Wowcher - Lack of ethical responsibility

user1977

bondieboy said:

The company in question that Wowcher are selling vouchers for was 'dissolved via compulsory strike-off' in November 2020. I bought the voucher from Wowcher in December 2021. Wowcher claim that they check companies out, obviously not! It took a minute for me to look at Companies House. Why do Wowcher falsely claim to check out companies if they do not need to, and actually do not? I am going to pursue this with Trading standards etc.

But as I queried, how exactly do Wowcher describe the company? It would seem odd to me for them to be specific about the limited company, I'd expect just a trading name.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

If you buy a voucher for an experience and arrive at a time when the voucher is valid only to be told the experience no longer exists from a simplistic viewpoint you are entitled to a refund of the voucher (via the method used to pay).

Generally speaking if a contract is with a business governed by UK (and probably EU) laws then it is taken the goods did not conform within the first 6 months unless established otherwise meaning the trader would have to show the experience does exist if they wished to dispute the matter. A simple phone call to venue would answer this question so it's not difficult. 

You can see why the OP is miffed, who wants to pay for a voucher you can't use and who wouldn't expect a refund in this circumstance? 

OP what makes matters complicated is who you have a contract with, if that isn't Wowcher and the company that sold the voucher is dissolved then there isn't anyone to seek a refund from.

If Wowcher as a "marketplace" provide any kind of protection scheme (for example Amazon have A-Z and eBay have the Money Back Guarantee) they are bound to abide by the terms of the scheme they offered you but enforcing this depends upon what laws your agreements with Wowcher are governed by. 

Their terms suggest a UK company and governed by UK law, if you are correct that they allowed a dissolved company to sell a voucher you could try small claims on the basis that they were negligent but it would probably be easier to try the below. 

You could email the venue explaining Wowcher require proof and would they mind to confirm by email the experience no longer exists and didn't exist on the date your son attended and see if Wowcher accept this. 

If you Google CEO email and search that site for Wowcher there is a contact email there possibly for a higher level of customer facing staff, although whether they will reply I don't know.

Beyond this you could try your card company, was it a credit or debit card (or some other method of payment)? How much did you pay?  

Manxman_in_exile

Don't expect Trading Standards to help you - you probably won't even be able to contact them.

If what you are saying is that you bought a voucher from Wowcher in respect of a company that had ceased trading over 12 months previously, then I can understand your anger (but suggest you don't take it out on other posters!) and I think you should get your money back from Wowcher

Have you made it ABSOLUTELY 100% CLEAR to Wowcher what your complaint is and what has happened?  Have you told whoever you have been dealing with that you don't accept their first response and you want it reviewed by a manager as it obviously can't be legal for them to sell vouchers for a business that no longer exists.  (We'll ignore for the moment whether it actually is lawful or not - just tell them it can't be!).  Do make sure you have collected as much evidence as possible that the restaurant in question has gone out of business and had done so BEFORE you were sold the valueless voucher.

If they ignore you, you could try a chargeback or s75 claim depending on how you paid for the voucher.  But like others I suspect such a claim might very well fail.  You paid for a voucher and you got one.  Whether the fact that you can't use that voucher because they should never have sold it to you in the first place means you have a claim, I don't know.  You might or you might not.

The alternative is to sue Wowcher for selling you a voucher that couldn't be redeemed.  But whether that would succedd or not, I don't know.  The law does not always make as much sense as we would like it to.

As others have said - this is one of the major drawbacks of buying vouchers or gift tokens etc.  There are so many things that can go wrong where you have no effective legal protection.  I would never buy vouchers or tokens and I tell family and friends never to buy them as well.  and never give them as gifts...

sheramber

Unlimited Sushi is offered by many venues so it is not restricted to one venue, more a deal venues can buy into.

Unlimited Sushi ltd is a current company  incorporated in June 2021.

Was the voucher for a specific venue which is no longer in business?

MarvinDay

Manxman_in_exile said:

But like others I suspect such a claim might very well fail.  You paid for a voucher and you got one.  Whether the fact that you can't use that voucher because they should never have sold it to you in the first place means you have a claim, I don't know.  You might or you might not.

But did they get a voucher?
There are many different diction definitions of what a voucher is but when regarding this type of voucher they are all generally very similar and that definition is that a voucher is a piece of paper or ticket that can be used to pay for certain goods or services.
As the OP received couldn't be used in this way because the company named was no longer trading, I would say that what they received wasn't a voucher (or code) but simply a worthless piece of paper.

Manxman_in_exile

MarvinDay said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

But like others I suspect such a claim might very well fail.  You paid for a voucher and you got one.  Whether the fact that you can't use that voucher because they should never have sold it to you in the first place means you have a claim, I don't know.  You might or you might not.

But did they get a voucher?
There are many different diction definitions of what a voucher is but when regarding this type of voucher they are all generally very similar and that definition is that a voucher is a piece of paper or ticket that can be used to pay for certain goods or services.
As the OP received couldn't be used in this way because the company named was no longer trading, I would say that what they received wasn't a voucher (or code) but simply a worthless piece of paper.

That's why I added the bit after the bit you put in bold:  "Whether the fact that you can't use that voucher because they should never have sold it to you in the first place... "

MarvinDay

I did see that but my point was wondering if what the OP actually received could even be described as a voucher simply because there was no way that it could ever have been used to obtain the goods or services stated on it as the company that was meant to supply those goods or services wasn't in business when they made the purchase from Wowcher.

IMO, it would be different if the sushi company went out of business after a voucher had been purchased as in that case, Wowcher would have supplied what was paid for (a voucher for sushi) but the OP simply received a piece of paper or code that was totally worthless at the time they received it.

Sandtree

MarvinDay said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

But like others I suspect such a claim might very well fail.  You paid for a voucher and you got one.  Whether the fact that you can't use that voucher because they should never have sold it to you in the first place means you have a claim, I don't know.  You might or you might not.

But did they get a voucher?
There are many different diction definitions of what a voucher is but when regarding this type of voucher they are all generally very similar and that definition is that a voucher is a piece of paper or ticket that can be used to pay for certain goods or services.
As the OP received couldn't be used in this way because the company named was no longer trading, I would say that what they received wasn't a voucher (or code) but simply a worthless piece of paper.

Did you not see Sherambler's comment?

What we know from the OP is that they bought a voucher code, the voucher code worked to enable them to make a booking but when they attended the venue the venue stated they are no longer doing it. The venue and the voucher provider are independent.

Unfortunately the OP is being a little light on the details and so we are having to do a lot of reading between the lines... it appears there is an active company with an appropriate name but cannot say for sure if its the same one as the OP refuses to name the company. That company seems to operate something like what the OP described however their voucher is not tied to a single restaurant but a number of different ones. The complaint therefore may really be not that the voucher was useless but that their preferred venue no longer supports it and they were not informed at the time of booking 

born_again

bondieboy said:

born_again said:

You can understand Wowchers point that they want more proof than someone saying "It's no longer there" It's also not their job to check that any retailer is still trading.

Like many companies they may have been struck off, but just reopened under a slightly different name, but still used the same "trading name"

At best as you bought a Voucher. All you would get is a credit on your Wowcher acc. You will not get a refund in cash.

Are you employed by wowcher? How defensive, of such a crock of poo!
So lets clarify! In your opinion a company that sold me a voucher for something that does not exist ie wowcher is ok? How do you photograph sushi that is not there?
Since investigating further, I have seen loads of appalling comments on wowchers customer service. It 'Is' also a legal/ethical responsibility for wowcher to check that a retailer that they are trading with is legal and responsible.
Again I quote :

• Good Morning We cannot comment on individual cases on a public forum however we do check all merchants carefully before we run a deal with them to ensure that they can honour the deal they advertise. On occasion situations arise which alter their ability to carry out the deal and as soon as we are notified we inform all…
  in Warning about vouchers for oven cleaning company Comment by Wowcher_representative 25 March 2013 at

It is the job, and 'legal' responsibility for wowcher to check that the products that they are promoting for sale do actually exist. As in my case, the fact that the company providing the service had long since been struck off should have prevented their advert on
Wowcher. It is wowchers ethical  responsibility to check that companies are legally trading and providing goods, as advertised on wowcher. They can not legally sell a voucher for something that does not exist!

No I do not work for Wowcher. But from my role, I have had dealings with people that had issues such as yourself on many occasions.

I'm not defending them.
You bought a voucher, they provided a voucher. Plain & simple. They do not provide the goods or service.
All wowcher will do if anything is a refund to your account with them.

Exactly which retailer were you able to use the voucher @? A link to the retailer that voucher was redeemed @?

>How do you photograph sushi that is not there?< Well you were told that they no longer did sushi. Ask them to put it in writing, would have been a good start. 

>They can not legally sell a voucher for something that does not exist!< but what if the retailer closes after they have sold the voucher?

These companies work on retailers providing them with offers, that they then sell a voucher for. Clearly they were there or you would not have been able to redeem the voucher.
So as long as you got a voucher that is what you paid for. 
Should they check the companies, Yes & I'm sure they do. But as I said if the company goes bust after you have bought a voucher then you can not blame wowcher for that.

>>The company is listed as 'dissolved via compulsory strike-off', since November 2020 on Companies House records! So either the company was operating illegally<<

Are you sure it is the same company? Which company did you check?

As a search of "Unlimited Sushi" on companies house Beta.
Shows Incorporated on 1 June 2021

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13430488

born_again

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Beyond this you could try your card company, was it a credit or debit card (or some other method of payment)? How much did you pay?  

Sadly will not work as all you purchase is a voucher & a voucher was provided. As such Wowcher will just contest any chargeback.