Consumer rights with regards to quotes

geek001 on 26/11/2013 - 00:14

Hi all,

I am looking for help with regards to retailer quotes and my rights as a consumer.

I have a travel voucher for flight with an airline which shall remain nameless. The travel voucher has expired according to the terms and conditions written on the voucher, but I ask the airline about booking a flight with the voucher and was delighted that they have said via email that they would accept the voucher. I sent them a scanned copy of the voucher via email for them to have a look. They quoted the price for the flights minus the price of the voucher via email.

I was advised that I needed to pay by a certain date before the booking is cancelled from their system, and I went in to pay within that period. Their office was in the city, so I had to drive down there, find parking and went up to their office to pay. They changed their story and said sorry, I couldn't use the voucher because it has expired and I had to pay full price. I am fuming at that point, because they had lots of opportunity to tell me that in our email conversations but didn't till I took the trouble to walk into their office to pay. If they had told me they won't accept the voucher when I asked in the first place, I would have left it at that and booked the flight online from their website.

I would like to know if I have any rights to complain to the Fair Trading office regarding a business quoting a price, but backed out before payment was made?

Thank you very much for your thoughts.

General Discussion

Comments

  • PcisT on 26/11/2013 - 00:19

    "The travel voucher has expired according to the terms and conditions written on the voucher" - I think that explains it all really.

  • _Bruce_ on 26/11/2013 - 06:59

    Did you point out that it was expired in the first place?

    Either way I don't think there is anything you can do.

  • geek001 on 26/11/2013 - 09:26

    Thanks, I know there are heaps of useful discussions on OzB about consumer rights when it comes to retailer displayed pricing, but I don't recall discussions about quotes/estimates. I guess it was a genuine mistake and I should suck it up and move on. Thanks again.

    • kwaker on 26/11/2013 - 09:53
      +2

      Firstly in writing directly put that complaint to their management. And state they accepted your offer made you travel there and then reneged. That you were financially affected due to their misleading conduct and you want a resolution made

      Just because companies put expiry dates on credit and vouchers doesn't make it firm. The cttt and fair trading do not often accept these expiration dates.

      Fair trading are useless but if you make a complaint and if they investigate then the company will see your serious your not going away.

      After exhausting other efforts if your seriously committed lodge a case with cttt, it costs a small fee but its a lot of time. The first attendance is to negotiate directly with the party. But they have to attend in person which costs them wages. Smart business try to avoid these cases by being reasonable.

      • geek001 on 26/11/2013 - 10:21
        +1

        Thanks, I will try this course of action. Your comment has been most helpful in what I should say in my complaint.

      • geek001 on 26/11/2013 - 11:02
        +1

        Hi kwaker, thank you. Your comments has been most helpful. Complaint email sent to their management.

  • blitz on 26/11/2013 - 09:39

    Did you take a copy of the email with you to the office?

    • geek001 on 26/11/2013 - 09:52

      No, I didn't expect to be shafted because every indication in all email communications had been positive. I was gobsmacked when they told me that I couldn't use the travel voucher.

      The voucher had a voucher number on it. Initially, I tried to type it into the voucher field on the online booking website, but it didn't process, so I rang the call centre and was told that I needed to contact the local office. I rang the local office and asked if I could use the voucher, the lady said that they don't normally get requests for travel vouchers and needed to see the travel voucher and investigate if I could use it. That is why I sent her a scanned copy for her to investigate. The voucher didn't have a value written on it, but I knew the voucher value was $200. So, when she finally figured it out and told me the voucher value was $200, I thought everything would be cool since she must have looked at everything including the expiry date during her "investigation".

      • _Bruce_ on 26/11/2013 - 10:00

        The key point I'm picking up here even though you have dodged saying this is that at no point did you tell them that you have an voucher which has expired, and is it OK if you use it. If you did this, I would understand getting upset. If you did not and they failed to notice, I have to say I'm on the retailer's side here.

  • msmhw on 26/11/2013 - 09:40

    Try your luck and contact thire head office by email and attach the emails you have.

    • geek001 on 26/11/2013 - 09:54

      Thanks I might try that as a last ditch attempt to see if this airline actually cares about customer service since they always go on about how they are a 5-star airline.

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