vouchers - do shops have to give change?

meritaten

my oh was given Capital Bond vouchers and went to spend them in Halfords. he chose goods worth £44.60 and went to pay with £50 in vouchers. he was told they didnt give change for vouchers. so he gave them £40 in vouchers and the rest in cash.
I have worked in retail for many years - and the stores i worked in always treated vouchers as cash and i gave change for them!
whats changed in the couple of years since i retired?
can they do this?
surely the voucher is just like paper money? its a promise to pay.
the store gets its money when the vouchers are presented - possibly there is a small admin fee to pay - but not £5.40!
what is the legal position on this - anyone know?

withabix

No legal requirement to give change for vouchers.

A £50 voucher is simply a piece of paper that you can exchange for £50 of goods.

stclair

Most shops will give you the change on a gift card now a days.

In_for_a_Bargain

I work in retail too and we can only give change up to a £1 then after that we have to sell another voucher for the difference.

redagila

I have found my local Boots does not give change for any vouchers.

jenniewb

I've worked in retail stores for the past 11 years on and off, I was always told you get back change in the same currency- if you paid in vouchers, you get vouchers in change, either on a gift card or back in paper voucher form.

I did though this evening try to buy something from Tescos for £8.30 with a £10 clubcard voucher, assuming they'd just put the money back onto my clubcard but nope, the till wouldn't even accept it! Sainsburys is similar, you can only use the nectar point vouchers if your items are in £2.50 denominations, pay the rest in change fine but you cannot spend under the amount required, they wont just refund the points onto your card. Annoying!

mandycr

i receive a lot of gift cards and vouchers thru doin surveys and have never been given change hence the reason why i always now spend over the voucher amount

CyberAngel_2

redagila wrote: »

I have found my local Boots does not give change for any vouchers.

I work at boots and the tills automatically tell you to put the change onto a gift card so you don't lose your money.
what vouchers were you trying to use?

redagila

CyberAngel wrote: »

I work at boots and the tills automatically tell you to put the change onto a gift card so you don't lose your money.
what vouchers were you trying to use?

Think they were Love2shop from a survey I had done. SA said no change given so just paid part of value by cash. Perhaps she didn't want to bother.
What is the policy if the value is under £1 - do you get given it in cash?

CyberAngel_2

redagila wrote: »

Think they were Love2shop from a survey I had done. SA said no change given so just paid part of value by cash. Perhaps she didn't want to bother.
What is the policy if the value is under £1 - do you get given it in cash?

no matter how much the change is boots puts it on a gift card, the love2shop vouchers are the most common i've been given at work and i always give gift card as change,the till won't let you do it any other way. like you said maybe the sales assistant couldn't be bothered to get a gift card

POPPYOSCAR

jenniewb wrote: »

I've worked in retail stores for the past 11 years on and off, I was always told you get back change in the same currency- if you paid in vouchers, you get vouchers in change, either on a gift card or back in paper voucher form.

I did though this evening try to buy something from Tescos for £8.30 with a £10 clubcard voucher, assuming they'd just put the money back onto my clubcard but nope, the till wouldn't even accept it! Sainsburys is similar, you can only use the nectar point vouchers if your items are in £2.50 denominations, pay the rest in change fine but you cannot spend under the amount required, they wont just refund the points onto your card. Annoying!

When I used my nectar points in Argos they gave me the difference on an Argos gift card as it was over £1.00 under this and they give you the cash.