United we stand: Zavvi gift vouchers/cards

Houseimp54

All

I appreciate the individual sums involved in Zavvi's shameful decision not to honour gift cards/vouchers in stores may be small but collectively this amounts to a very large sum overall.

Individually, we can do very little about this so what about banding together to try and do something in defence of all those senders (normally distant or elderly relatives who rely on sending gift vouchers) and the recipients, usually children/teenagers/young adults - why should we/they suffer?

What about:

1. Mounting a peaceful demonstration outside (or inside) the Zavvi stores on pre-arranged dates & times. We could all try going in the store, picking up the items we want and then heading to the cash desk to pay with our now redundant vouchers. Might not achieve much other than clogging up the tills with moneysavingexpert people making a point but could lead to Head Office deciding the best way to deal with this would be to redeem the vouchers in store.

2. The demonstrations should be notified to the media in advance: it may stop other stores facing liquidiation in the future from doing the same. I believe Woolworths at least honoured the gift vouchers during their closure, if Zavvi get away with not honouring then it sets a precedent for the other stores (I realise it is within their legal entitlement once administration has set in but we should make a protest as morally it is not fair - it's the little people who suffer!)

3. The adverse publicity may shame Zavvi's administrators into doing something about it and agreeing to accept the vouchers during their closure period. Other posters have suggested there is a ring fenced fund already set aside for vouchers - I'm not sure whether this just applies to those vouchers bought after 27th Nov or not but some clarification from Zavvi would be useful.

4. The publicity may prompt Tesco, for example, to offer a deal to ex Zavvi customers, they may accept vouchers for their full face value (would need a degree of co-operation from Zavvi to release the voucher value as customers can't obtain this from the website at the moment) providing customers spend an equivalent sum in store. So if you have £25 zavvi vouchers you would have to spend £50. It may be that a big retailer could turn this into a good PR story for themselves, even if it's a bigger proportion of spend required, e.g. vouchers worth £25 - you must spend £75 in total - that sort of thing?

5. Adverse massive publicity will be damaging to the gift voucher market and someone may want to prevent this and step in to 'rescue' gift card holders.

So what about it? Unless we all band together and take some visible action I doubt that those who purchased before 27th November will ever see their funds again. Plus it's open door for retailers to treat customers badly in the future unless we make a very large protest.

I'm willing to embark on a peaceful protest/demo at my nearest Zavvi store (Walton-on-Thames) - what about the rest of us - can it be done?

DelBoyPhil

Why not send a email to the virgin group!! they used to own it.. maybe a idea.


I think they whole Gift Vouchers need to be protected like other things as otherwise people wont trust them!

The companys make the interest on the cash until the monies it used of they use it for stock buying etc.

I would advise dont give anyone vouchers any more. cash is king! and the little kiddies can spend cash in every store and only vouchers in the store you buy from!

Liz3yy

I agree with the gift voucher thing, my family love giving them as presents but next year I'll be insisting on cash if they cant think of anything else. I would rather have nothing than a voucher for somewhere thats gone bust or is in danger of going under soon

dmg24

I am very sorry for those that have become creditors of Zavvi. However, a few points from the above:

What purpose do you feel that a demonstration will serve, other than upsetting the Zavvi staff, who will shortly be losing their jobs? E&Y will not pay a blind bit of notice to you.

The Virgin Group have no association with Zavvi. There is about as much point in writing to M&S.

northerngeezer

I have over £300 of Zavvi vouchers which I collected over the year so that I could buy the kids a PS3 during Christmas.

I went in at 10:30 am on Christmas Eve to buy it but was told that I couldn't use them.

I was gutted and spoke to the manager who just said sorry and even got me to speak to the guy from Ernst & Young (the administrators) who wasn't helpful at all.

What made it worse was that had I been in 20 minutes earlier, they would have accepted them.

Most of the vouchers were bought before 27th November so I am totally lost as to what action I can take.

Obviously my kids have had a miserable Xmas day.

char_student

Im really annoyed with vouchers - family got some bought after 27 november so they ok, but they also got some bought on 25 november so that money has now gone! All that £ down the drain!

jayok

I never really understood the attraction of vouchers, why not give cash?

northerngeezer

Some interesting articles popping up about the whole vouchers mess...

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/Outrage-worthless-Zavvi-gift-vouchers/article-572542-detail/article.html

http://www.thepress.co.uk/news/4004530.Gift_voucher_fury_at_troubled_Zavvi_store/

angel316_2

I can understand why people are getting cross but in our local store there were people being incredibly abusive to the staff working in there, which is totally unnecessary imho. At the end of the day the staff will be losing their jobs and are probably fed up fielding these complaints at the coal face and are only following the instructions of the administrators. My daughter worked for Dolcis when they went bankrupt and customers were rude and very abusive and my daughter had a couple of days where she came home in tears because she was still trying to do a good job, serve the customers and help them as best she could be was still losing her job at the end of the day, whilst some people were just being downright rude and abusive.

I completely agree that consumers need protecting or they will lose faith in gift vouchers (I had some Waterstones and book token and have made sure I have spent them quickly and partner had some HMV ones and has done the same - just in case!) But those people who feel the need to be rude and abusive to the staff need to stop and think for a minute. It is out of their control and they can't help you. You have been given clear instructions what to do, so follow them and the harsh reality it, like with Park Hampers (i think that was the name of the company) a lot of people hav lost money or won't have their pressies, which is gut wrenching and upsetting at worst, but it isn't life and death. If you still have your jobs, a roof over your head and food in your belly then think on for the staff who might not have a job at the end of the week and when you want to 'have a go' about you vouchers, just spare them a thought and remember they are probably feeling as bad, if not worse than you are.

Right that is my rant over. I realise I will probably get slagged off for saying this and I am not unsympathetic to anyone who has lost money and I am really thinking 'there but for the grace of god', but those people who were having a go at staff in my local store really made me feel sick tbh.

Chris

robin_banks

Houseimp, your proposed actions will merely lead to staff being intimidated, you may be losing a few quid these people are losing thier jobs and if they've been employed less than 2 years they aren't going to get a penny in redundancy.

Zavvi have as much to do with virgin as the cafe across the road form my flat

Vouchers are and alweays will be an utterly pointless present anyway, if people had the sense to give cash then the recipient could spend the value wherever they wanted.

GrammarGirl

I completely agree with angel316 on this. Couldn't have said it better myself.