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WWYD? (Long)
OK so about a month ago I got an email from a local cooking class called The Learning Kitchen with a code for 40% off their May classes. I'd been wanting to do this for awhile and so I signed up for a course at 4PM on 5/29 and thought I'd use it to celebrate our anniversary/my bday.
Fast forward to a few days ago, 5/19. After reviewing our spending on the vacation hubby said he'd rather skip the class. I said fine b/c according to their terms and conditions, we had up to 10 days before the class to cancel our reservations. Not having time to do a call that day and knowing it was the last day to cancel, I sent an email that same day around 11:30AM to the address listed on their website. I stated that we wanted to cancel and to please credit my card and confirm cancellation.
Having not received a response within the next day, I had some free time over lunch and decided to call them to see whether they had received my request for cancellation. The girl on the phone notified me that the email goes straight to their web provider and therefore they did not and all cancellations had to be done on phone or in person. And, since it was now 9 days before the class I could not cancel my reservation. I told her that it didn't say on their website terms and conditions so I still wanted my refund. She said she'd talk to a manager and call me back.
Having still not received a response I gave them another call after work today. Apparently it was the same girl I talked to previously and she said that she was told I could not receive a refund to my card but could get a giftcard credit to use in the future. I would not, however, be able to get the same class at a later date for the same price b/c it was a May only discount. Therefore, should I push the date back, I'd be able to use my credit but pay an additional 40% to take the same class later! It felt totally unfair but not wanting to get screwed even more I told her we'd rather just stick with our original class reservation, then.
Now that I've had time to think about it, I'm thinking that this is bad business practice and they're trying to screw me over. I re-read their terms and conditions and I feel I was within their guidelines by emailing cancellation so they should give me a full refund to my credit card. See the T&C here.
Now, I could call them back and demand to talk to a manager and argue with them slash threaten a charge back. Or, I could just file a charge back on the grounds that a cancelled reservation (email, T&C as proof) was still charged. Or, I could just go as planned. (which I still want to...it was hubby's idea to cancel...but now the principle of their business practice is leaving a bad taste - no pun intended - in my mouth, too).
I think we'll just go ahead and take the class (no true conflict, just trying to save some money) but just wanted to get a feel for WWYD?
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Re: WWYD? (Long)
In this day & age an email should suffice, unless it is specifically noted on their site that you can't email for cancellations.
The fact that it went to their web provider is not your issue. It's theirs. They should be able to ask their web provider for the email & confirm that it was sent within the 10 day time frame.
This exactly. The fact that they won't cancel this over a silly class makes you not want to go to a class with them again nor recommend them to friends. Poor practice, and speaking to the manager should do the trick. If it doesn't, I'd go through the CC company (and let the mgr know this is your plan...)
My mom scheduled a class with them shortly after they opened. They then changed the date of the class to a time she couldn't make it. She requested a refund and was told the same thing, that they would give her a gift card, not a refund. She used her gift card to buy merchandise in the store. She has not been back, which is a shame for them, because since she retired she takes several cooking classes a year. She now takes them all at Jungle Jims. The Learning Kitchen's customer service is crappy.
If you want to know honestly what I'd do, I might have my husband call first and try to raise hell. I am the more confrontational one of the two of us, but I have found that having him deal with customer service people has been more effective a few times. It's silly, but true. If they still refused to give you a refund, I'd either dispute the charge with my credit card company, or probably do what my mom did. There are plenty of other places to take cooking classes that have better customer service.
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Jenn & Jason
September 27, 2008
Just echoing what everyone else said - I would definitely call and request to speak with the manager. There is a decent chance this girl you spoke with never asked the manager in the first place, or even if she did the manager should have to tell you this directly so you have a chance to tell them what poor service this is.
Sorry this happened to you! I highly recommend Jungle Jims cooking classes!!