Warwick Castle Annual Pass - refund request decline

Undervalued

MoneySaver4321 said:

Undervalued said:

Surely an annual pass is for a series of 365 days?

Yeh, I guess…. 😤 

I wasn't being entirely facetious here!

Most annual passes are priced at only the cost of a very few days standard admission. Whilst a few people use them an enormous amount most are used surprisingly little. People often buy them on impulse then don't go often enough to justify it. It is all factored in to their marketing plus, unless the attraction is full and turning people away it costs nothing to let pass holders in who, in most cases wouldn't have bought another full price ticket at the gate anyway.

I don't know the sums of this particular one but it may well be attractive to somebody staying nearby for a week's holiday with little likelihood of visiting again later in the year?

So, if it was refundable after a week or two surely it would be abused? Does their system record when an annual pass is used or just check it is valid?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

MoneySaver4321 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Services related to leisure activities for a specific period of performance sounds like it would apply meaning a statutory right of cancellation wouldnt exist

I suspect that is what they're relying on, but can "period of performance" apply to an annual pass? It's applies for e.g. a hotel booking over a series of days etc, but to me it's a stretch to say an annual pass to Warwick Castle fits that definition. If they felt that they had a strong case, I wonder why they wouldn't apply the same policy to the Merlin Annual Passes too. 

When you go to book a Merlin Pass or membership it says they are non-refundable but the full T&Cs on site state you can cancel your contract for passes and memberships and then passes are non-refundable after you don't exercise the right to cancel within the cancellation period. 

I wonder what their reasoning is to apply the right of cancellation? 

DullGreyGuy

MoneySaver4321 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Services related to leisure activities for a specific period of performance sounds like it would apply meaning a statutory right of cancellation wouldnt exist

I suspect that is what they're relying on, but can "period of performance" apply to an annual pass? It's applies for e.g. a hotel booking over a series of days etc, but to me it's a stretch to say an annual pass to Warwick Castle fits that definition. If they felt that they had a strong case, I wonder why they wouldn't apply the same policy to the Merlin Annual Passes too. 

Over a series of dates, to me at least, is captured by the first part "specific date"... the period of performance feels more like the nebulous timeboxed period you can use the services within without having set date(s). Clearly a year is a fairly long timebox but ultimately is a defined period.

I havent seen the T&Cs of the pass about being guaranteed entry or such but clearly they have to factor in the number of members that will simply turn up on any given day -v- the number of PAYG customers they can sell tickets to. 

In a similar vein, one of my hotel status cards gives you a "guaranteed room" if booking 2 days in advance. To date that guarantee has always been met even when the normal website for the hotel has said its fully booked and so they really are keeping back rooms from general sale to allow members to book them. Again no idea what their calculation method is for any given hotel on a given date given they presumably have 10,000s or 100,000s of members that are entitled to the guarantee

born_again

One day £26
Annual pass £44 or £59 that the OP bought.
Prices for single person.

MoneySaver4321

They’ve agreed in this instance to refund me, thankfully, though it wasn’t on the basis of my argument. More a gesture of goodwill. 

Thanks everyone for your help with this, all the same.