Bluewater gift vouchers

[Louisajane]

These vouchers have a limited time within which they can be spent, and can only be used at Bluewater Shopping Centre (Kent) at participating stores. If you run out of time, tough, you lose the money. I know a number of people who have fallen foul of this time limit. Is BW within its rights to impose such a strict limit?

[andyrules]

I guess they can impose whatever terms they like - we don't have to purchase them!

Personally, after having had one from another shopping centre - I would never touch one again. As you say, time limit, restricted to certain stores, and, watch out for this - some stores don't know how to process them (the new 'debit card' type as against paper vouchers), so embarrassing delays, fuss at checkouts.

Enjoy! (and use it quickly)

[grayme-m]

As Jasper Carrott said similar, how good are gift vouchers?

Hmmm, a gift voucher from a single store / shopping centre or a crappy £10 note that you can only spend in any shop in the country?

[chuckley]

the vouchers clearly have the expiry dates stamped on them (usually a year for shopping centres).

[C_Ronaldo]

i dont see how its a rip off, the vouchers from a shopping do tend to be only used in that specific centre where the vouchers were bought, and the expiry date is clearly stated on the back is it not

[vikingaero]

I think someone on MSE previously posted about expired Bluey vouchers and got them to replace them as a gesture of goodwill. So if you do have some ask at the Concierge Desks or send them an email.

[bluewaterripoff]

Originally Posted by Louisajane

These vouchers have a limited time within which they can be spent, and can only be used at Bluewater Shopping Centre (Kent) at participating stores. If you run out of time, tough, you lose the money. I know a number of people who have fallen foul of this time limit. Is BW within its rights to impose such a strict limit?

Originally Posted by andyrules

I guess they can impose whatever terms they like - we don't have to purchase them!

Personally, after having had one from another shopping centre - I would never touch one again. As you say, time limit, restricted to certain stores, and, watch out for this - some stores don't know how to process them (the new 'debit card' type as against paper vouchers), so embarrassing delays, fuss at checkouts.

Enjoy! (and use it quickly)

I have £325 worth of BW vouchers which I was given by well wishers (aka mugs) when I got married. I was going to use them for carpets, curtains etc. as I am doing up my house and I put them away. I found the vouchers again
a few days ago and discovered that they were 4 DAYS OUT OF DATE!!!. LEND LEASE the huge Australian Property Company who issue these vouchers point blank refuse to revalidate them.
PLEASE FOLKS DON'T BUY THESE VOUCHERS. They are not discounted when they are purchased so they should be as good as CASH!! It may not look as pretty when you give people cash but pound notes don't date and you can spend them anywhere. We've contacted Trading Standards and they dont care about the money people lose in this way.

[MinniMe]

Sorry OP and Bluewaterrip off but at the end of the day you were aware of how long you had to spend them and you didn't. BW vouchers are valid for a year, so you had time. Oh and BWripoff - they don't sell carpets at bluewater!

[vikingaero]

You can get carpets from John Lewis at Bluewater who will accept the vouchers. Whenever I've queued near the voucher sales point outside M&S the staff make everyone aware of the validity.

[heretolearn]

It's improved a bit, their deadline is now a year.

I was given some a few years ago and the deadline was only 6 months, and they ran out of date without me realising, so that money was lost.

I don't know why they are so inflexible - they've had the money for goodness sake, surely they can't just keep it without letting you spend it! I can understand needing some closing date, but 6 months disgusted me!

[nomoneytoday]

Originally Posted by heretolearn

I don't know why they are so inflexible - they've had the money for goodness sake, surely they can't just keep it without letting you spend it!

Because accounting for open dated items is a nightmare. With a fixed end date your liability is easier to calculate - it's simply the open vouchers issued in the last x months

AFAIK Bluewater now have a prepaid credit card offering instead.