Eden Project prebooked tickets cant be amended, cancelled or refunded!

brentboy

Hello
like anyone looking to visit cornwall in the next few weeks I have booked tickets to visit the Eden Project with the kids at the cost of £75. Going through the website, selecting the day of visit etc as they advise in their booking process, all well and good.

Come to this morning I get an email telling me there is an offer on with the national lottery where you get free entry to the park if your a lottery player/have a ticket. I couldnt find this on the main website to book or amend my booking to use this so I called the help desk and after 30 minutes on hold was told that "online bookings cannot be amended, cancelled or refunded as they are capacity managed bookings".
I queried given that they have no "day" tickets (despite you having to book it with a date and it appearing as if you are booking that one date) and they are only offering annual passes (I live 300 miles away so not like I will be dropping in again any time soon) that could be used at any time then how could they be considered capacity managed, again the same response was given of no cancellations.
I also asked how this could be given the normal 14 day cooling off period for online purchases, that the date of the visit is still almost three weeks away and their own website doesnt tell you clearly your buying an annual pass could they not allow refunds, again same response and pointed to their own terms and conditions, which read:

• First use within 365 days from the day of purchase.
• On redemption, an Annual Pass will be issued which will be valid for 365 days from your first visit.
• (gumpf about other offers removed)
• We operate a policy of no refunds or exchanges for entry bought online or via the telephone (This does not affect your statutory rights).
• (gumpf about other offers removed)
  
• You ticket does not guarantee entry on a particular day. On extremely busy days, we reserve the right to refuse access for health and safety/capacity reasons, however this is very rare.
  (booking.edenproject.com/payment-terms.aspx)

I appreciate that they are a business (albeit one who receives an awful lot of lottery funding) but are their own terms invalid given they state it doesn't affect your statutory right but by offering no refunds or cancellations thats doing just that? Then coupled with the fact you buy a "capacity managed ticket" but could still be turned away? Even their standard "single entry tickets" which you cant actually buy on the website have these terms but they are not included in the email you're sent or at any point during booking.

I appreciate trying to cancel the tickets to book free tickets is weak sauce but it saves me £75! Is there anything i can use to explain or show to them that their term and conditions are not correct and that as a consumer i have the right to cancel.

TIA 

lisyloo

You could ask them to point you to the detail of the consumer contracts regulations that exempts them from the 14 day cancellation. Now clearly you might not be able to get this from a receptionist, but you could try.
When did you buy the tickets? wrt the 14 day period.
I can't see anything to exempt them but it's going to be tricky to win within 14 days.
How did you pay?

sheramber

Entry tickets to the Eden Project are Annual Passes: an Annual Pass gives you unlimited entry to Eden for a whole year (from the selected date) – and also allows us to treat your admission fee as a donation to our charity.
That could be why  they say it is  non refundable

You have to book a time slot for the day you are attending so you would only be turned away of you did  not book one or arrived out with the time.

daveyjp

Out of interest I have just looked at the price.  I really hope it now offers more than the couple of hours of interest it did when we visited!