B.C. Ferries refund pre-paid tickets after pressure: watchdog documents, breaking, charged, offered

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B.C. Ferries refund pre-paid tickets after pressure: watchdog
Refunds offered on expired prepaid trips after warning from agency


B.C. Ferries offered refunds on expired prepaid trip tickets after an investigation by the province's consumer watchdog showed it was breaking the law in certain cases by refusing to do so, internal documents show.

Consumer Protection B.C., the province's independent agency charged with enforcing consumer-protection laws, sent B.C. Ferries a letter in June that said some customers had the right to ask the ferry corporation for a refund, despite the company's insistence otherwise.

Specifically, Consumer Protection said people who bought assured-loading tickets prior to Nov. 1, 2008 — before a key change in provincial law — had a right to request B.C. Ferries refund the value of the expired ticket.

The letter was obtained by the Times Colonist after a freedom-of-information request.

The consumer watchdog's opinion stood in stark contrast to B.C. Ferries CEO David Hahn's public refusal at the time to offer refunds on expired passes.

B.C. Ferries had begun strictly enforcing a two-year expiry clause on prepaid fares, even though many customers came forward to say they didn't know about the rule and had been left with worthless tickets.

The corporation was set to reclaim $1.2 million by not honouring as many as 15,767 prepaid trips.

The letter from Consumer Protection set off a flurry of negotiations with B.C. Ferries lawyers and top officials, internal emails and letters show.

Within a month, B.C. Ferries reversed course and announced one-time cash refunds to customers with expired assured-loading tickets. Hahn made no mention of the Consumer Protection investigation at the time and portrayed the decision as a voluntary move to appease customers and "clear the confusion."

Consumer Protection has enforcement powers to fine or sanction companies that violate B.C.'s consumer laws, but its investigation into B.C. Ferries never went that far. It viewed B.C. Ferries' rebate announcement as "voluntary compliance" with some of its concerns and closed its file.

Another part of its investigation determined assured-loading tickets sold after 2008 were defined as "prepaid purchase cards," and fell under specific exemptions in the law that made it legal for B.C. Ferries to sell them with expiry dates.

Those exemptions were added in 2008 by the B.C. government as part of revisions to its gift-card laws.

Consumer Protection vice-president Manjit Bains said she can't conclusively say whether her agency's investigation led B.C. Ferries to offer refunds.

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"I would love to believe that it was based on our file and our information and the education that our inspector was doing, but to speak on B.C. Ferries' behalf, I can't," she said.

"But I would love to believe that."

Consumer Protection warned B.C. Ferries it was contravening the law but B.C. Ferries didn't agree.

The company's lawyer wrote a lengthy letter disputing Consumer Protection's findings and calling them "contrary to common sense."

The government's legislation at the time was intended to protect people from things such as gym-membership contracts and gift-card expiry dates, not prepaid purchase cards such as assured-loading tickets, the letter said.

B.C. Ferries said this week that the consumer-watchdog investigation had nothing to do with its decision to offer refunds.

"Over the past year or so, our customers have spoken loud and clear about their dissatisfaction of the expiry and no-refund policy of our assured-loading product," spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said in a statement.

"Throughout the spring and early summer, staff were designing the onetime-only refund policy to clear up the confusion in the market. Consumer Protection B.C. made inquiries to B.C. Ferries about the product, and we shared our refund program with them in advance of going public with it."

The deadline for customers to apply for refunds is Oct. 24.


B.C. Ferries offered refunds on expired prepaid trip tickets after an investigation by the province's consumer watchdog showed it was breaking the law in certain cases by refusing to do so, internal documents show.