Do I have a case against Wowcher?

Aylesbury_Duck

I think you've got two complaints here.  The first is your desire for a refund, which I suspect you're not strictly entitled to.  The second is the misrepresentation you describe.  That's worth a complaint.  It might not generate anything material to you, but it's clearly misrepresentation.

Maybe you use the misrepresentation complaint as leverage to try and get your cash refund?

Jumblebumble

born_again said:

Chargeback will have been rejected as you bought "Credits" & they were supplied.
Small claims. No, on the same basis as above. They supplied what you bought.

As a matter of interest are you aware  of any real world cases where people have gone to the Small Claims Court and lost?

You must bear in mind that small claims court judges have a great deal of discretion in how they handle cases.

tightauldgit

Sounds like the devil is going to be in the detail on this one and you might want to speak to a lawyer rather than us internet bods. But on the face of it from a 'what sounds right' perspective I think you would have grounds to make a claim, whether that claim is going to be successful I have no idea. 

If Wowcher have said 'we will sell you a voucher with which you can buy a holiday from company X' and then you can't buy a holiday from company X but only from company Y then I can't see that they've provided what you paid for. But it really depends on exactly what they've said they would sell you. 

Equally I would query if 'you can't get a refund once you've used the voucher' would stand up to a challenge if there is no way of finding out what you are buying and all the T&Cs until you have actually used the voucher. 

I'm not even sure how Wowcher works though and who is responsible for the content of their offers - is it Wowcher or the third party supplier? It may be that you would pursue the company providing the holiday but god only knows.

sheramber

▼ Q. I'm confused. I paid Wowcher for the wowcher so I thought I had a contract with Wowcher?

A. When you buy a wowcher, you form a contract with Wowcher whereby you pay Wowcher and Wowcher provide you with a multi-purpose wowcher voucher. As the wowcher is multi-purpose, you can choose to redeem it in a number of ways - you can redeem it: (a) for the deal that is listed in the wowcher (the "headline" deal); (b) towards any other deal on the Wowcher website; (c) for Wowcher Wallet credit; or (d) in the Wowcher Shop at www.wowchershop.co.uk.

When you redeem your wowcher with a merchant, you are forming a second contract with the merchant that is separate to the contract with Wowcher.

Under the separate contract with the merchant, the merchant agrees to provide you with the products or services in exchange for your voucher.

Just to summarise this means you have two contracts: one with Wowcher for the wowcher itself and a second contract with the merchant for the products or services that you redeem the wowcher for.

https://www.wowcher.co.uk/page/faq#hide15

Manxman_in_exile

Pagala said:

k3lvc said:

So discounting whether you were dealing with company X or company Y could you theoretically have bought the holiday or did you not progress because you were uncomfortable with who you were dealing with ?

It's quite simple: Wowcher advertised a holiday for sale through its website.
It looked good, and was supposed to be ATOL-protected.
The advert was false because Wowcher said it was offered by a company called "X".
The advert was also false because Wowcher said it was ATOL-protected, when it was not. There was no way to research this before actually buying the Wowcher coupons. You simply had to take the Wowcher claim on good (misplaced) faith.

The people who got in touch with me claiming to be the travel agents could have been absolutely anyone. The "company name" they were using was fake. That company name they were using was one that had gone out of business in 2016. The reason they were using this company name is because, before it went out of business, that company was an actual company and it had an actual ATOL licence. The people who got in touch with me sounded like "Microsoft" scammers, and their behaviour and actions weren't much different. I looked them up and there are lots of people who say they were scammed by them. Make sense?

FWIW I largely agree with you (and @tightauldgit)

Wowcher advertise their vouchers apparently linked to a particular "purchase" of a specific value with the clear implication that if you buy one of their vouchers of the appropriate value that you can redeem it for that particular "purchase".  But when you have bought a voucher and you try to redeem it against that particular "purchase" you discover it is not available.

You then discover in their T&Cs (which of course you should have read in detail before buying the voucher) that their vouchers are only "general" vouchers and are not in fact linked to any particular "purchase", despite what their adverts clearly seem to imply.

But I seem to be in a minority view that Wowcher ought to sell vouchers that can be used to buy the "purchases" they advertise.  Apparently they aren't really offering vouchers to buy those "purchases" with at all, but vouchers to buy entirely different things that you don't want and wouldn't waste your money on.

I think it's wrong.

I'd complain to CAB and ask them to refer Wowchers T&Cs and advertising methods to Trading Standards with a view to determining whether Wowcher were in breach of The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (legislation.gov.uk)

Apart from that, never buy vouchers for yourself and don't buy them as gifts for other people.  (Unless you dislike those other people intensely).

ss2020jd

If you have legal cover with your home insurance you could ring their helpline and get advice from a solicitor. If they think you can win they will be able to take care of it.

It does sound like very shady practice though. I hope you get your money back. You could also report to Which and perhaps Trading Standards.

DullGreyGuy

Jumblebumble said:

You must bear in mind that small claims court judges have a great deal of discretion in how they handle cases.

They have discretion but cannot go against what the law states or the precedent set by higher courts. 

The OP is yet to reveal who X and Y are and so it is possible there isnt even a breach in the agreement as they may have just wrongly assumed that X would be the agency whereas X is the tour operator being sold by Y the agency.

sheramber

  The OP needs to refer to what was advertised- what were the full details/ fine print?


Some  adverts I looked at say

 Wowcher advertise deals that they have secured with supplier.

You  buy a voucher to the value of the deal and get sent a code 

You contact the supplier to purchase the deal.

The voucher is not limited to that deal. It is for the value of the deal. But you are not restricted to that deal, as you are not purchasing that deal. You can use the voucher for any other deal to the same c]value.

Another states  

• The contract for this package holiday will be with Perfectstay Travel Ltd, as the organiser of the booking arrangements.
• This holiday is provided by Perfectstay Travel

Pagala

You lot were wrong. I got a CCJ and they settled.

Aylesbury_Duck

Pagala said:

You lot were wrong. I got a CCJ and they settled.

What was wrong about the advice you received?