Cautionary story about refunds

Here is my story. I purchased 2 Blarney castle tour tickets well in advance of our August cruise because the Butlers/eCoach website showed that there were “limited seats” left for our tour date. Also, we were leaving for a 26-day TA/UK cruise and did not want the tour to fill up before we returned. Upon our return, we had to change our plans and cancelled our UK cruise in August. Every, and I mean every other firm (even the airline!!) we dealt with except Butlers/eCoach readily changed dates or gave full refunds.

I know the Butlers/eCoach policy is:

After completing your booking, you can demand a refund (less applicable booking fee) within 7 calendar days for any reason whatsoever. To qualify bookings must be made at least 14 days before the travel date in question.

If after the qualifying 7 days cooling period you should decide to cancel, no refund in full or part will be given unless your trip is considered cancelled

However, before I emailed Butlers/eCoach, I checked the website for the date of our tour. That date is “Sold Out” with a “Wait list”. Given that the tour date is over booked, and that I was canceling nearly 90 days ahead of the tour date, I requested a partial refund. Butlers/eCoach replied: “Unfortunately you are not within the 7 day time frame which entitles you to a refund as stated in our cancellation policy. I will cancel your seats for you now.” In my reply to that I pointed out the fact that the tour date was over booked, that they were going to easily resell our seats, and I had cancelled 90 days out, but have not received any response. Sadly, because of their inflexibility we will not be getting a refund.

Moral of my story: Only book with Butlers/eCoach, if you are absolutely, positively certain you can abide by the stated refund policy.

As you posted you knew the refund policy before you booked

Maybe you can sell the tickets to someone on the roll call for the cruise

While their refund policy certainly can't be described as generous, it is clearly stated and you did not qualify. No-one can ever say for certain that they will not have to cancel a tour for some reason. When you book with a company that does not have a 100% refund policy, you are taking a risk, but you are taking it knowingly.

I can't understand what your complaint is, you didn't cancel within the time stated on their T&Cs????????

We did the Butler's tour of Blarney Castle and Kinsale, it was great.

Sorry you didn't get a refund. It does seem that under the terms of the agreement, you were not due a refund.

As I recall, the tour was only 19 Euros pp.

Here is my story. I purchased 2 Blarney castle tour tickets well in advance of our August cruise because the Butlers/eCoach website showed that there were “limited seats” left for our tour date. Also, we were leaving for a 26-day TA/UK cruise and did not want the tour to fill up before we returned. Upon our return, we had to change our plans and cancelled our UK cruise in August. Every, and I mean every other firm (even the airline!!) we dealt with except Butlers/eCoach readily changed dates or gave full refunds.

I know the Butlers/eCoach policy is:

After completing your booking, you can demand a refund (less applicable booking fee) within 7 calendar days for any reason whatsoever. To qualify bookings must be made at least 14 days before the travel date in question.

 

If after the qualifying 7 days cooling period you should decide to cancel, no refund in full or part will be given unless your trip is considered cancelled

 

However, before I emailed Butlers/eCoach, I checked the website for the date of our tour. That date is “Sold Out” with a “Wait list”. Given that the tour date is over booked, and that I was canceling nearly 90 days ahead of the tour date, I requested a partial refund. Butlers/eCoach replied: “Unfortunately you are not within the 7 day time frame which entitles you to a refund as stated in our cancellation policy. I will cancel your seats for you now.” In my reply to that I pointed out the fact that the tour date was over booked, that they were going to easily resell our seats, and I had cancelled 90 days out, but have not received any response. Sadly, because of their inflexibility we will not be getting a refund.

 

Moral of my story: Only book with Butlers/eCoach, if you are absolutely, positively certain you can abide by the stated refund policy.

I can't understand what your complaint is, you didn't cancel within the time stated on their T&Cs????????

I don't have a complaint. I posted a cautionary remark to my fellow CCers to perhaps help them avoid the same situation I was in. After all, Butlers/eCoach is highly recommended here on CC, and as a result is used a lot. And plans change a lot as well. I had read the terms before booking, but I wonder how many others do not.