Gift Vouchers and Legalities

Demonlawyer

My fiance was bought a gift voucher of £50 as a present to put towards a course costing £250. She hasn't booked it in a while as she hasn't been able to think about doing a course for a bit, and she has to pay an extra £200 for the cheapest course anyway.

So now she's ready to book the course, we've noticed that the gift voucher has expired. The venue say they won't extend the gift voucher and that it's lost money.

Surely they can't just keep money that was a gift voucher? Can the person who bought it get a refund? Can my fiance get a fresh gift voucher? It doesn't seem legal that they can keep the money for having given nothing in return?

Meepster

If there is an expiry date on the gift voucher and there are terms and conditions stating that it must be used before the expiry date, then yes, they can do it. Perfectly legal, although not morally right...

Optimist

You could argue it is a unfair term as per the Consumer Contracts regulations 1999 especially if the expiry terms were not pointed out on purchase.

If that doesn't work you would need to argue out it in court and how that would go is anybody's guess as I think it might be a first.

Mankysteve

Have you tried contacting them. The place I work work will take store credit out of date as long as your not obversely taking the Michael. Give em a ring be very polite and pleasant and see what they do.

Mrs.D

I agree with Mankysteve. Might be worth trying to contact them to ask for an extension. You OH is going to have to spend £200 anyway, so I'd have thought it makes good economic sense for the company to extend the voucher in this case.

If not, then your OH has saved herself £200 by not going on the course!

scullster

Mrs D / Mankysteve,

The OP said that the venue wouldn't honour the voucher.

zax47

Mankysteve wrote: »

Have you tried contacting them. The place i work work will take store credit out of date as long as your not obversely taking the Michael. Give me a ring be very polite and pleasant and see what they do.

Mrs.D wrote:

I agree with Mankysteve. Might be worth trying to contact them to ask for an extension.

Erm........ "The venue say they won't extend the gift voucher and that it's lost money."

Esqui

How long was the voucher valid for?

Mankysteve

Harass them again. Ask to speak to someone higher up. We didn't find out that we could take them until a customer ask for head office contact detail, store manger went give me a sec I'll phone them now for ya he did they said we'll still let you take it. We told on the shop floor as a rule to refuse. I'am sure someone in company will have half a brain that its too there advantage to accept the gift token.

soolin

We get a number of threads about this and i always wonder why people think that a deadline or a 'valid until' date is something that can be ignored.

Surely if something is valid to be used until a certain date there is no attempt to mislead or to cheat anyone, it just means that the terms of the purchase mean the gift voucher needs to be used by a certain date.

If I bought a carton of milk from Tesco and left it in my fridge for a month past it's sell by date would I be entitled to a refund as I think the expiry date to be unfair?

Obviously I am sure we would all hope a company would relax the rules a little, and some do but I note the OP has already tried that.

scullster

Optimist wrote: »

You could argue it is a unfair term as per the Consumer Contracts regulations 1999 especially if the expiry terms were not pointed out on purchase.

If that doesn't work you would need to argue out it in court and how that would go is anybody's guess as I think it might be a first.

The OP has stated they they have noticed that the voucher has expired - if this was because they've read the expiration date on the voucher just prior to attempting to buy, then I don't see why the retailer needs to say any more at point of purchase.

Fortunately I've not learnt this the hard way but I totally understand why retailers do it (the accountants tell them to!)