Small Claims Court questions

[elkay]

Would appreciate any views on whether we are approaching this in the right way...indeed do you think we have a valid claim?

My daughter had booked EuroDisney park tickets for her and two friends at Easter, before there was any threat of the park closing. When booking, she had to select the date that the tickets were required (pricing was different), but the E-tickets on receipt were not dated.

When the park announced it was closed, my daughter, after a lot of waiting, managed to get through on the phone. The adviser did not indicate any problem with getting a refund, and asked her to send her ticket and bank details to a specific email address.

When she did that, she received a response that amounted to "non-dated tickets are not refundable".

My response (on behalf of my daughter) [key points below if too much detail!]:

I am very disappointed with the response to my request for a full refund for EuroDisney Park tickets. I have been a loyal guest of Disney many times over 20 years, and have always been treated as such up to now. Please note that on my initial phone call, I was told to provide my bank account details by email in order to receive a refund - the agent indicated that I was eligible for a refund, and just need the bank details and copy of the tickets in order to progress the refund.

You fail to acknowledge that Disney has let me down by not being able to provide me with the service I purchased for dates that were available when I purchased the tickets. I recognise that the events are beyond Disney's control, but that does change the contractual obligations. The bottom line is that (to quote from the terms and conditions of the tickets):
- Travellers may terminate the contract without paying any termination fee and get a full refund of any payments if any of the essential elements of the package, other than the price, are changed significantly. If before the start of the package the trader responsible for the package cancels the package, travellers are entitled to a refund and compensation where appropriate.
Essential elements have changed - the park was closed on the dates we intended to visit at Easter.

- Travellers may terminate the contract without paying any termination fee before the start of the package in the event of exceptional circumstances, for instance if there are serious security problems at the destination which are likely to affect the package.
COVID-19 is definitely an event of exceptional circumstances.

As I mentioned previously, due to the nature of my and my friends work, we do not know when or if we will be able to replan the trip that was originally planned for Easter 2020. If we could, we would have considered the option of visiting on another date. We have already received refunds for our flight and hotel bookings.

If you are unable to provide a full refund, I will therefore have to pursue compensation through the Small Claims court in the UK. To this end, please provide the contact details that should be recorded in my claim.

You may comment that the terms and conditions relate to packages. However they are the T&Cs that were provided on purchase of the tickets, and I believe the spirit of the paragraphs I quoted above applies, and would be recognised by the small claims court.

If you do consider that my claim through the Small Claims Court is invalid, please also consider that an unfavourable response will also affect the perception that my friends and I have had that Disney makes dreams come true. Don't let us fall out of love with Disney.

- The T&C's linked from the ticket booking refer to "packages" and not to tickets
- T&C's say that Travellers may terminate the contract without paying any termination fee and get a full refund of any payments if any of the essential elements of the package, other than the price, are changed significantly.
- T&Cs also say Travellers may terminate the contract without paying any termination fee before the start of the package in the event of exceptional circumstances

The response to this was

We have noted that you are dissatisfied with our response. As explained, non-dated tickets are not refundable.
With this being said, we reviewed your file, and can confirm that we dealt with your comments in accordance with our internal guidelines.

So no response to the points made, and no contact details provided for a claim through the Small Claims Procedure.

A previous email did state "Should you not be able to use them prior to their expiry date and provided that they remain unused, we will be happy to review your file. Therefore we kindly ask that you contact us again in response to this email once the expiration date has been reached, and provide a copy of the tickets (the PDF file you obtain when downloaded)."

However, the three friends are school teachers, two with family, and the likelihood of re-arranging the holiday for a date that suits is remote. They are not keen on waiting until Easter 2021 for the possibility of a refund.

- Do you think a Small Claim would be successful?
- Any alternative solutions? Credit card wasn't used, so S75 doesn't apply (daughter now educated...)
- Any other advice welcome!

Thanks for any help. The £250 isn't the end of the world for my daughter, but the frustration due to Disney's response is getting to her, especially as she feels she is letting her friends down if she doesn't get it sorted.

regards
Elkay

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Do you have a receipt in the form of a bank statement transaction?

If you do then you have a date to support the ticket purchase which you could send to Disney. If they then fail to repay you can give them seven days notice before legal proceedings and take out a claim over the internet. It shouldn't cost much but I think Disney could ask you to come to a court near them.

The chances are you've been dealt with by a script reader at Disney. If you "escalate" you may get past that and get someone with some common sense who approves the refund. That may well happen upon receipt of a seven day letter.

Prove the date of purchase. I'd also suggest as a back stop you may be able to argue that the "ticket[s]" aren't "punched" as having been used at the gate.

AiYn'U

[Gerry557]

Can they use the banks claw back process?

[elkay]

Do you have a receipt in the form of a bank statement transaction?

There is no dispute on whether or not the transaction took place.

Disney are simply saying that the closure of the parks does not meet their internal policy for granting a refund because the tickets can be used on another date. Our issue is that the tickets can not be used on another date because there is no suitable other date for the three friends to travel together.

In preparation for starting a Small Claims case, we are looking to see if there is a reasonable chance of winning the case.

You are probably correct in that they are working off a script. It is now a matter of getting the message right when we go back to take them out of the script and to make a considered decision.

Can they use the banks claw back process?

I'm not confident, as it was Mastercard Debit, so not covered by S75. But we will have a go.

So the steps we are taking...
1. Message back to Disney to tell them we intend to start legal action, and asking for the respondent details for the claim form.
...wait for a response.
2. If refund not offered, then try to claim the payment back from the bank.
3. If no luck with the bank, then submit the Small Claims Court form.

Thanks for your responses guys, it's helped me get a clearer view on the next steps.

regards
elkay

[Clitheroekid]

A small claims case would probably succeed, simply because Disney couldn't be bothered defending a claim for £250.

However, it's still a lot of hassle, and you might get paid more quickly by contacting the CEO. Although it sounds unlikely, this is actually a remarkably effective of resolving this type of claim.

The difficulty is in obtaining contact details, but it's often worth just trying the formula firstname.surname@abc.com.

In this case the CEO is Natacha Rafalski, so try natacha.rafalski@disney.com Also try ceo@disney.com and catherine.powell@disney.com (President of Disney Parks Western Region).

Although it's highly unlikely either of them will see it personally such emails are often diverted to the CEO's office, so that at least your email will be read by a human being rather than a robot.

[Lootman]

A small claims case would probably succeed, simply because Disney couldn't be bothered defending a claim for £250.

However, it's still a lot of hassle, and you might get paid more quickly by contacting the CEO. Although it sounds unlikely, this is actually a remarkably effective of resolving this type of claim.

Yes, I once had a dispute for about that amount with NatWest. I did exactly what you said, tracked down the CEO and wrote to him. Everything else had failed.

He (or rather NWB's head of PR) wrote me a nice letter back refunding the amount.

The thing with small claims court is that, even if you win, you still have all the hassle of collecting.

[mc2fool]

However, it's still a lot of hassle, and you might get paid more quickly by contacting the CEO. Although it sounds unlikely, this is actually a remarkably effective of resolving this type of claim.

The difficulty is in obtaining contact details...

https://www.ceoemail.com/

[elkay]

Thanks for the CEO suggestions. I'll definitely try that route, though I have my doubts - I suspect they are receiving an unmanageable number of emails at present. Maybe would be more successful at a different time.

regards
elkay

[RandomWords]

Try snail-mail addressed to the person you want to contact at the head office address, at least that's guaranteed to be looked at by a real person, and unlikely that anyone outside of their office will decide to bin it. Worked for me with Vodafone when all other avenues had failed.

RW