Red Letter Days Voucher Expired -- Lost all money!!

Pollycat

NovaBlack wrote: »

Um.. so your saying you DIDNT forget... you knew full well of the expiry date.. but just voluntarily chose NOT to use it by the expiry date... then complain that your suprised the voucher wont't be honored now it has expired....

umm... o..k..

You know there is a solution to these expiry dates. Dont buy the voucher in the first place. The expiry dates are all there in the T&Cs BEFORE you buy. If you think they are unfair.. then dont buy. Problem solved.

Where does the OP say she knew what the expiry date was?
According to her first post, she only realised that it had expired when she got the voucher out to book.

And she didn't buy the voucher - it was a gift from her OH.

ceivegz wrote: »

Has anyone experienced problems with this company?

My husband bought me a Red Letter Days voucher for Christmas. I was just about to book my Spa day when I realised that the voucher has expired!!:eek:

Red Letter Days says the terms and conditions clearly state that vouchers are valid for 7 months and aren't giving me a penny back or letting me have my Spa day......All I have to show for £150 is a poxy red box with one of their brochures! Can they really do this? Surely this isn't fair!!

Claire

Although the OP seemed pretty convinced that the "issue of vouchers expiring is legally shakey" and provided a link to an article in The Guardian, she never came back to say what the outcome was.

blacknosugar
Let us know if you manage to get your deadline extended.

NovaBlack_2

Pollycat wrote: »

Where does the OP say she knew what the expiry date was?
According to her first post, she only realised that it had expired when she got the voucher out to book.
.

Sorry i was referring to the OP saying ''The customer hasn't forgotton s/he has a voucher and still intends to use it, but as a [sometimes short] expiry date has passed has lost all of its value.'' as a general example of when a company is unfair.

And same with the ''dont buy them'' comment. I just meant generally it isnt a big problem with businesses conning people out of money, a little common sense can solve all the problems mentioned, as ANYONE who buys them can see there is an expiry, and if they dont agree with that shouldnt buy them.

Sorry my wording was a little unclear.

blacknosugar

Interesting to note that in their response to the Times, they said that they were considering extending their deadlines.

Their current T&C's state the following:

"Validity
All vouchers purchased from 21 August 2009 will be valid for at least ten months from date of purchase. The exact expiry date will be printed on the voucher or advised upon successful activation. You must book your participation date with Red Letter Days before this date, or the voucher will cease to be valid. The participation date for an experience can be any available date up until 31 December of the calendar year following the year of purchase."

Pollycat
Will do!

zara*elise

The thing is, you can contact them and ask for an extension if you know you're for some reason not able to book within the specified time. Forgetting to book and saying seven months is a strange timescale isn't their fault... they've clearly fulfilled their end of the bargain by sending you the voucher and stating the expiry date. T&C's on the voucher are subject to change, they direct you to a website to their CURRENT t&cs so there's really no excuse.

I have used Red Letter Days, the chocolate making workshop is fantastic. They text you the day before to ensure you remember and are prompt to reply to emails.

xxxxxx

Richard_Atkins

You can accuse me of bias since I have an established relationship with the experience day companies through my site findexperiencedays.com, but I hope you will accept that perhaps this just means I have a more balanced view of how the industry works.

The problem I want to highlight is that of scheduling. Some of the experience days have limited slots available so, for example, if you had a five year old voucher for a microlight flight that you decided to redeem, this might mean someone who bought their flight two months ago would have to wait until next year, unless the companies involved kept a slot available and unsold for the five years in between (which woud clearly not be a reasonable expectation).

Similarly, if you turned up at a spa on a certain bank holiday weekend and everyone who had bought a ticket in the last two years went for the same weekend there would be complaints about overcrowding (if you all turned up at once) or about inflexibility (if places were being juggled between more people that can be accommodated and the earliest they can offer you is a year away).

The analogy with (for example) gift vouchers for a store is not valid as stores don't have a limited number of walk-ins and the consequent need to schedule visits and possibly hold places open. In fact the analogy with mid-priced airline tickets is pretty good. Some flexibility to change flights with notice but ultimately if you forget the ticket or miss your flight then that's down to you.

I also have to say that in my experience as a consumer, the companies I've bought days from (RLD, VED) have been pretty flexible about extending deadlines and reorganising things *as long as* you have got in touch before the existing deadline to rearrange. Given there has to be a balance between the needs of the consumer and the need to schedule events like experience days that I think they are pretty reasonable. While I sympathise that you've lost out on this occasion, I don't think its reasonable to expect them to take on the burden of this.

aidnolan

I have recently lost out with a gift for my mum. I bought her a voucher for a spa day in late October 2008 for her birthday. She'd been due to have surgery for a long time now and she was waiting til that had been done before booking. The surgery was carried out 3 weeks ago, so she went to book her experience a couple of weeks ago only to find that it had expired in May 2009. The dismissive response I received when I tried to enquire what I could do to salvage the experience was not what I expected to receive.

I agree that if Red Letter Days were completely up front about the expiry date and, more importantly, the consequences post-expiration then it would be an easier pill to swallow when accepting that £100 has gone down the drain.

The voucher they send is dressed up in their red box, a fair amount of advertising and an envelope containing the voucher. Anybody receiving that is always going to be paying more attention to the details of their experience than to the voucher itself. The number of people coming forward to say they've missed their deadline suggests Red Letter Days communication of the expiry is getting lost in all the dressing up of the voucher. As a buyer I would have liked a big bold warning telling me how long the voucher lasts for and that if and when it does expire, that there is no recourse. No refunds, no extensions.

I believed Red Letter Days to be a company with premium service, however this issue is causing me to question that assumption. Not on the basis of the short time to use the voucher but in the lack of clarity around the expiry date and the consequences when that date passes.

When spending £100+ I would like crystal clear explanations at every step of the process as to how I can make sure that my investment is protected.

Having said all of the above I would buy from them again if their communication was improved.

smileygiraffe

I bought my boyfriend an experience with Red letter Days. He went and lost the voucher and when we found it again it was just expired. we called them up and as it was only just out they allowed us to book the experience. I think it depends on how far out it is.

Jo_F

Maybe there is another reason for short dates on vouchers, how many people had Zavvi vouchers that they couldn't use as Zavvi was being wound up? Maybe it's a case of not knowing if the experience will still be solvent and available 12 months from now, and they are shortening the dates with this in mind?

mrcol1000

I brought a packet of sausages in Tesco. Left them in the fridge. Forget about them for ten weeks and when I went to eat them I found they were past their expiry date and not suitable to eat. I took them back to Tesco to complain and they refused a refund. Can you belive it??

Freddie_Snowbits

ceivegz wrote: »

I'm not saying it is their fault -- clearly it is mine.

However, these activity day businesses are reliant on a certain proportion of people not using them (probably around 25%) and then making 99.9% profit on such customers so it is fundamentally unfair to refuse to provide an activity to someone who's paid for one but simply forgotton to use it.

The prfoit the company makes is none of your business. The vvoucher was for an intrinsic experience, you failed to complete the terms of the transaction.

(A trip round the make up counter at boots would have been cheaper and last longer!)