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Not worth the electrons it's printed on
Mar. 5th, 2010 07:31 pmLast year, I booked a flight with Westjet, and later decided not to take it.
I got a refund in the form of a credit note; I confirmed with the phone operator at the time that the credit note was entirely transferrable, that I was free to sell it on ebay, and that it didn't expire until August 2010.
Last week I managed finally to sell the credit note on ebay, admittedly at a considerable discount.
Tonight I rang Westjet to ask them how to transfer the note. The phone operator said that they changed their system on October 16th 2009 to one that no longer issues transferrable notes. Fine. But he then said that their software for managing notes issued under the previous system is purely read-only and doesn't permit them to record transfers - so I would have to book the flight myself for the person who bought the note. Which is difficult: she's a random ebay customer whom I do not know from Eve, and she bought the note under the assumption (recorded in the note!) that it was as good as money for buying Westjet flights.
This feels to me as if Westjet have broken a contract with me, and the man on the phone didn't seem to accept that this was something that I was reasonable to consider a problem. I can grudgingly accept that a company is allowed to give me a refund in the form of an expiring self-issued currency, but I really can't accept that they can change the terms and negotiability of the instrument afterwards!
Are Westjet allowed to do such a thing? Would British Midland be allowed to do such a thing under the laws of the UK?
I got a refund in the form of a credit note; I confirmed with the phone operator at the time that the credit note was entirely transferrable, that I was free to sell it on ebay, and that it didn't expire until August 2010.
Last week I managed finally to sell the credit note on ebay, admittedly at a considerable discount.
Tonight I rang Westjet to ask them how to transfer the note. The phone operator said that they changed their system on October 16th 2009 to one that no longer issues transferrable notes. Fine. But he then said that their software for managing notes issued under the previous system is purely read-only and doesn't permit them to record transfers - so I would have to book the flight myself for the person who bought the note. Which is difficult: she's a random ebay customer whom I do not know from Eve, and she bought the note under the assumption (recorded in the note!) that it was as good as money for buying Westjet flights.
This feels to me as if Westjet have broken a contract with me, and the man on the phone didn't seem to accept that this was something that I was reasonable to consider a problem. I can grudgingly accept that a company is allowed to give me a refund in the form of an expiring self-issued currency, but I really can't accept that they can change the terms and negotiability of the instrument afterwards!
Are Westjet allowed to do such a thing? Would British Midland be allowed to do such a thing under the laws of the UK?
