'Help! My Wowcher holiday deal is rubbish and I want my money back'
Do you have an issue you need put right? Which? is here to help get your consumer problems sorted.
Dear Which?,
I found a family holiday deal to Marrakech on Wowcher for £550.98 and bought four vouchers to cover all of us.
After redeeming the vouchers, it became clear that the trip was unsuitable as the outbound flight landed at midnight, which would mean you would lose all of day one on a three-day trip. There was also an unexpected two-hour layover in Casablanca on the way back.
As full information about the holiday wasn't available until after I had redeemed the vouchers, I realised I wasn't able to make an informed decision and wanted a refund.
Wowcher's terms and conditions said that once you have redeemed the voucher, you need to contact the merchant to cancel them, so I did. I contacted The Travel Makers, the holiday provider, but I'm struggling to get a refund from them.
Are you able to help with this?
Vicky Taylor
Put to Rights
Tali Ramsey, Which? consumer rights expert, says:
This is a truly disappointing deal. If you’ve bought a holiday only to discover details you weren’t made aware of, you have the right to complain and ask for your money back. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, products and services must be ‘as described'.
I contacted Wowcher on your behalf and it told us that an error occurred when processing your booking, and you shouldn’t have been presented with an option involving indirect flights. Wowcher also said that it has instructed The Travel Makers to update its booking calendar to only offer direct flights.
It also told me that you had initially been offered an additional night’s accommodation, complimentary airport transfers and a direct flight, to try and resolve the matter, but you have decided to proceed with a full refund.
Wowcher stated that it is unable to provide exact flight details prior to voucher redemption due to the nature of live flight pricing on international travel deals, but customers are guaranteed a minimum of 40 hours in resort for two-night stays and 60 hours for three-night stays.
This isn't the first time Which? has helped with a complaint about a Wowcher travel deal supplied by The Travel Makers. Last summer, we helped with a complaint about a Krakow city break that had a significant hotel downgrade after the voucher had been redeemed.
Which? secured a refund for this deal, and Wowcher told us at the time that the service and standards fell short of its expectations. It also informed us that it would be monitoring The Travel Makers' performance and reviewing its own processes.
Need to know
- To complain about a package holiday booking, you should start by contacting the company you booked the holiday with.
- If you can't reach a satisfactory resolution, you can escalate your complaint to a travel industry association if the company you booked with is a member.
- You can also make a chargeback claim if you paid by debit card or a Section 75 claim if you paid by credit card. You can escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) if your claim is rejected by your bank.
- If you're advertised a deal that doesn't live up to expectations, you can report the advert to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
- For help on choosing a travel provider, take a look at the Which? rated best and worst package holiday providers and best and worst city break providers.
Get in touch. If you've got a consumer rights problem you need put right, email us at yourstory@which.co.uk
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