Event postponed / wont refund and some weird payment system used without my knowledge

[Resident]

I recently went through something similar with a postponed event although I used a debit card.

In the end I wrote to the company with a 'Notice before Action' threatening legal action should they continue to refuse the refund.

The gist of it is that they are legally obliged to offer a refund as they are breaching the original contract terms under Consumer Rights Act 2015.
Additionally adding the clause that refunds aren't possible due to circumstances also breaches the act as an unfair term.

Here's an excerpt from my NBA

On 05/06/2020 you responded to this request, denying myself the refund, claiming your terms & conditions meant I could not claim a refund.


By doing so you breached my consumer rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 by breaching the following:

“A firm cannot require a consumer to fulfil all their contractual obligations while letting the firm avoid it’s own”

You further breached the CRA 2015 by including an unfair term which “excludes or limits the consumer’s legal rights or remedies when the firm has failed to meet it’s obligations under the contract”

A week after they received my NBA and copies of all of my evidence proving a contract existed (receipts for tickets) they emailed to state that they would be refunding me in full and 2 days later formally cancelled the event so others would get their refunds.

 

[muon]

That's entirely different and you know it.

The agreement OP will have accepted will include mentions of refund on cancellation but not postponement, that's nearly always the case. Good event management companies will provide refunds to those unable to attend the new dates but that is fairly rare in my experience really.

So they could postpone is to some stupid time or for 5 years?

I suspect such a term will lose in court pretty quickly.

 

[InvaderGIR]

So they could postpone is to some stupid time or for 5 years?

I suspect such a term will lose in court pretty quickly.

I've not read the agreement OP accepted, but I'm sure that would be easily proven to be unreasonable and refundable etc.

I had one event postponed 2 or 3 times (I forget) this year and eventually cancelled, refunds weren't possible until the 2nd postponement at your request and then automatically once cancelled.

It's common for this to happen with events though and is usually the sort of thing people agree to and is rarely actually an issue but this year has put a lot of stress on events...wouldn't be surprised if many organisers will attempt to keep hold of money as long as possible given they are unlikely to make much if any now.

 

[Rotty]

American Express is a charge card rather than a credit card, isn't it?

They can be either, this one is a credit card

 

[Rotty]

I recently went through something similar with a postponed event although I used a debit card.

In the end I wrote to the company with a 'Notice before Action' threatening legal action should they continue to refuse the refund.

The gist of it is that they are legally obliged to offer a refund as they are breaching the original contract terms under Consumer Rights Act 2015.
Additionally adding the clause that refunds aren't possible due to circumstances also breaches the act as an unfair term.

Here's an excerpt from my NBA



A week after they received my NBA and copies of all of my evidence proving a contract existed (receipts for tickets) they emailed to state that they would be refunding me in full and 2 days later formally cancelled the event so others would get their refunds.

Thanks

 

[Rotty]

The terms do say they can change without refund but as several have said this does not get them out of their legal obligations