Are consumer rights actually upheld by anyone?

Fuzzykitten

I bought a ticket to a concert last year for £130 . The organisers changed the date and refused to give a refund (even though this is a legal right)

Trading standards are not interested. The area the company is working in is Great Yarmouth and they are registered at Companies House from North London (not surprisingly , the directors are all living in Spain and Dubai). Great Yarmouth council not interested; Norfolk Trading standards not interested.

To get to Trading standards you have to jump through hoops and wait for Citizens advice to be open to email enquiries. Once you do make a complaint Trading Standards do nothing claiming there is not enough information.

As a law I thought maybe the police or parliament might be of aid- no,  they advise to start at the top of the post.

The County courts route takes a year (by which point this company has changed its name and I suspect will claim the old company has no assets). Fortunately, the County Court route is now changed to Immediate Arbitration.

Meanwhile this Festival company has made a mockery of UK consumer law and basically legalised stealing which you would think would raise red flags everywhere. I've written to the bands appearing at  this festival - they agree that  it's not right.

I've contacted the venue for the festival (A caravan park in Great Yarmouth) as the law is being broken on their grounds. A review of this fact on Trip Advisor was removed. The caravan park solicitors feel that they can ignore the fact they are hiring the venue out to a company who are abusing customers and breaking UK consumer laws . I think they have a responsibility to the secondary customers (certainly when I hired out a hall, I had a responsibility to what was happening in it)

Should consumers just admit that these companies can take their money for fresh air? NO one will do anything about them!

Aylesbury_Duck

Yes.  There are chargeback options or Section 75 processes available in certain circumstances.  The small claims process is there as the backstop.  Send a letter before action and take it to court if you don't get action. 

Trading Standards, like many other statutory public services, have been starved of funding and resources over the years, thanks to the political decisions we the electorate take.  They're certainly unlikely to take up your individual case unless it's part of an obvious pattern of unlawful activity.

Fuzzykitten

I've tried chargeback - the festival said it wasn't willing to provide it and they route ticket sales through the Virgin Isles (incidentally they also spoof their telephone number when sending out  further adverts to spend more money with them). Due to this, the bank had to refund the money to the fraudulent traders .

They sold me the ticket on Good Friday day.. ON Easter Monday they changed the date. The Terms and Conditions provided were for an old company. I don't believe that this decision was taken over the Easter Weekend so they continued to sell even knowing they were selling  basically a ticket to nothing.

forgotmyname

Your chargeback should be through your payment provider.  Puzzled why a phone number and advertising is a reason for the bank to
deny the chargeback?

Are they a 3rd party seller and not the official seller?

MattMattMattUK

Fuzzykitten said:

I bought a ticket to a concert last year for £130 . The organisers changed the date and refused to give a refund (even though this is a legal right)

Trading standards are not interested. The area the company is working in is Great Yarmouth and they are registered at Companies House from North London (not surprisingly , the directors are all living in Spain and Dubai). Great Yarmouth council not interested; Norfolk Trading standards not interested.

To get to Trading standards you have to jump through hoops and wait for Citizens advice to be open to email enquiries. Once you do make a complaint Trading Standards do nothing claiming there is not enough information.

As a law I thought maybe the police or parliament might be of aid- no,  they advise to start at the top of the post.

Reading through your post just feels slightly odd, are they the same company, did you book through an agent, something else?

Fuzzykitten said:

The County courts route takes a year (by which point this company has changed its name and I suspect will claim the old company has no assets). Fortunately, the County Court route is now changed to Immediate Arbitration.

A MCOL small claims action is unlikely to take a year even with current delays, why do you think it will take that long? If they are planning on closing the company down and the even was last year, the chances are it already has no assets.

Fuzzykitten said:

Meanwhile this Festival company has made a mockery of UK consumer law and basically legalised stealing which you would think would raise red flags everywhere. I've written to the bands appearing at  this festival - they agree that  it's not right.

Make sure you stick to absolutely factual statements or you risk defamation. 

Fuzzykitten said:

I've contacted the venue for the festival (A caravan park in Great Yarmouth) as the law is being broken on their grounds. A review of this fact on Trip Advisor was removed. The caravan park solicitors feel that they can ignore the fact they are hiring the venue out to a company who are abusing customers and breaking UK consumer laws . I think they have a responsibility to the secondary customers (certainly when I hired out a hall, I had a responsibility to what was happening in it)

If you blamed the venue on TripAdvisor then I am not surprised that it was removed, it is nothing to do with them. They have no responsibility and your feelings do not override the law, which in no way holds them responsible. 

Fuzzykitten said:

Should consumers just admit that these companies can take their money for fresh air? NO one will do anything about them!

Why would consumers "admit" anything? You can do something about it, go for a CCJ.

Fuzzykitten said:

I've tried chargeback - the festival said it wasn't willing to provide it and they route ticket sales through the Virgin Isles (incidentally they also spoof their telephone number when sending out  further adverts to spend more money with them). Due to this, the bank had to refund the money to the fraudulent traders .

The festival is not the one that gets to decide about chargeback, what do you mean they were not willing to provide it? Thr phone number means nothing, the same for the businesses location.

Can you post the actual text of the chargeback rejection? 

Fuzzykitten said:

They sold me the ticket on Good Friday day.. ON Easter Monday they changed the date. The Terms and Conditions provided were for an old company. I don't believe that this decision was taken over the Easter Weekend so they continued to sell even knowing they were selling  basically a ticket to nothing.

What you think their reasoning may or may not have been is irrelevant and has no bearing on your consumer rights. 

When you say olde company do you mean that the terms and conditions that were emailed were for a different company than the one you purchased from?

Keep_pedalling

The festival organisers are HRH the bookings via Dark Watch. Their dodgy T&Cs are on the following link

https://hrhprog.com/information/terms-and-conditions/

user1977

Keep_pedalling said:

The festival organisers are HRH the bookings via Dark Watch. Dark Watch. Their dodgy T&Cs are on the filling link

https://hrhprog.com/information/terms-and-conditions/

Somewhat randomly (for a contract entered into between a British individual and a BVI company):

"These Terms are subject to the laws and exclusive jurisdiction of Ibiza."

[Deleted User]

Fuzzykitten said:

I've tried chargeback - the festival said it wasn't willing to provide it

I'm no expert in chargeback procedure but I'm fairly sure this isn't how it works.

DullGreyGuy

[Deleted User] said:

Fuzzykitten said:

I've tried chargeback - the festival said it wasn't willing to provide it

I'm no expert in chargeback procedure but I'm fairly sure this isn't how it works.

The merchant can choose not to accept it and provide a defence but it's obviously not their final decision on if the chargeback is successful or not, ultimately its the card network if the parties cannot agree. Remember however chargeback is simple rules, not a complex rules like legislation or how a court would consider matters. 

[Deleted User]

DullGreyGuy said:

[Deleted User] said:

Fuzzykitten said:

I've tried chargeback - the festival said it wasn't willing to provide it

I'm no expert in chargeback procedure but I'm fairly sure this isn't how it works.

The merchant can choose not to accept it and provide a defence but it's obviously not their final decision on if the chargeback is successful or not, ultimately its the card network if the parties cannot agree. Remember however chargeback is simple rules, not a complex rules like legislation or how a court would consider matters. 

That's what I mean. I'd imagine that a chargeback would only happen after the merchant refused to refund, so it's not surprising they don't change their mind when asked again. But in this case it's made it sound like the chargeback was denied because the merchant didn't like the idea.

born_again

[Deleted User] said:

DullGreyGuy said:

[Deleted User] said:

Fuzzykitten said:

I've tried chargeback - the festival said it wasn't willing to provide it

I'm no expert in chargeback procedure but I'm fairly sure this isn't how it works.

The merchant can choose not to accept it and provide a defence but it's obviously not their final decision on if the chargeback is successful or not, ultimately its the card network if the parties cannot agree. Remember however chargeback is simple rules, not a complex rules like legislation or how a court would consider matters. 

That's what I mean. I'd imagine that a chargeback would only happen after the merchant refused to refund, so it's not surprising they don't change their mind when asked again. But in this case it's made it sound like the chargeback was denied because the merchant didn't like the idea.

That is not a valid reason & would be thrown out by Visa/Mastercard.

Retailer could reject on the grounds that a change of date & the ticket was still valid.

OP would have to go down court route & hope company is still active to get any funds back. Which is where the consumer rights are upheld.

Chargebacks have nothing to do with consumer rights, they are over & above & simply card regulations.