Wowcher Holiday - Fighting for Refund

pinkshoes

Nurselayer said:

I'd really appreciate help with this, my partner is obviously distraught as she feels that she's lost a lot of money on something we can't use and that they won't refund us for. It really feels like she's fallen for a scam.

It's not a scam at all. 

Their "Fine Print" (on the opening page) says :



So at the bottom left, it says hand luggage is included, check with the holiday provider. Then it says the holiday is provided by Travelodeal. 

https://www.travelodeal.co.uk/ 

I would phone Travelodeal to ask what their handluggage size is, as I can't find this anywhere on their website. On their webpage, if you select a holiday it says "add checked baggage from £70 per bag return".

Surely you'd only need one bag between you, so it's just an extra £70, which isn't a huge amount, or at least not worth losing the holiday over. 

born_again

In reality you are going to have to pay the extra.

As a aside. Just watched Roaming Radfords & they have just had a 12 day road trip to America. All on just hand luggage.

Skiddaw1

I've done several short breaks with hand luggage. Honestly, OP, it's doable with a bit of planning and fettling. For what it is worth, my husband once managed a 10 day business trip to the States with hand luggage only but me being a girly that's a bit too far out of my comfort zone!

ArbitraryRandom

elsien said:

Is hand luggage not included in the flight? Because for a five day trip, I would only ever travel with just hand luggage and am indeed off to Krakow myself in a couple of weeks time, Mon-Fri hand luggage only. 

So I wouldn’t be writing the trip off just on that basis. It’s surprising how much you can get into a regulation sized bag if you plan carefully.

And wear several layers/have big pockets on boarding  

Okell

I'm probably being thick, but isn't their "fine print" contradictory?

- vouchers are valid for redemption for 28 days from purchase date...

- the voucher must be redeemed within 48 hours of purchase...

- if not redeemed within 48 hours of purchase, the voucher will auto-redeem etc etc

Eh?  It may not be a scam but why make it so confusing?

I know this doesn't address the question of hold baggage but it does sort of demonstrate why I wouldn't touch these schemes with a bargepole...

Nurselayer

Firstly, thank you for all your comments so far.

Secondly,  the provider wasn't Travelodeal, my partner could only find out the provider by redeeming the voucher

Thirdly, whilst we were allowed hand luggage it had to fit under the seat in front

Fourthly, the additional cost of luggage was £200, which when the trip was supposed to cost £300 is a sizeable additional fee, and one that make this unaffordable for us.

Finally, it's easy to say read the small print, but she literally couldn't see any of the details UNTIL she'd redeemed the voucher, so thank you to those of you who have tried to offer practical help and to the others, why not try being a bit kinder, and less judgey? My partner is really not an idiot, she just didn't expect to be told she'd have to pay an extra £200 for luggage, nor did she expect only to find this out once she'd redeemed the voucher.  

RefluentBeans

OP - I’m sorry that you’ve feel that you’ve misled here. But with Wowcher you buy a voucher, and the voucher then buys you the experience. I can fully see why the chargeback (and section 75) failed - the supply of the voucher was provided. 

It appears your best bet is to look at what was included in the terms and what wasn’t. If the terms (or description) is still available to you, then you should post them in here as this may provide some help. If something isn’t in the terms, you can’t assume it is included; but you should be able to compare to see if it was included in similar value packages. For example - if you go scuba diving and it doesn’t say kit rental is included, but all the other vouchers on the site around that price point say kit is included it is reasonable to assume it is, and potentially ask for a refund if you want to. 

The issue you have is the additional cost of luggage is nearly the price of the whole experience - I don’t think it’s reasonable to think it is included. Equally, for European trips I don’t think it’s particularly common to have hold luggage included as standard (and even on budget carriers now - having cabin storage as standard is normally just the bag underneath the chair). Whilst more premium carriers like BA will likely still offer trimmings as included, budget carriers certainly won’t; and for £300 you’d struggle to find a way of incorporating in a BA flight and the ticket cost to Auschwitz and make a reasonable profit (as that is Wowcher is there to do as a company), even more so if that includes hotels. 

Going back to your original question if it falls under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading - the lack of information on flights may not be uncommon. It’s not uncommon to have different suppliers for different days/weeks (some weeks Ryanair may be the cheapest, some weeks it may be EasyJet). So not including the supplier of the flights I don’t think makes it unfair in of itself. The question is then what an average consumer would think is included at that price. I think this is a harder question to answer as some people may not be regular fliers and not aware of the different levels of baggage offered to be included in prices. I think in this case, the inclusion of hold luggage is certainly out of the scope for the price. The inclusion of cabin luggage is more difficult to say, but my gut is telling me that anyone who travels on budget airlines (or has heard about how restrictive they are - thinking of comedians who regularly use the lack of space as a punchline/shows that feature airports/the news etc) would reasonably expect to know about the restrictions. Additionally, the way the original post is written it seems you had these questions prior to purchasing the voucher. This could actually weaken the case, as the average consumer may just assume it’s included. 

I’m sorry it’s not the result you want, and the board has seemed to all conclude that. These boards do not constitute legal advice, obviously. And you may wish to still pursue it. If you do, I would pursue the retailer (Wowcher) and not the bank as the banks response seems fair. After complaining, if you still haven’t got the response you desired then you can file a letter before action but that may mean they withdraw any offer for compensation (including the 50% credit). 

If the voucher includes flights, boarding and the trip to Auschwitz, and is for 2 people then I think that £500 total (£300 for the voucher, £200 for the luggage) is still actually reasonable. And if they includes two hold bags then you can try and get that down a bit to one hold bag for less. 

soolin

Re the luggage, under the seat in front this is the usual hand luggage requirements now and has been for quite a few years , most of the wheelie case things are ‘extras’ you pay for either with an upgraded seat or as an additional charge. I do travel with hold luggage as it is usually cheaper to pay for a single 23kg case in the hold than to pay for an on board case. I tend to use airlines such as Easyjet (not Ryanair) as for most of the European places I visit a case can be as little as £60 for a return flight. 

However, check the dimensions of the included hand luggage, even the budget airlines can be large enough if you pack carefully. It’s best to buy a squashable bag , either a soft back pack or even one of those new square soft sided hold all bags that are suddenly being touted in the travel press. These soft sided bags fir easily under the seat and as long as you stick to the airline size requirements and pack well can be very useful. Buy toiletries when you arrive so no need to pack them. 

born_again

RefluentBeans said:

OP - I’m sorry that you’ve feel that you’ve misled here. But with Wowcher you buy a voucher, and the voucher then buys you the experience. I can fully see why the chargeback (and section 75) failed - the supply of the voucher was provided. 

It appears your best bet is to look at what was included in the terms and what wasn’t. If the terms (or description) is still available to you, then you should post them in here as this may provide some help. If something isn’t in the terms, you can’t assume it is included; but you should be able to compare to see if it was included in similar value packages. For example - if you go scuba diving and it doesn’t say kit rental is included, but all the other vouchers on the site around that price point say kit is included it is reasonable to assume it is, and potentially ask for a refund if you want to. 

The issue you have is the additional cost of luggage is nearly the price of the whole experience - I don’t think it’s reasonable to think it is included. Equally, for European trips I don’t think it’s particularly common to have hold luggage included as standard (and even on budget carriers now - having cabin storage as standard is normally just the bag underneath the chair). Whilst more premium carriers like BA will likely still offer trimmings as included, budget carriers certainly won’t; and for £300 you’d struggle to find a way of incorporating in a BA flight and the ticket cost to Auschwitz and make a reasonable profit (as that is Wowcher is there to do as a company), even more so if that includes hotels. 

Going back to your original question if it falls under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading - the lack of information on flights may not be uncommon. It’s not uncommon to have different suppliers for different days/weeks (some weeks Ryanair may be the cheapest, some weeks it may be EasyJet). So not including the supplier of the flights I don’t think makes it unfair in of itself. The question is then what an average consumer would think is included at that price. I think this is a harder question to answer as some people may not be regular fliers and not aware of the different levels of baggage offered to be included in prices. I think in this case, the inclusion of hold luggage is certainly out of the scope for the price. The inclusion of cabin luggage is more difficult to say, but my gut is telling me that anyone who travels on budget airlines (or has heard about how restrictive they are - thinking of comedians who regularly use the lack of space as a punchline/shows that feature airports/the news etc) would reasonably expect to know about the restrictions. Additionally, the way the original post is written it seems you had these questions prior to purchasing the voucher. This could actually weaken the case, as the average consumer may just assume it’s included. 

I’m sorry it’s not the result you want, and the board has seemed to all conclude that. These boards do not constitute legal advice, obviously. And you may wish to still pursue it. If you do, I would pursue the retailer (Wowcher) and not the bank as the banks response seems fair. After complaining, if you still haven’t got the response you desired then you can file a letter before action but that may mean they withdraw any offer for compensation (including the 50% credit). 

If the voucher includes flights, boarding and the trip to Auschwitz, and is for 2 people then I think that £500 total (£300 for the voucher, £200 for the luggage) is still actually reasonable. And if they includes two hold bags then you can try and get that down a bit to one hold bag for less. 

Wowcher do not price these.
Retailer sets price & offer & Wowcher simply advertises it & take a %

Like all things with these the devil is in the detail.

Quite a few of the ladies I work with have had some cracking deals via Wowcher. But they are the type that will have studied the T/C & worked out if it suits them before buying.

As far as banks go. Unless Wowcher are actually selling a product & supplying it. Then it is just a voucher purchase, You pay them for a voucher to redeem @ a retailer. So long as you get the voucher that is the end of the matter be that via chargeback or S75.

user1977

Which airline charges you £200 to take a bag?