Refund must be offered by UK Theme Parks - specifically Gulliver's World?

SRyder3

Hello,

I had 4 day tickets booked at Gulliver's World in Milton Keynes for this Friday.
The park is obviously closed so they cannot honour the tickets.
I wrote to them (by email) over the weekend to confirm that they would refund the tickets.
They wrote back today to say they were not offering refunds - only a change of date or open-ended date, limited to the end of this season.
Can they not provide a refund?
We would be keen to visit at some point in the future, but 2 of the 4 people are in the "vulnerable" group so visiting this season looks unlikely.
Any advice gratefully received.
Thank you.

Life__Goes__On

They have to refund you, they have broken the  contract even thou they were forced to.

sploggits66

We had an overnight stay and day tickets booked at Gullivers Land Milton Keynes. 
We've just been offered a refund. Took multiple emails and quoting the CMA advice at them but we've got the promise of our money back.
Gulliver's are adamant it is force majeure and they are ok to offer vouchers/rebook, but on the other hand they would refund so I think they know they're in the wrong.

Reported them to the CMA as you shouldn't have to fight like this.

We would have been amenable to vouchers or rebooking but they made us feel pressured, setting a deadline of deciding before our July trip date. They were very difficult to contact. Had they been upfront and tried to do the right thing in the first place we may not have decided to go for a refund. But sometimes it's the principle!
Legally, does a force majeure clause stand or is this open to interpretation?

Life__Goes__On

sploggits66 said:

Legally, does a force majeure clause stand or is this open to interpretation?

No it's plainly "unfair"
If it stood up then every company  would have one to avoid refunds.