Scam holiday advert through Wowcher

Grellboy

Good evening everybody. Just looking for advice about how to proceed. Long story summarised; spotted an advert on Wowcher "2 nights in Vienna from Stansted or Manchester for £179". Brilliant! Just what we wanted. Bought 3 pairs for six of us - outlaying more than £1000. The way Wowcher travel deals seem to work is they then send through to a third-party travel agent, in this case a company called Travelodeal. Anyway, to find out the finer details - primarily the flight times for both ends - you have to "redeem" your voucher - with then apparently means your contract is now with the third-party, rather than Wowcher. Phoned Travelodeal but had to wait a day for them to get back to me. Now, I was under no illusion that at this point I would be offered some crappy flights and then be pressured to pay more for better flight times and was happy enough to fork out another £50 or so p/p. What I was not prepared for was for the "customer services rep"  - who supposedly was called "Dave" (!) -  to tell me that there were no flights available from Stansted so instead I would have to fly from Luton. He also said the hotel was no longer available. When I said that this wasn't good enough, as I specifically wanted to fly from Stansted, he actually said to me "How did you expect to get to Vienna from Stansted in December for less than £400?"!!!! This aside, I said to "Dave" that as they had now moved the goalposts so far and randomly, I would rather just have a refund. He said this wasn't possible as (he said ) the original advert said that it would leave from any London airport. This was a complete lie. Whilst on the phone I got the original advert up and it still said "flights from Stan & Man" only. However, as I stayed on the phone trying to get my point across to Dave, unbelievably the advert on Wowcher changed from "Stan & Man" to "any London airport."!!!! This literally happened whilst I was in the middle of the phone call, almost like somebody was doing it to hide the evidence. 
Anyway, just wondering what to do next. Surely this is "material misrepresentation"?: advertising a holiday that they never even tried to follow through with? If this is the case, who should i pursue my complaint against: Wowcher or Travelodeal? And if they refuse to refund me, would I have any success with the small claims court? Any help will be greatly appreciated. 

powerful_Rogue

Grellboy said:

Good evening everybody. Just looking for advice about how to proceed. Long story summarised; spotted an advert on Wowcher "2 nights in Vienna from Stansted or Manchester for £179". Brilliant! Just what we wanted. Bought 3 pairs for six of us - outlaying more than £1000. The way Wowcher travel deals seem to work is they then send through to a third-party travel agent, in this case a company called Travelodeal. Anyway, to find out the finer details - primarily the flight times for both ends - you have to "redeem" your voucher - with then apparently means your contract is now with the third-party, rather than Wowcher. Phoned Travelodeal but had to wait a day for them to get back to me. Now, I was under no illusion that at this point I would be offered some crappy flights and then be pressured to pay more for better flight times and was happy enough to fork out another £50 or so p/p. What I was not prepared for was for the "customer services rep"  - who supposedly was called "Dave" (!) -  to tell me that there were no flights available from Stansted so instead I would have to fly from Luton. He also said the hotel was no longer available. When I said that this wasn't good enough, as I specifically wanted to fly from Stansted, he actually said to me "How did you expect to get to Vienna from Stansted in December for less than £400?"!!!! This aside, I said to "Dave" that as they had now moved the goalposts so far and randomly, I would rather just have a refund. He said this wasn't possible as (he said ) the original advert said that it would leave from any London airport. This was a complete lie. Whilst on the phone I got the original advert up and it still said "flights from Stan & Man" only. However, as I stayed on the phone trying to get my point across to Dave, unbelievably the advert on Wowcher changed from "Stan & Man" to "any London airport."!!!! This literally happened whilst I was in the middle of the phone call, almost like somebody was doing it to hide the evidence. 
Anyway, just wondering what to do next. Surely this is "material misrepresentation"?: advertising a holiday that they never even tried to follow through with? If this is the case, who should i pursue my complaint against: Wowcher or Travelodeal? And if they refuse to refund me, would I have any success with the small claims court? Any help will be greatly appreciated. 

Have you contacted wowcher and what did they say?

Grellboy

They don't make it that easy to get in contact with them (only do-able it seems through Whatsapp Chat) but I have stated my case to Wowcher and they said "We'll get back to you within 48 hours". But, got a feeling - from what i have read of similiar cases - when they do reply that they will try to tell me that it's not their fault and that i need to take it up with Travelodeal. 

Slinky

By the sound of it they should be called Travelordeal, which is what I first read it as.

HampshireH

Doesn't your wowcher order confirmation evidence what you ordered as well as the page.

You should also be able to access the cached page to evidence this.

I would definitely be starting the complaint with wowcher

born_again

HampshireH said:

Doesn't your wowcher order confirmation evidence what you ordered as well as the page.

You should also be able to access the cached page to evidence this.

I would definitely be starting the complaint with wowcher

Wowcher only sell a voucher. Nothing else.
So any issues are between you & retailer.
No chargeback or S75 cover. As you bought a voucher & received one.

Not sure how a court claim would go, as again wowcher will argue you received what you paid for.

sheramber

What exactly does the voucher say it is for? 

HampshireH

born_again said:

HampshireH said:

Doesn't your wowcher order confirmation evidence what you ordered as well as the page.

You should also be able to access the cached page to evidence this.

I would definitely be starting the complaint with wowcher

Wowcher only sell a voucher. Nothing else.
So any issues are between you & retailer.
No chargeback or S75 cover. As you bought a voucher & received one.

Not sure how a court claim would go, as again wowcher will argue you received what you paid for.

The voucher should at the very least state what the OP bought.

Although they don't seem to be returning

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

born_again said:

HampshireH said:

Doesn't your wowcher order confirmation evidence what you ordered as well as the page.

You should also be able to access the cached page to evidence this.

I would definitely be starting the complaint with wowcher

Wowcher only sell a voucher. Nothing else.
So any issues are between you & retailer.
No chargeback or S75 cover. As you bought a voucher & received one.

Not sure how a court claim would go, as again wowcher will argue you received what you paid for.

I would have thought S75 would apply to the voucher itself, if the voucher doesn’t give what was advertised I would see this as misrepresentation? 

born_again

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

born_again said:

HampshireH said:

Doesn't your wowcher order confirmation evidence what you ordered as well as the page.

You should also be able to access the cached page to evidence this.

I would definitely be starting the complaint with wowcher

Wowcher only sell a voucher. Nothing else.
So any issues are between you & retailer.
No chargeback or S75 cover. As you bought a voucher & received one.

Not sure how a court claim would go, as again wowcher will argue you received what you paid for.

I would have thought S75 would apply to the voucher itself, if the voucher doesn’t give what was advertised I would see this as misrepresentation? 

Sadly (Thankfully) not. You paid for a voucher & got a voucher. Debtor/Creditor link. What was described when redeeming does not come into play, as Wowcher do not provide that.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

born_again said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

born_again said:

HampshireH said:

Doesn't your wowcher order confirmation evidence what you ordered as well as the page.

You should also be able to access the cached page to evidence this.

I would definitely be starting the complaint with wowcher

Wowcher only sell a voucher. Nothing else.
So any issues are between you & retailer.
No chargeback or S75 cover. As you bought a voucher & received one.

Not sure how a court claim would go, as again wowcher will argue you received what you paid for.

I would have thought S75 would apply to the voucher itself, if the voucher doesn’t give what was advertised I would see this as misrepresentation? 

Sadly (Thankfully) not. You paid for a voucher & got a voucher. Debtor/Creditor link. What was described when redeeming does not come into play, as Wowcher do not provide that.

I understand if you buy a £150 Apple voucher from Tesco you don't get S75 cover on the things you spend the voucher on but with Wowcher I was under the impression you was buying a voucher for a specific thing.

So if you buy a voucher for "2 nights in Vienna from Stansted or Manchester for £179" and then can't actually get that deal I would have thought the voucher itself has been misrepresented?