Wowcher holiday company won't accept Voucher

Jamiejib

Hi, I recently bought a wowcher voucher for Plenty Holidays from Wowcher at the cost of £500. I contacted Plenty Holidays with my Voucher to book my holiday and they informed me that they no longer accept Wowcher vouchers, this was only a few days after purchasing the voucher. I have been on to both Wowcher and Plenty Holidays and neither are willing to help with the refund. Does anyone know what my rights are here, Wowcher have sold me a voucher which i can't use but are not taking responsibility for this. Thanks 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

How did you pay OP? 

tightauldgit

The vouchers seem to be a constant bone of contention. From memory:

1. I don't think you can pursue a credit card claim as Wowcher have fulfilled their contract by providing the voucher and there's no relationship between CC company and the holiday company. But certainly worth asking.

2. What are terms on the voucher and are Plenty Holidays complying with them? If not then you can probably pursue them but it might take a court action. 

3. Is there any kind of cooling off period with Wowcher vouchers or right to reject on vouchers? I'm not sure

Alderbank

tightauldgit said:

3. Is there any kind of cooling off period with Wowcher vouchers or right to reject on vouchers? I'm not sure

Yes there is.
From their website

Can I refund/cancel my Voucher?

We offer a no-quibble 14 day money back guarantee on all unredeemed vouchers (starting from the day after the day you receive your voucher) 

OP says they purchased the voucher recently so they should be OK.

I agree that the vouchers are a constant bone of contention. Problems arise because there are two legally distinct transactions; buying the voucher then exchanging it for whatever you actually want.

mjm3346

For how long did you have the voucher before trying to use it?

Aylesbury_Duck

OP said "a few days", which I hope for their sake is some way short of 14 days.

tightauldgit

Alderbank said:

tightauldgit said:

3. Is there any kind of cooling off period with Wowcher vouchers or right to reject on vouchers? I'm not sure

Yes there is.
From their website

Can I refund/cancel my Voucher?

We offer a no-quibble 14 day money back guarantee on all unredeemed vouchers (starting from the day after the day you receive your voucher) 

OP says they purchased the voucher recently so they should be OK.

I agree that the vouchers are a constant bone of contention. Problems arise because there are two legally distinct transactions; buying the voucher then exchanging it for whatever you actually want.

Does 'unredeemed' in Wowcher speak mean 'not used at the retailer offering the voucher' or 'not claimed from Wowcher and issued' - I have a sneaky suspicion there's a fudge in there too.

HillStreetBlues

tightauldgit said:

The vouchers seem to be a constant bone of contention. From memory:

1. I don't think you can pursue a credit card claim as Wowcher have fulfilled their contract by providing the voucher and there's no relationship between CC company and the holiday company. But certainly worth asking.

I think you could claim on a credit card. Wowcher needs to sell a valid voucher,

It reads to me that the OP bought a Plenty Holidays voucher from Wowcher
Plenty Holidays say that voucher is invalid as they don't accept them from Wowcher

So OP claim is with Wowcher and as they were the ones paid there is a direct link.

Manxman_in_exile

I'm sure I must be missing something obvious, but why do these 3rd party vouchers cause so many problems?

The OP buys a voucher worth £500 from Wowcher to be redeemed on a holiday from Plenty Holidays.  That's the sole reason the OP buys the voucher and I assume that the voucher was advertised and described as being redeemable against £500 worth of holiday from Plenty Holidays. 

The OP subsequently discovers that Plenty Holidays (for whatever reason) no longer recognise Wowcher vouchers.

So why aren't Wowcher simply in breach of contract and why wouldn't the OP be able to pursue a s75 claim against the credit card company if Wowcher don't cough up?  It seems to me to be a clear case of the voucher not conforming to contract because (1) it's not as described and (2) surely there's an implied term that any voucher bought must be valid for the purpose for which it's been sold.  Surely a voucher that either isn't valid or can't be redeemed must be a breach of contrcat?

The argument that there are two transactions seems like a red herring to me.  The only transaction that counts for the consumer is the purchase of the voucher.  Either it can be successfully redeemed or it can't.

I know I've read the argument that Wowcher have fulfilled their part of the contrcat by "providing the voucher", but if it can't be redeemed I don't understand why it isn't a breach?  It can't be used for the purpose for which it was bought.

Wowcher should be refunding the consumer in all these sorts of cases.  If they end up out of pocket because of the actions of  the third party, then that's between Wowcher and the third party and not the consumer's problem.

born_again

Manxman_in_exile said:

I'm sure I must be missing something obvious, but why do these 3rd party vouchers cause so many problems?

The OP buys a voucher worth £500 from Wowcher to be redeemed on a holiday from Plenty Holidays.  That's the sole reason the OP buys the voucher and I assume that the voucher was advertised and described as being redeemable against £500 worth of holiday from Plenty Holidays. 

The OP subsequently discovers that Plenty Holidays (for whatever reason) no longer recognise Wowcher vouchers.

So why aren't Wowcher simply in breach of contract and why wouldn't the OP be able to pursue a s75 claim against the credit card company if Wowcher don't cough up?  It seems to me to be a clear case of the voucher not conforming to contract because (1) it's not as described and (2) surely there's an implied term that any voucher bought must be valid for the purpose for which it's been sold.  Surely a voucher that either isn't valid or can't be redeemed must be a breach of contrcat?

The argument that there are two transactions seems like a red herring to me.  The only transaction that counts for the consumer is the purchase of the voucher.  Either it can be successfully redeemed or it can't.

I know I've read the argument that Wowcher have fulfilled their part of the contrcat by "providing the voucher", but if it can't be redeemed I don't understand why it isn't a breach?  It can't be used for the purpose for which it was bought.

Wowcher should be refunding the consumer in all these sorts of cases.  If they end up out of pocket because of the actions of  the third party, then that's between Wowcher and the third party and not the consumer's problem.

It seems that Wowcher now sell vouchers that can be used at more than one retailer (or holiday) from looking at their site. 

But until Op returns Last Active 17 April at 4:20PM & fills in the blanks I guess we are just filling the time speculating as ever 🤷‍♀️

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Manxman_in_exile said:

I'm sure I must be missing something obvious, but why do these 3rd party vouchers cause so many problems?

The OP buys a voucher worth £500 from Wowcher to be redeemed on a holiday from Plenty Holidays.  That's the sole reason the OP buys the voucher and I assume that the voucher was advertised and described as being redeemable against £500 worth of holiday from Plenty Holidays. 

The OP subsequently discovers that Plenty Holidays (for whatever reason) no longer recognise Wowcher vouchers.

So why aren't Wowcher simply in breach of contract and why wouldn't the OP be able to pursue a s75 claim against the credit card company if Wowcher don't cough up?  It seems to me to be a clear case of the voucher not conforming to contract because (1) it's not as described and (2) surely there's an implied term that any voucher bought must be valid for the purpose for which it's been sold.  Surely a voucher that either isn't valid or can't be redeemed must be a breach of contrcat?

The argument that there are two transactions seems like a red herring to me.  The only transaction that counts for the consumer is the purchase of the voucher.  Either it can be successfully redeemed or it can't.

I know I've read the argument that Wowcher have fulfilled their part of the contrcat by "providing the voucher", but if it can't be redeemed I don't understand why it isn't a breach?  It can't be used for the purpose for which it was bought.

Wowcher should be refunding the consumer in all these sorts of cases.  If they end up out of pocket because of the actions of  the third party, then that's between Wowcher and the third party and not the consumer's problem.

I think it would be classed as a misleading practice (even if in error) as it clearly meets

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/regulation/5

(2) A commercial practice satisfies the conditions of this paragraph—

(a)if it contains false information and is therefore untruthful in relation to any of the matters in paragraph (4) or if it or its overall presentation in any way deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer in relation to any of the matters in that paragraph, even if the information is factually correct; and

(b)it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise

The consumer has a right of redress against the trader and so must have the same against the credit provider where the trader fails to offer an appropriate remedy.

At the end of the day you would hope in a case like this Wowcher would simply say sorry and of course you can have a refund but cases like this are just another example of why I think their deals aren't worth it when you factor in the headache of getting a resolve if something goes wrong.