Borders Gift Card - Advice Needed

JuliusV

I have a question regarding the use of Borders Gift Cards - any advice gratefully received. It's a bit long, but the actual question is just the last bit, the rest is background. I received a £30 Borders Gift Card as a present last year, which I have been saving. Following the announcement of Borders going into administration, I went into the Bristol branch, and was told that I would only be able to use the card if I spent another £30 on top of it: i.e. I could use the card as a 50% discount on a £60 total spend, but not otherwise. I spoke to the administrators' representative in store, who explained that the administrators are not liable for the value of the Gift Card, but that they are offering this 50% discount system as a goodwill gesture. I would also argue that, as it is the administrators' job to maximise Borders' present sales to pay off its debts, this helps increase profits. I understand that the administrators are not liable, but logically Borders are. The person who bought me the gift card paid £30 to Borders, who made a commitment (through the provision of the card) to supply £30 of merchandise when the card was used. If Borders now cannot honour that commitment, surely I (as the owner of the card) am one of their creditors? I have been given an email address to contact. My question is, as someone to whom a business in administration has a debt, do I have any legal recourse? I am sure large creditors to Borders will have some sort of procedure for attempting the recovery of debts, surely I have similar rights, even though the debt is smaller? Is this worth pursuing, and can anyone tell me the right procedure for pursuing it if so? I don't want to be needlessly petty, but £30 is quite a lot of money, and I cannot afford to spend £30 on top of the card simply to be able to use it! Any advice or similar experience welcome.

wendym

In a closing branch of Threshers yesterday the customer in front of me had their voucher flatly refused, because the administrators are not liable for vouchers. I do feel for you losing £30, which as you say is quite a lot of money, but it seems to be standard practice.

jackomdj

When Zavvy went they had similar issues with people not being able to use the vouchers.

Personally I would add £30 & use the vouchers. I have not been in store (as ours closed a while back) but I suspect they have dropped their prices so for £30 cash you will be getting over £60 worth of books. You could use it for Xmas presents or stash away for birthdays if you do not want to spend that much on yourself.

HTH
Nicky

Magnolia

Used a £10 gift card today in the shop in York today.

KimYeovil

£72 or more worth of books for £30. (Well, plus the £30 from the giver.) That's £36 more stuff than you would normally be entitled to under these circumstances. And since the entire stock is discounted (including a majority of books that would never normally be available at a discount) there must be some items that you want.

If you can not find £30 between now and when the shops are shuttered tough. Lots of people are losing a darn sight more than your friend. You yourself are not losing anything.

If you genuinely can not spare £30 yourself then find a friend. Use £10 yourself if you have £10 and give £20 to your friend. £24 of books for you, £48 of books for your friend.

Some people just like to complain.

Volvic

^^ But in many cases, being given a gift voucher often results in you searching for hours for an excuse to spend them because it's not usually a shop you'd spend in...so spending an extra £30 to get the £30 off would only be a waste to some people, on the other hand if you can justify a £60 spend and are happy about it, that's a great idea!

Volvic

KimYeovil wrote: »

Some people just like to complain.

What is with all the ridiculous rude comments in reply to topics on here lately? It's really starting to !!!! me off!

Bikertov

JuliusV - not good news, unfortunately.

You are absolutely correct in thinking you are a Creditor. However, you are in the same position as all the other (unsecured) creditors, both big and small. The company has gone into Administration because they owe more money than they have. Therefore, there is not enough money to satisfy its debts - and your gift card is one of those debts.

In theory, if when the company is fully 'wound' up, any money left over is divided up between the creditors, in proportion to the amount they are owed. This means that you get back 'so many' pence in the pound - eg 20p per pound owed.

The thing is, first there are 'preferential creditors' that rank above you - normally banks etc that have taken 'security' for their debt. So usually, unsecured creditor get very little, if anything, back.

If the Administrators are offering 50% in value, so long as you could not get a better deal on the same items overall somewhere else - then take it. It is a lot better than most in these circumstances, where give vouchers / cards are flatly refused.

It is a hard lesson to learn, but really, NEVER give / ask for vouchers - if you don't know what you want for a present, get money. It is MUCH safer .

Count yourself lucky it is only £30. There will be loads of companies - small ones as well, owed £000's that they will never see. Some will go bust themselves because of this, leaving people out of work etc.

What a mess this country has got into ...

KimYeovil

Volvic wrote: »

^^ But in many cases, being given a gift voucher often results in you searching for hours for an excuse to spend them because it's not usually a shop you'd spend in...so spending an extra £30 to get the £30 off would only be a waste to some people, on the other hand if you can justify a £60 spend and are happy about it, that's a great idea!

It's a book shop .

KimYeovil

Volvic wrote: »

What is with all the ridiculous rude comments in reply to topics on here lately? It's really starting to !!!! me off!

What a ridiculous comment. And off-topic. Care to explain what was remotely ridiculous about my comment? Or do you just like wasting time spouting irrelevant stupidity?

JuliusV

Thank you for the polite responses - in particular Bikertov, that is exactly the sort of advice I was looking for. I do take on board the advice from all those people suggesting that as it is only £30 it is unfortunate but I should either spend the extra £30 or give it up as an unlucky loss. I am going to take this advice, and appreciate the time you have taken to post it! I would just like to say I am a little shocked by the less polite responses, especially from KimYeovil. I did say clearly in my post that I understand that it is only a £30 to lose and I didn't want to be petty about it: my post was simply to find out if I had any other options to recover that money. To many people £30 is quite a lot of money (even in a Borders Gift Voucher) so I thought it was worth asking for this forums advice as many people have good advice in these situations (such as Bikertov). I do not post very often in these forums, but they are generally very polite and helpful. Unkind responses to a stranger you have never met (particularly when you haven't fully read their post: I was posting for myself, not for a 'friend' as someone mentioned!) are not pleasant for them to read, and also seem a bit pointless to write, to be honest! Sorry - rant over!