Expired WHSmith giftcards - HELP!

grubaarmada

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum but regularly check the website out. My question is that I've just found some WHSmith giftcards with about £30 in total on them but have noticed that because I haven't used them for 24 months they say the card will expire and the balance will be deducted. Is that even legal? Can I ask for new vouchers in place of them and have the balances transferred? Surely they can't just take money that was originally a gift for me?!

Hope someone can help me with this one - I've just found out this and I'm quite annoyed that they can do this. Thanks in advance for any ideas/solutions.

zenseeker

It's perfectly legal, and I am reasonably sure that there is nothing you can do about it You'd be best off going into your local branch and asking.

Scrumshie

I think as long as you use them within the 24 months then they are still active. Just use the card to buy a small item such as a pack of sweets or newspaper etc then they revalidate the card for another 24 months. This is assuming it is a card not paper vouchers.
M&S Cards have the same policy.

x__Indigo_x

SOME companies charge an administration fee after that to keep it active? i would go in and ask....how long do you think you have had it? good luck:beer:


lesson learnt- keep ALL giftcards in purse

Stoopid

grubaarmada wrote: »

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum but regularly check the website out. My question is that I've just found some WHSmith giftcards with about £30 in total on them but have noticed that because I haven't used them for 24 months they say the card will expire and the balance will be deducted. Is that even legal? Can I ask for new vouchers in place of them and have the balances transferred? Surely they can't just take money that was originally a gift for me?!

Hope someone can help me with this one - I've just found out this and I'm quite annoyed that they can do this. Thanks in advance for any ideas/solutions.

I have had the same thing recently.
Gift card from Game - the till would not recognise any money on it. Told about this 2 year rule. Phoned up Game - who checked how old card was and last time used, and issued me with a new card with money credited to it :T
By the way, the card was less than 2 years old, and had been used with in the last 18months, but if I had believed the staff in store I would literally have thrown money in the bin :eek:

Gift card from Borders - given to my son as a birthday present about 5 years ago ( only just found it when having a good clear-out ) The shop had to manually imput the numbers - but got the money in store without any song and dance from the staff

W H Smith card - similarly to grubaarmada - money on card not recognised in store.

Asda Gift card - money not recognised in store.

These last 2 I will be phoning up about to see what they can do to give me the money back.
I do not morally think it should be legal. If I leave money in a bank account for 2 years, the account may be frozen, but surely they cannot just decide to empty your account and pocket the money to pay for their christmas bonus.

The gift cards from Asda for example are often how they give you a refund. They have had the money off me, decided not to give me my money back there and then when I return the item. If I am not actually shopping that day the card get put away somewhere 'safe' - which we all know means so safe you can never find it again.
Also, I am not in the habit of using gift cards normally, so it is not something I normally think about

With the Smiths card - how can I know how old the card is and how long the money has been on there? there is no date on the card, nor even value. It is only if you have a till receipt that you can possibly know how much and how long.

I just received a gift card this christmas. No date on it, and no value. Am I supposed to ask the giver when they bought it and how much they put on it?

I have noticed that M&S are also now doing these plastic cards, and also printed out till receipts instead of the credit vouchers they used to always give. I am extremely suspicious of why they have decided to do this.
As MSErs, we all know that MOST of the public never even check their receipts to see if they have been overcharged on their shopping.
It is a well known fact that many people never even keep their receipts to check with their credit card statements.
How many people therefore do you think actually clear out their purses and bags and throw away receipts.
Therefore, how many of these lovely little receipts from M&S which are actually credit vouchers are being binned !!!!

shopbot

Stoopid wrote: »

I have noticed that M&S are also now doing these plastic cards, and also printed out till receipts instead of the credit vouchers they used to always give. I am extremely suspicious of why they have decided to do this.

There is a simple reason. The adminstration of paper vouchers is much more complicated and time consuming than a plastic gift cards.

Paper vouchers have a physical value. Therefore they have to be manufactured securely, transported securely, stored securely in store, physically accounted for each day and destroyed securely when redeemed. A plastic gift card only has a value when it is loaded when it's purchased. They are not pre-loaded so don't need any extra security measures to manufacture or store them.

Another way to look at it is....what costs more for a national retalier to administer. cash or Credit/Debit transactions? It's cash and the same principle applies to paper vouchers vs gift cards.

shopbot

The OP should phone WH Smith Customer Services and ask them to reload the card. It's very unlikely the store will have the facility to reload the card instore.

aqueoushumour01

write to whsmith and explain that you would like the card reloaded. If they do not agree then just avoid WH Smith - there's plenty of competition these days so we're not forced to use a particular shop if we feel they have been unfair. Unlikely to dent their profits by any meaningful amount but it would make me feel better!

Flat_Eric

given the recent farce with Zavvi going into administration and as a consequence announcing that gift cards were no longer accepted as a means for payment, I for one will avoid buying vouchers for people and instead send a cheque. Its wrong that stores can take our money in good faith. I feel sorry for all those people who received a zavvi gift voucher for xmas as now they have a worthless xmas present.

Its wrong that stores can say vouchers/gift cards are invalid after so many months - they should be valid indefinitely.

And as for printing vouchers on paper receipts - VERY WRONG.

moan over!!

dazzer68

when your buying a gift voucher or card your are purchasing an item from a store, not just swapping money for money, how long would you expect to keep an item and then think you can return it?

mwana

To OP - there was an article about this in the Guardian a few weeks ago which you might find interesting:

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/money/guardian/news/2008/12/20/can-you-safely-vouch-for-that-special-gift.html