"Hot Air?" - Adventure Balloons UK.

[Meerkat1955]

Desperately need advice.

 

Nearly 2 years ago I purchased a voucher for my daughter and her fiance for a hot-air balloon flight with Adventure Balloons UK.

 

After a year, and a number of flight cancellations, my daughter reluctantly paid £80 for a one-year extension of the period in which a flight could be taken.

 

A few weeks ago she, and her now husband, went to take a booked flight, but was told she could not fly due to her being in the early stages of pregnancy - which they accepted.

 

However, the company has now written to her to tell her that the vouchers are now void, and no refund will be made.

 

I have since checked Adventure Balloons UK on a number of consumer sites - notably Trust Pilot (no pun intended!) - which has revealed that this company has a ghastly customer service reputation with a large number of similar incidents.

 

My daughter has politely written to the management to ask for a refund given the circumstances, but has received two very blunt refusals.

 

What action could/should we take?

 

[BankFodder]

It will be helpful if you would tell us more about the cancellations. Who cancelled, and why? How many cancellations?

I'm a bit puzzled as to why an £80 extension fee was paid when according to their terms and conditions, the cost of the 12 month extension is £40 https://www.adventureballoons.co.uk/terms-and-conditions 

 

It would also be helpful if you would post up the blunt refusals which you have received.

Although it's not particularly relevant to your story, I notice that paragraph 4 of the "voucher purchase" section seems to claim a right to hang onto £10 if one uses the 14 day cooling off period. So far as I understand the regulations in relation to off-premises contracts, this is an unenforceable term.

I also see elsewhere that they seem to reserve the right to hold back an administration fee of 42% of the voucher price. Apart from seeming to be quite excessive, I'm not sure that this is enforceable either because they would only be entitled to withhold a sum equal to actual losses incurred by your breach/cancellation.

[ericsbrother]

now the terms will specify that they can cancel if weather if bad etc and you have to accept that but by doing so they have to accept that the voucher's term is extended or they must refund for their failure to perform to the contract.

essentially you should have asked for a refund on a no fly day and they would have to comply and by continuing to  accept things you were blindly accepting alterations to the original conrcat and that makes things more difficult.

i would write again giving them 14 days to refund as they ahve filed to perform to their contractual obligations and then sue them if they still dont cough up.

However, this meaqns you must follow through with the threat of cort action so before you start you need to read up on the relevant consumer legislation and also about performance of contracts

[BankFodder]

6 minutes ago, ericsbrother said:

now the terms will specify that they can cancel if weather if bad etc and you have to accept that but by doing so they have to accept that the voucher's term is extended or they must refund for their failure to perform to the contract.

essentially you should have asked for a refund on a no fly day and they would have to comply and by continuing to  accept things you were blindly accepting alterations to the original conrcat and that makes things more difficult.

i would write again giving them 14 days to refund as they ahve filed to perform to their contractual obligations and then sue them if they still dont cough up.

However, this meaqns you must follow through with the threat of cort action so before you start you need to read up on the relevant consumer legislation and also about performance of contracts

 

Sorry but I think that it is rather precipitative giving advice – and rather over-generalised advice at that – until we understand more detail about the circumstances.

[BankFodder]

Well this person started off by saying that they desperately needed advice – and then they disappeared and didn't come back for over 24 hours.

People don't seem to realise that if they want the help that they need then they have to engage with this thread

[dx100uk]