Goodwood FOS Cancellation - Section 75?

mxxx

I had tickets booked to the Goodwood Festival of Speed for the first time ever this year (was very excited) unfortunately the event was cancelled (and they only said at about 10pm the night before). They've promised everyone who had tickets for that day (saturday 15th July) a refund but I've yet to receive mine and from what I can see they are being very slow at processing the refunds.
I've had two emails from them detailing what will happen with the refunds (although nothing to set expectations on how long it will take), however I've just re-read the latest of these emails and seen that they used misleading language and I've misunderstood what was happening.
The email said they would refund automatically to your account and you only needed to fill out a form if you wanted a 'cash refund'. Unfortunately, when they say 'account' they mean Goodwood account, not bank account and by 'cash refund' they don't actually mean cash, they mean bank account.
So, I thought it was all in hand but I've now realised I've missed their deadline for requesting to get the actual money back and instead it will be refunded to my 'goodwood account'. I don't want to buy anything else from them I want my money back.
I've tried contacting them on Facebook, they just trotted out the same line 'if you filled the form out you'll get it back to your bank account, otherwise it'll go to your goodwood account, we're very busy if you have any further queries contact our ticket office'.
I tried calling the ticket office and they have a recorded message saying much the same thing and to only hold on if you're calling about 'something else'.
So what to do now? I've not received anything back in my Goodwood account either but I DID pay for the tickets on my Barclaycard. Should I contact Barclaycard and ask them to process a refund under Section 75 so I actually get the money back rather than credit on the Goodwood website, or is this unfair?

DullGreyGuy

What do the T&Cs say? A section 75 claim will only be successful if you can demonstrate they've breached their terms and if the terms say refunds will go as a store credit and only be repaid to source if you fill in the form then they haven't breached them.

Why haven't you tried filling in the form and sending it back? If you think they are slow you are yet to see the speed a S75 claim runs at!

Assuming this isnt an event that's been deferred a dozen times due to Covid etc then a claim to your bank will most likely be treated as a chargeback initially. Given the much cruder tool that a chargeback is it probably has more prospects of success than a S75 claim.

RefluentBeans

Yeah I think this comes to down to what the terms say. How far off are you from the deadline? Has the money been added to your Goodwood a account? 

I do think the language is maybe a bit sneaky, maybe using something like ‘issuing you Goodwood Credit onto your account’ is the better thing they should’ve said, but a ‘cash refund’ was never going to be cash - they wouldn’t have shipped you an envelope with cash in it, so a cash refund would’ve always just been a refund. 

If the deadline has only just passed then I would send the form off and see what they say. Doubt you’ll be the only person that’s been affected, and I would imagine that they’re inundated with emails and phone calls currently. The event was supposed to be less than a month ago, and so surely the deadline wasn’t that long ago. So I would just send it off, and follow up with an email confirming you’ve sent it off and asking if they need anything else from you to process your refund. 

As said above, S75 refunds, and Small Claims move incredibly slowly so a 30 day wait is certainly nothing in comparison. Try and resolve through the company first but you have got other options if you can’t get it resolved, but all those are longer than 30 days. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

The event is a service and as the trader agreed that the service did not/would not conform to the contract they should have arranged a price reduction (full refund in this instance) within 14 days of them notifying you of the event being cancelled.

S75 places the same liability on the credit provider so again 14 days to refund from when they agree (it's obvious so as soon as you claim).

The avenues to enforce 14 days obviously take a long time however the credit provider is regulated so if they fail to act in accordance with their obligations you can follow their complaints procedure and escalate to the ombudsman, they obviously want to avoid this in a case where they are not fulfilling their obligations so are more likely to be speedier with a resolution. 

T&Cs can't override the above and the consumer shouldn't be filling in forms to get a refund via the same means of payment. 

born_again

mxxx said:

I had tickets booked to the Goodwood Festival of Speed for the first time ever this year (was very excited) unfortunately the event was cancelled (and they only said at about 10pm the night before). They've promised everyone who had tickets for that day (saturday 15th July) a refund but I've yet to receive mine and from what I can see they are being very slow at processing the refunds.
I've had two emails from them detailing what will happen with the refunds (although nothing to set expectations on how long it will take), however I've just re-read the latest of these emails and seen that they used misleading language and I've misunderstood what was happening.
The email said they would refund automatically to your account and you only needed to fill out a form if you wanted a 'cash refund'. Unfortunately, when they say 'account' they mean Goodwood account, not bank account and by 'cash refund' they don't actually mean cash, they mean bank account.
So, I thought it was all in hand but I've now realised I've missed their deadline for requesting to get the actual money back and instead it will be refunded to my 'goodwood account'. I don't want to buy anything else from them I want my money back.
I've tried contacting them on Facebook, they just trotted out the same line 'if you filled the form out you'll get it back to your bank account, otherwise it'll go to your goodwood account, we're very busy if you have any further queries contact our ticket office'.
I tried calling the ticket office and they have a recorded message saying much the same thing and to only hold on if you're calling about 'something else'.
So what to do now? I've not received anything back in my Goodwood account either but I DID pay for the tickets on my Barclaycard. Should I contact Barclaycard and ask them to process a refund under Section 75 so I actually get the money back rather than credit on the Goodwood website, or is this unfair?

How much was each ticket?

In effect they have not breeched their T/C as they have refunded you, just not how you wanted, due to not filling in the form. So I can see Barclaycard rejecting the S75 on that basis. That is if each ticket was over £100. If not then there is no claim.

mxxx

The form for a 'cash refund' is no longer available, the link just takes you to a page that says the deadline has passed. 
I don't believe I can request a chargeback as the tickets were purchased back in November so we're way past the limit for a chargeback.
I (as did many people) had to travel and book accommodation to attend the event so I already lost out on the cost of two nights hotel stay for an event that didn't happen so when they said they'd issue refunds (they said this within a day or two of cancelling) I just assumed i'd get the money back, not a credit to my account.
When I skimmed the follow up emails I guess that's what I was looking for and to make matters more confusing the first email they sent said they'd automatically process a refund unless you filled out a form requesting your tickets be carried forward to next year.
I feel they've been a bit sneaky and we're talking about £260 here (3x tickets) so it's not a trivial sum of money to me.

eskbanker

mxxx said:

I don't believe I can request a chargeback as the tickets were purchased back in November so we're way past the limit for a chargeback.

Not so - for a future-dated event, you can claim up to 540 days after payment, as long as it's within 120 days of the service not being provided.

mxxx said:

we're talking about £260 here (3x tickets)

So s75 isn't an option if the tickets were <£100 each....

mxxx

eskbanker said:

So s75 isn't an option if the tickets were <£100 each....

Ah, that's useful to know. I thought as the entire transaction was over £100 it would be covered but if it's 'per ticket' then I guess that's not an option. At least I know where I stand.

eskbanker

mxxx said:

eskbanker said:

So s75 isn't an option if the tickets were <£100 each....

Ah, that's useful to know. I thought as the entire transaction was over £100 it would be covered but if it's 'per ticket' then I guess that's not an option. At least I know where I stand.

Yes, section 75 eligibility is based on the cost at item level, and excludes "any single item to which the supplier has attached a cash price not exceeding £100 or more than £30,000".

born_again

If they have refunded to your Goodwood account, then any chargeback would fail as they would reject on the basis you have already been refunded.
Sorry..

Okell

The supplier's T&Cs are irrelevant, aren't they?

Under the Consumer Rights Act the default position is that refunds should be paid using the same means of payment that the consumer used when buying the tickets, unless the consumer "expressly agrees otherwise".

I suppose the organisers could try to argue that the OP has agreed to be refunded via their "Goodwood account", but that argument seems a bit tenuous because of (1) what could be called the misleading wording of the refund offer which would call into doubt whether the OP has "expressly" agreed to it being refunded to their Goodwood account, and (2) as @the_lunatic_is_in_my_head has said, the consumer shouldn't need to be filling a form out to get a refund using the same means by which they paid - that should be the default position and they should only be filling the form out to get a refund via different means.

@mxxx -  this is probably a stupid question, but can you not just close your Goodwood account and take out the balance?  What do the T&Cs of the account actually say?

I've always wanted to go to the Festival of Speed.  Don't think I'll bother now...