Query re buying store vocuhers on ebay

draker

Hi there,

I have seen some store gift vouchers for sale on ebay.

If i bidded for the vouchers and they were found to be void, fakes etc, would I be covered in any way?

Thanks

deecy

I saw vouchers for Jessops the camera shop on Ebay once, about £600 worth, the auction said they were transferable but I emailed Jessops they said they weren't and not to buy them.

As to whether they are fake or not, it's a risk as with everything on Ebay, unless the seller has v good feedback with maybe a history of voucher sales I wouldn't risk it - plus vouchers go for about 80% of their monetary value so not worth the risk in my opinion to save a few quid.

Becles

From experience ebay and Paypal will not help, and the Police will not be interested.

I bought some vouchers which had originally been bought with a stolen credit card and then had been cancelled by the company. They were worthless when we tried to use them.

I did a credit card chargeback and eventually got my money back, although the credit card provider isn't obliged to help. You pay PayPal with the card, who then pay the seller. Your credit card transaction is with PayPal, not the seller, so some card companies will not get involved as PayPal haven't done anything wrong, as the problem is a result of what happened after PayPal sent the money elsewhere.

After doing the chargeback, PayPal also tried to charge my account with the fee again as the sellers account was empty, so I had to go through the dispute process again and finally it was settled in my favour. It took 9 months to sort out though.

I would never buy vouchers again.

smartie1976

If you are going to BID on vouchers, then check the sellers history. Be wary of people who don't have a decent selling history, have bought only e-books type things, or are suddenly selling things for high value, which is out of character with the rest of their sales.

xycom1

Take smartie's advice. You probably won't be protected so you are taking a gamble - but if the discount on the face value of the vouchers is big enough then it might be worth it.

I aim for 20-30% under face value, bought about £350 in Game and HMV vouchers/giftcards from eBay earlier in the year to get an XBox360 and some accessories. Ended up spending about £250 so was well worth it, and I didn't have any problems just being sensible about who I bought from, asking for the original receipts with the giftcards (these state how much value there is on the card, how it was obtained, etc), etc.

princessmoneysaver

I often buy Nectar/Adams vouchers on ebay for £2.50 each & I've never had a problem with them. I tend to stick to paper vouchers though if bidding on anything else rather than the new plastic giftcards.

frivolous_fay

i'VE GOT £15 WORTH OF jESSOPS VOUCHERS. tHEY DON'T HAVE MY NAME ON AND THERE'S NO EXPIRY DATE. dON'T SEE THE PROBLEM.

Argh, sorry, can't be bothered to type that again.