Refunds
Why is it that some companies don't think they have to give you your money back, even if they don't supply the service you pay for? And think they can get away with it, calling it "policy"?
Yesterday, Ele and I took Jess and a friend of hers to Thorpe Park. We had a couple of free-entry tickets from Woolworths, so decided to make use of them. The first thing I noticed was that if you booked online (which you couldn't with these tickets), the prices were so much cheaper that we would have only spent £4 more buying 4 tickets in advance instead of 2 on the door. Nonetheless, I coughed up £64 for 2 tickets on the door. I then went to the FastTrack counter, which lets you spend even more money on tickets to jump the queue. I bought tickets that let us skip the queue for 4 of the biggest rides (£9 each), and then tickets to let us skip the queue and ride at the very front of their best ride (Stealth), at £6 each. Those of you with calculators will make this an extra total of £60. Expensive, but I'm far too impatient to queue for hours, when a bit of extra cash will let me waltz past the chavs swearing and smoking in the queue lines.
So, we do our rides. Eventually, that is, as initially most of the big rides were closed and didn't open until after 11am. Naturally, this made the ones that did open have enormous queues (over 2 hours), but thanks to our fast-track passes we only waited a few minutes so this didn't bother us. However, Stealth - the ride I had paid £6 each to to skip the queues - remained stubbornly closed all day. Obviously something was wrong with it, so fair enough; I'd be more annoyed if they let it run and it broke and I died. Still disappointing, as I'd been looking forward to that one the most.
I assumed it would be a simple matter of go back to the FastTrack desk and get my £24 back. Not an unreasonable assumption. Of course, I was wrong. I approached the desk, and the very nice girl behind the counter was a bit shocked that I was sold these. She then said she couldn't refund me, and suggested I goto Guest Services. I thought this was fine, obviously she doesn't have the authority to do the refund.
I made my way to Guest Services, explained the situation and was told I couldn't have a refund. I struggled to comprehend this for a second, then explained it again, slower, in case he had misunderstood me. I explained that I had paid for a service and that it had not been supplied. I said that I was not asking for anything unreasonable. I was not asking for free tickets. I was not asking for compensation. I was merely asking for my money back for what they had sold me, but had not been able to supply.
I was told no, it was not company policy. I was still trying to keep polite (there were lots of shouty people in there complaining that the rides had been broken, and that queues had been huge and they'd only got on 2 rides all day, so I decided that playing it nice might get me further in this case), but it was getting harder. I asked him if he'd heard of the Sale & Supply Of Goods And Services Act. He hadn't. I explained that if I buy something, and it is not supplied, that the law states I must be given my money back. He started talking about policy again. I had to tell him that, sadly, company policy cannot over-ride the actual law. I asked him if I paid him to mow my lawn, and he didn't, would he still expect payment? He admitted he would not. He then tried to offer me another fast-track pass for another ride. I declined this; if I want you to mow my lawn I don't want you to offer to wash my windows instead. Especially if I've already paid you to wash my windows. He then offered to make my existing fast-track pass valid for another day, therefore generously giving me the option of paying tons of money to come back to the park. I don't think so.
In the end, he had me fill out a complaint form whilst he spoke to his manager. I wrote down what had happened, and indicated that not refunding was possibly illegal. The manager came over after dealing with someone else, read the form, went out back for a second, then invited me to go with him into the back room. I initially thought this was a crowd-avoidance tactic, where he didn't want me to make a scene in front of other guests as he told me I couldn't have my money back. But to my suprise, he came over with £24 in cash. I guess he didn't want to show people that they could get a refund after all.
So all's well that ends well, but I do not agree with their policy. It should have been an open-and-shut case. I was sold something that they were unable to supply, so I should get my money back. It should not have been that difficult.
Yesterday, Ele and I took Jess and a friend of hers to Thorpe Park. We had a couple of free-entry tickets from Woolworths, so decided to make use of them. The first thing I noticed was that if you booked online (which you couldn't with these tickets), the prices were so much cheaper that we would have only spent £4 more buying 4 tickets in advance instead of 2 on the door. Nonetheless, I coughed up £64 for 2 tickets on the door. I then went to the FastTrack counter, which lets you spend even more money on tickets to jump the queue. I bought tickets that let us skip the queue for 4 of the biggest rides (£9 each), and then tickets to let us skip the queue and ride at the very front of their best ride (Stealth), at £6 each. Those of you with calculators will make this an extra total of £60. Expensive, but I'm far too impatient to queue for hours, when a bit of extra cash will let me waltz past the chavs swearing and smoking in the queue lines.
So, we do our rides. Eventually, that is, as initially most of the big rides were closed and didn't open until after 11am. Naturally, this made the ones that did open have enormous queues (over 2 hours), but thanks to our fast-track passes we only waited a few minutes so this didn't bother us. However, Stealth - the ride I had paid £6 each to to skip the queues - remained stubbornly closed all day. Obviously something was wrong with it, so fair enough; I'd be more annoyed if they let it run and it broke and I died. Still disappointing, as I'd been looking forward to that one the most.
I assumed it would be a simple matter of go back to the FastTrack desk and get my £24 back. Not an unreasonable assumption. Of course, I was wrong. I approached the desk, and the very nice girl behind the counter was a bit shocked that I was sold these. She then said she couldn't refund me, and suggested I goto Guest Services. I thought this was fine, obviously she doesn't have the authority to do the refund.
I made my way to Guest Services, explained the situation and was told I couldn't have a refund. I struggled to comprehend this for a second, then explained it again, slower, in case he had misunderstood me. I explained that I had paid for a service and that it had not been supplied. I said that I was not asking for anything unreasonable. I was not asking for free tickets. I was not asking for compensation. I was merely asking for my money back for what they had sold me, but had not been able to supply.
I was told no, it was not company policy. I was still trying to keep polite (there were lots of shouty people in there complaining that the rides had been broken, and that queues had been huge and they'd only got on 2 rides all day, so I decided that playing it nice might get me further in this case), but it was getting harder. I asked him if he'd heard of the Sale & Supply Of Goods And Services Act. He hadn't. I explained that if I buy something, and it is not supplied, that the law states I must be given my money back. He started talking about policy again. I had to tell him that, sadly, company policy cannot over-ride the actual law. I asked him if I paid him to mow my lawn, and he didn't, would he still expect payment? He admitted he would not. He then tried to offer me another fast-track pass for another ride. I declined this; if I want you to mow my lawn I don't want you to offer to wash my windows instead. Especially if I've already paid you to wash my windows. He then offered to make my existing fast-track pass valid for another day, therefore generously giving me the option of paying tons of money to come back to the park. I don't think so.
In the end, he had me fill out a complaint form whilst he spoke to his manager. I wrote down what had happened, and indicated that not refunding was possibly illegal. The manager came over after dealing with someone else, read the form, went out back for a second, then invited me to go with him into the back room. I initially thought this was a crowd-avoidance tactic, where he didn't want me to make a scene in front of other guests as he told me I couldn't have my money back. But to my suprise, he came over with £24 in cash. I guess he didn't want to show people that they could get a refund after all.
So all's well that ends well, but I do not agree with their policy. It should have been an open-and-shut case. I was sold something that they were unable to supply, so I should get my money back. It should not have been that difficult.
posted by Nej at
2:38 pm
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