Q: Four years ago I was going to get married but a few months before the wedding date my fiancé and I decided to break up and cancel the wedding. For almost all the services and goods booked for the wedding we were offered credit notes. The booked photographer also agreed to issue a credit note in exchange for the deposit paid.

The problem is that on the credit note he wrote that it could only be used when booking another wedding. I would like to be able to use this credit note on some other service or product, such as a photo session, or to purchase photography equipment.

I would like to know if I have the right to use the credit note for whatever service I need or do I have to adhere to the condition written on the credit note?

A: The Consumer Affairs Act does not give consumers the right to claim a remedy after cancelling a booked service. In such situations, unless there was a pre-sale agreement allowing such cancellation, legally, consumers not only risk losing the deposit paid but may also be obliged to honour the sales agreement and pay in full the amount due. Hence, if in your case there was no agreement that allowed you to cancel the booking, since the seller has voluntarily issued a credit note with a specific condition, unless you are ready to lose the value of the credit note, you have to adhere to its terms and conditions of use. The only other option is to convince the photographer to voluntarily let you use the credit note on another photographic service or product.