an implication that they will comply with ABTA's code of conduct, which they have not. This could be considered misrepresentation.
4)They have sold a holiday for a certain date to a certain place, yet all that has been delivered by way of service is a voucher; again misrepresentation.
5)This could be argued as a breach of the Consumer Rights Act. 

A refusal of a Section 75 claim by the credit card company does not necessarily mean that the claim is invalid. One just needs to refund to the numerous adjudications against credit card companies by the Ombudsman. 

Nebulous2

desklamp said:

Do you have any reference to confirm your assertion?

It is my understanding that Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the credit card company is jointly and severally liable for any breach of contract or misrepresentation by the retailer or trader.
1) The holiday company has breach its T&C in not offering "A FULL REFUND OF MONEY PAID" (The terms explicitly say MONEY) 
2)They have breached the package travel regulations.
3)As an ABTA member there is an implication that they will comply with ABTA's code of conduct, which they have not. This could be considered misrepresentation.
4)They have sold a holiday for a certain date to a certain place, yet all that has been delivered by way of service is a voucher; again misrepresentation.
5)This could be argued as a breach of the Consumer Rights Act. 

A refusal of a Section 75 claim by the credit card company does not necessarily mean that the claim is invalid. One just needs to refund to the numerous adjudications against credit card companies by the Ombudsman. 

I’m of the view that this will take months and months to resolve. A small court claim against both the credit card company and the travel agent / holiday company is another option.

I’m waiting to get home, having had my return flight cancelled and then radio silence from both my travel agent and credit card company. The situation may develop before I can instigate the court procedure, but a small claim is my intention at the moment. 

An interesting aspect of this is that the US is sending cheques to every household to help keep consumers spending. Here the government seems prepared to allow the travel industry to suck 100s of millions out of the economy, further reducing consumer spending at the most difficult time. 

Browntoa

The Industry has no cash to magically pay everyone.

A bankrupt industry can pay nobody

ATOL does not have sufficient funds to pay everyone , it's only designed to cope with low level failures.

The government is not going to refund you.

Small claims courts are low priority work at the moment and claims are rapidly backing up . Enjoy being at the back of a very long queue.

Reality bites 

MaebyJade

Browntoa said:

The Industry has no cash to magically pay everyone.

A bankrupt industry can pay nobody

ATOL does not have sufficient funds to pay everyone , it's only designed to cope with low level failures.

The government is not going to refund you.

Small claims courts are low priority work at the moment and claims are rapidly backing up . Enjoy being at the back of a very long queue.

Reality bites 

Completely agree with you but I feel the travel companies can't have their cake and eat it! I was willing to postpone my holiday for exactly the same time next year, but I was told I must accept voucher and re-book as the price would be different. Meaning I will most likely have to pay more. It's things like this that makes people hesitant to accept vouchers. A lot of business (not just in travel) during this pandemic have gone from being profit focus to cash focus to get through it, yet the travel industry seem to be wanting to do both.  

desklamp

These are difficult times, people have severe financial difficulties. Just because something may be difficult; this is not a reason to give up on the pursuit of what is right. More so now than ever, these protections should be upheld. The only chance we have of this, is to start the pursuit.

I will post information of what is happening with my claim, but as the above poster alluded to... Don't hold your breath!

mattg4321

Do you work in the travel industry @Browntoa ?

The government has to step in soon with some sort of temporary rules/legislation. That is of course unless they are expecting the consumer to force travel operators through the courts to provide cash refunds as is the current law. 

Perhaps they could say that the vouchers could be issued and then a cash refund can be had if unused after a period of 3 or 4 months. These vouchers need to be government backed in the meantime against the operator going bust.

The alternative is the general public being hit in the pocket and the travel industry suffering a catastrophic loss of confidence - if the likes of ATOL, ABTA, SGR, Section 75, insurance etc etc etc don't pay out as we've all been told for years they absolutely would. This will have huge long term consequences for the industry and the sector will be hit very hard for years to come.