News
Best man secures stag do refund with help of UK International Consumer Centre
Posted 14/02/22
Best man Andrew Nuvoletta planned a stag go for a party of 13 鈥榮tags鈥� in the Netherlands, with an itinerary which was designed to make a real occasion of the event.
But then COVID-19 struck and it seemed as though he would have to say 鈥榯ot ziens鈥� or 鈥榞oodbye鈥� to his 拢1,055 [鈧�1207], as the party company cancelled the booking due to pandemic restrictions.
Andrew, a UK consumer, was offered a voucher instead under the Netherlands鈥� Save Your Ticket scheme, introduced by the Dutch Government so that traders could offer vouchers initially on cancellation in place of monetary refunds.
The consumer did not accept a voucher and made numerous attempts to contact the trader to ask for a refund, but the company largely ignored him, occasionally offering empty promises of a payment that never materialised.
Andrew said: 鈥淭he problem was that the booking was for 13 people who were coming from different countries. It was impossible to coordinate a future trip, besides which some pals were unwilling to rebook.
鈥淚鈥檇 arranged a bunch of activities with the party company, including laser tagging and beer-biking, and it would have been a real fun time, something exceptional to remember the stag do by.鈥�
In desperation, he asked the UK International Consumer Centre for help, who in turn contacted colleagues at ECC Netherlands to liaise with the trader.
UKICC Service Director, Andy Allen, said: 鈥淯nder the Netherlands Government scheme, vouchers would be valid for 18 months. At the end of this time, if the voucher remained unused, the consumer could insist on a refund.
鈥淭he scheme was set up to avoid businesses failing during the COVID-19 times of low revenue, leaving many consumers without any form of remedy. But vouchers really weren鈥檛 suitable for this stag do and this consumer, so he听 understandably wanted his money back.
鈥淎fter we became involved in the case, the trader told us that they would give Andrew a refund but added that they had a backlog of refunds and couldn鈥檛 give any idea of when he could expect his money back.鈥�
The UKICC carried on pressing the trader, with the help of colleagues at ECC Netherlands, and Andrew received a full refund (subject to a slight exchange rate adjustment).
Andrew was one of the first consumers the UKICC听 got their money back for in 2022. He said: 鈥淲e finally got there - I鈥檓 so pleased!. Thanks to my case handlers, my pals have all got their money back. The whole team at the UK International Consumer Centre have been brilliant 鈥� I can鈥檛 praise them enough.鈥�
UKICC Service Director, Andy Allen, said: 鈥淲e are glad to have been able to help Andrew. He鈥檚 an example of somebody who would have been unlikely to have got his money back without us.
鈥淭he UKICC is just entering its 15th year of operation and as our outlook is currently unsure beyond the end of March this year, success stories such as this are hopefully good news for our potential future as well as for the consumer. We know that the UK Government has committed to continue to fund us at least until the end of March 2022 and we hope that will continue.
鈥淭he aim in all of the consumer advice organisation鈥檚 interventions and mediation is always the same: to act in the best interests of the consumer, work towards the best result we can for them and put them in a better position