Road Safety Authority - driving test cancellations

Galway K9

Hi,

Just wondering how RSA are above the law when it comes to Sales of Goods and Supply of Services ACT 1986.

On the website it says the fee will not be lost once cancelled within 10 days, when i call, you can never get a refund of the fee paid if you cancel but only schedule the appointment.

Can anyone advise on what i can do here? Surely this is illegal if it breaks this law of 14 days cooling off period.

http://rsa.ie/en/RSA/Learner-Drivers/The-Driving-Test/Cancel-your-test/

ohnonotgmail

Galway K9 wrote: »

Hi,

Just wondering how RSA are above the law when it comes to Sales of Goods and Supply of Services ACT 1986.

On the website it says the fee will not be lost once cancelled within 10 days, when i call, you can never get a refund of the fee paid if you cancel but only schedule the appointment.

Can anyone advise on what i can do here? Surely this is illegal if it breaks this law of 14 days cooling off period.

http://rsa.ie/en/RSA/Learner-Drivers/The-Driving-Test/Cancel-your-test/

can you reword the bit in bold? it doesnt make much sense.

The 14 day cooling off period applies to the purchase of goods. it wouldnt apply here. Besides they allow you to cancel up to 10 days before the test is due. This is probably going to be more than 14 days unless you book at very short notice.

Have you actually met the conditions they outlined

You will lose your fee if you:

• give less than 10 days notice
  OR
• have already cancelled two test appointments

You don't pay the fee until you present at the test centre or fail to do so without notifying them 10 days prior. There is no refund to be gotten outside of the 10 days as no money has been charged.

ohnonotgmail

Deleted User wrote: »

You don't pay the fee until you present at the test centre or fail to do so without notifying them 10 days prior. There is no refund to be gotten outside of the 10 days as no money has been charged.

If you go through the online application process there is a payment stage. Are you sure they dont ask for payment until the day of the test?

ohnonotgmail

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

If you go through the online application process there is a payment stage. Are you sure they dont ask for payment until the day of the test?

You give them your details, but it's only used for preauthorisation.

http://www.ncts.ie/q22.html

The prepayment system uses pre-authorisation. The test fee is only taken off your credit/debit card once the vehicle is checked in at the test centre.

slimjimmc

Deleted User wrote: »

You don't pay the fee until you present at the test centre or fail to do so without notifying them 10 days prior. There is no refund to be gotten outside of the 10 days as no money has been charged.

Unfortunately not, the test fee is deducted immediately on application.

slimjimmc

slimjimmc wrote: »

Unfortunately not, the test fee is deducted immediately on application.

Their site says otherwise - as above.

This has been my experience also.

slimjimmc

Deleted User wrote: »

You give them your details, but it's only used for preauthorisation.

http://www.ncts.ie/q22.html

The OP is referring to the Driving Test, not the NCT. The driving test fee is deducted immediately on application.

slimjimmc

slimjimmc wrote: »

The OP is referring to the Driving Test, not the NCT. The driving test fee is deducted immediately on application.

My apologies, completely misread the OP.

Sorry for the confusion.

slimjimmc

Easily done, the only clue was in the link.
Mod: Thread title updated

MOH

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

can you reword the bit in bold? it doesnt make much sense.

I think the OP is saying that you can't actually cancel your test and get a refund, you can only reschedule it to a different date (assuming you haven't already done so twice).

If that is the case then it's definitely not clear from the RSA site which repeatedly refers to cancellation rather than rescheduling.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

slimjimmc

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Why not?

L1011

slimjimmc wrote: »

Why not?

Service rather than good, similar to cooling off not applying to flights, etc.

slimjimmc

L1011 wrote: »

Service rather than good, similar to cooling off not applying to flights, etc.

Nope that can't be it, consumer law applies to services too. The cooling of period applies doesn't apply to flights because passenger transport services are specifically excluded under distance/off-premises selling regulations (Art 13.2n). There is no such exclusion for driver testing services.

The Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980 (there's no such 1986 act) doesn't apply to the cooling off period since that period is provided by distance/off-premises selling regulations. I see nothing in either legislation which excludes driver testing from either the SGSA or distance/off-premises regs.

L1011

slimjimmc wrote: »

Nope that can't be it, consumer law applies to services too. The cooling of period applies doesn't apply to flights because passenger transport services are specifically excluded under distance selling regulations (Art 13.2n). There is no such exclusion for driver testing services.

Perhaps Fred was hinting that the "Sales of Goods and Supply of Services ACT 1986" doesn't exist as the Act is "Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980".

Hrm

Seems like an extremely ludicrous oversight - short term cancelled bookings are totally useless to the RSA as they can't be reissued; and they do let you book for less than 14 days out. Should really be a general clause for specified date of performance rather than a general one, as you have absolutely used a finite service at a cost of lost opportunity to the service provider.

slimjimmc

Sorry folks, browser issues. L1011 quoted me before my edits got saved.

L1011

Feel free to edit the correct quote in as I don't think it changes my reply!