Section 75 Confusion

AIDY001

Looking for a bit of clarification on section 75 claims, I bought the Mrs drifting lessons for her birthday last year at a cost of £999, Covid got in the way and it ended up getting cancelled, so I've just sat on them waiting for the right time to reschedule.  The company has today announced that they will be going into administration, I'm just wondering if section 75 is a solution for my circumstances.

The voucher/ticket was purchased via bookinghound.com, which is where things get a bit confusing, I did deal directly with the company offering the training, they just use bookinghound.com for the purpose of processing card payments and scheduling, and they use bookinghound exclusively, so they are not for sale on any other platform, from my research if it is the only vendor I may still be covered?

The information online is a little ambiguous, it says a 3rd party being involved breaks the chain, but technically anyone processing card payments introduces a 3rd party to do the processing, so is bookinghound in this scenario any different to say Barclaycard merchant services?

Anyone else have any experience is this area?  Is it worth the time to try and claim under section 75?

CKhalvashi

As Bookinghound aren't providing the service, S75 protection is limited.

Chargeback may be appropriate as long as the voucher was still valid. A booking likely would be more useful, as it's generally 120 days from the date you expect to receive the service. This is also quite complicated and may require being specifically worded to be able to proceed.

eskbanker

Key questions include:

• which company appears on your card statement, i.e. the agent or the actual supplier of the services?
• which company's terms and conditions apply to the transaction?
• is the contract in your name or your wife's?

Even if s75 doesn't apply, you may be able to make a chargeback claim....

AIDY001

I may still be able to make a booking, the site was live when I checked earlier, so if I made a booking now do you think that would make a chargeback more feasible?

AIDY001

@eskbanker I'll have to get a statement from the credit card company, it only let's me go back so far online, so not sure how it appears on statement, but the booking is in my name.

born_again

So long as the original purchase is less than 540 days a chargeback is going to be the quickest option. But you will need proof that they are in administration.
If you make a booking, you will not be able to do anything till after that date, unless you get proof that they are in administration.

If the debit is to bookinghound.com & the actual company that is providing the event is say Drifting, then pretty sure that they will say debtor creditor link broken.

As the booking is in your name, do not mention that it is a present for your wife as it will only confuse the issue.