Tickets that came with a "free gift"

Midsguy

We've just returned from a holiday to Florida, and we bought park tickets from a company who offered "free" magic bands (the little watch gizmos that automatically capture your photos on the rides.)
We paid more for the tickets for the magic bands (other retailers were cheaper,) because we wanted those photos.
We collected them, hit the parks and found out some days later they weren't working (all 3,) batteries were flat, and Disney told us they were up to 5 years old. (They weren't supplied by Disney , they also didn't have any they could exchange them with even if they had.)
I contacted the ticket company and basically got told it was Disney's fault and they had to fix it.
This bounced to and from and the company eventually offered to replace them.... But by this point we'd done the parks and so were worthless to us.
Since coming back the company have refused any form of compensation, to be clear we aren't trying to claim the £1700 ticket price back, just some for the mess they had made and the photos we had lost 
Although the item they claim was "free", it didn't work and as it was part of the deal surely they have some obligation to provide a working service?

powerful_Rogue

Whats the name, web address of the company?

elsien

What country Are they based in?

Midsguy

They are a UK based company called Attraction Tickets.

Aylesbury_Duck

What's the difference in price between the ticket with the gadget, and a normal ticket?

PragmaticMoneySaver

You don't need Magic Bands for picture opportunities.  I realise this is a bit late now, but it may help others.  The My Disney Experience app which has your tickets on etc also works as a Bluetooth beacon (in the same way as the MagicBands) and automatically adds ride photos to your account.

Midsguy

Aylesbury_Duck said:

What's the difference in price between the ticket with the gadget, and a normal ticket?

You can get tickets from another retailer for about £20 p/p less. The band's themselves sell between £20 and £50 generally on their own per band.

Aylesbury_Duck

Midsguy said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

What's the difference in price between the ticket with the gadget, and a normal ticket?

You can get tickets from another retailer for about £20 p/p less. The band's themselves sell between £20 and £50 generally on their own per band.

So your "loss" is about £60.

No harm in sending a letter before action (would cost you the price of a stamp) and see if they come back with an offer.  If they don't, I'd leave it there.  It's not worth the hassle of actual court action for such a small sum.

Alderbank

The cost to buy the current, latest model of the ©MagicBand is about $35.
There have been several versions since Disney first dreamed them up in 2012 as a way of making themselves extra money. If your are 5 yrs old they are probably an older version.

Disney say that the batteries can't be replaced in any of them. The later versions have USB charging sockets and rechargeable batteries, so again yours are probably not the latest ones.

Disney also say they are just a convenience aid - there is nothing you can do with a MagicBand that you can't do in other ways such as entering your email address or tapping with one of Disney's phone apps.

Which version do you have?

Midsguy

Maybe if I asked the question where do I stand from a legal point of view? Rather than go into details, it may also help others more.
They say as it's "free" they have no obligation to offer anything and it's "thanks and goodbye".

Alderbank

Legally...

"Free" is a mere puff, a sales gimmick. You bought a bundle of items, each of which has a value and is part of the sales contract.

The Consumer Rights Act says that during the first month after you and Attraction Tickets made the sales contract you could have asked for a partial refund for the value of the MagicBands if on balance of probabilities the MagicBands did not conform to contract, such as perhaps because the batteries had run down.

After that time you can ask the seller to replace or repair. You said they have offered to replace, but if they couldn't do that they would have had to refund you.

The CRA says neither you nor the seller are bound by the regulations, you are free to negotiate a cash settlement with them instead of replacements.

You didn't tell us which versions you have. Which is it and what do you think they are worth?